Grade by Grade
B. Foundations of Language · Foundations: Speaking, Listening, Words and Fluency

Greek and Latin Roots for Grade 8: Believe, True, Carry, Put, Step, Bend, Join, Move, Flow and More

B2.1 B2.2 A3.1About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can use the Grade 8 roots cred, ver, fer, mort, pon/pos, gress/grad, flect/flex, junct, migr, flu/flux, lingu, psych, corp and fin to read and understand complex words.
  • I can combine roots with prefixes and suffixes I know to figure out long words.
  • I can use these roots to understand words in history, geography, science and math.
  • I can check that a word really belongs to a root family by testing the meaning.

Words to know

root
The main part of a word, often from Latin or Greek, that carries its core meaning. Many roots can't stand alone as words.
credible
Believable; able to be trusted.
verify
To check that something is true.
conifer
A tree that carries its seeds in cones, like a pine or spruce.
immigrant
A person who moves into a new country to live there.
bilingual
Able to use two languages.
finite
Having an end or a limit.

Remember from earlier grades

You already know dozens of roots: Grade 4's port, rupt, struct, spect, dict, tract; Grade 5's duc, ject, mit, pend, chron, dem, crat; Grade 6's vert, spir, ten, ced, viv, cap, morph, gen; and Grade 7's cogn, sequ, clud, jud, fid, cur, pop, polis, techn. A root is like a word's engine: add a prefix and a suffix, and it drives the meaning. Grade 8 adds roots that are everywhere in history, geography, science and high school texts.

Let's start with a puzzle

Your history textbook says: "Many immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s were multilingual, and historians try to verify their stories using credible sources."

That sentence has four Grade 8 roots: migr (move), lingu (language), ver (true) and cred (believe). Once you know them:

  • immigrants: im- (into) + migr (move) + -ant (a person who) = people who moved into a country.
  • multilingual: multi- (many) + lingu (language) + -al = using many languages.
  • verify: ver (true) + -ify (make) = check that it's true.
  • credible: cred (believe) + -ible (can be) = can be believed.

The sentence goes from hard to clear.

RootMeansExamples
credbelieve, trustcredible, incredible, credit, credentials
vertrueverify, verdict (a true saying: dict = say), veracity (truthfulness)
fercarry, beartransfer, conifer (a cone-bearing tree), fertile, refer, infer
mortdeathmortal, immortal, mortality
pon, posput, placeposition, deposit, postpone (put after), opponent (placed against), component, compose
gress, gradstep, goprogress, regress, digress, aggressive, gradual, graduate
flect, flexbendreflect, deflect, flexible, reflex
junctjoinjunction, conjunction, juncture
migrmove, wandermigrate, immigrant, emigrate
flu, fluxflowfluid, fluent, influence, influx, fluctuate
lingutongue, languagelinguistics, bilingual, multilingual
psychmindpsychology, psychologist
corpbodycorporation (a group that acts as one body), incorporate, corps
finend, limitfinal, finite, infinite, confine
Grade 8 roots. Watch for spelling changes: in- becomes im- before m (immigrant, immortal).
fercarrytransferconiferfertilerefer
A root web for fer (carry): transfer, conifer, fertile and refer all carry the meaning "carry" or "bear".

Roots in your other subjects

  • History: waves of immigrants came to Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Historians verify facts and judge whether sources are credible. Canada's two official languages are English and French, so federal government services are bilingual.
  • Geography: people migrate for many reasons; geographers study migration patterns and where settlements grow at a junction of rivers, roads or railways.
  • Science: liquids and gases are fluids (they flow). Light reflects off a mirror. Ontario's boreal forest has many conifers. A flexible material bends without breaking.
  • Math: the whole numbers go on infinitely (there is no last one), and some decimals, like 1 ÷ 3 = 0.333..., repeat without ending. A list that stops is finite.
  • Health: psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour.
Worked example

Let's peel some long words

Read and figure out: incredible, inflexible, emigration, fluctuate.

  1. in · cred · ible: in- = not; cred = believe; -ible = can be. So incredible = cannot be believed. (Today it often just means amazing, but the root meaning is still there.)
  2. in · flex · ible: in- = not; flex = bend; -ible = can be. So inflexible = cannot bend. Used for a material, it's literal; used for a person or rule, it means unwilling to change.
  3. e · migr · ation: e- (a form of ex-) = out; migr = move; -ation = the act of. So emigration = the act of moving out of a country. Compare immigration, moving into one. The same person emigrates from one country and immigrates to another.
  4. fluct · u · ate: fluct (a form of flu) = flow; -ate = to make or do. To fluctuate = to flow up and down, to rise and fall. The temperature fluctuated between −5 °C and 3 °C all week.

incredible = not believable; inflexible = unable to bend or change; emigration = moving out of a country; fluctuate = to rise and fall.

Home countryShe emigratesFROM here(e- = out)New countryShe immigratesTO here(im- = into)migr = moveOne trip, two words: it depends which side of the arrow you’re on.
The same person emigrates from her home country and immigrates to her new one. The root migr (move) stays; only the prefix changes.

Test before you trust

Not every word with these letters belongs to the family. Fern isn't from fer (carry). Fine (as in I'm fine) is related to fin through an old meaning, finished, perfected, but fin on a fish is not. Pose and position are pos words, but posse and possum aren't. Always check: does the root meaning fit?

Just for fun

Fun fact: in ancient Greek, psyche meant the soul or mind, and it was also a word for a butterfly. So, in a very old way, a psychologist is a butterfly expert. (Maybe don't say that in a job interview.)

Hands-on activity

Root family trees

You need: a large sheet of paper (or several taped together), markers or pencils, a dictionary (print or online), and 20 minutes.

  1. Choose four roots from the table. Write each one in a circle in a different part of the paper.
  2. Around each root, draw branches to as many family words as you can (aim for 5 or more). Use prefixes and suffixes you know: in-, im-, e-, re-, de-, trans-, con-, -ion, -ible, -ate, -al, -ive.
  3. Check each word in a dictionary. If the dictionary's word history (the etymology) doesn't show the root, cross it out.
  4. Write a short meaning for each word that uses the root meaning (transfer = carry across).
  5. Choose your favourite word and use it in a sentence about a subject you're studying.
  6. Bonus: find one word that looks like it belongs to a family but doesn't.

What to look for: real words, meanings linked to the root, and at least one checked etymology. For example, a flu/flux tree might include fluid, fluent, fluency, influence, influx, fluctuate, superfluous.

Your turn

1

What does the root cred mean? Give two words.

2

Use the parts to explain verdict.

3

What is a conifer? How does the root help?

4

Immigrant or emigrant: a person leaving Canada to live in another country is, from Canada's point of view, an ___.

5

Explain bilingual with its parts.

6

Which root means step? Give a word.

7

What does reflect mean, literally? Name a science use and an everyday use.

More practice: warm-up

1

Which root means death?

2

Which root means join?

3

Which root means flow?

4

Which root means put, place?

5

Which root means end, limit?

More practice: on your own

1

Peel and define postpone.

2

Why is a fluid called that? Give two examples.

3

Explain the difference between finite and infinite.

4

What does a psychologist study? Show the parts.

5

Is fern part of the fer (carry) family? How would you check?

Challenge

1

Use three Grade 8 roots in one sentence about Canadian history or geography, then point out each root.

2

Explain why the word influence might come from a root meaning flow.

3

Two words: opponent and component. Both have pon. Explain how the prefix changes the meaning.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

A credible source is one that...

2.

Which word comes from the root meaning move, wander?

3.

To verify a fact means to...

4.

A bilingual sign is written in...

5.

Which root means bend?

6.

A junction is a place where...

7.

Which word does not belong to the fin (end, limit) family?

For parents and teachers

Big idea (B2.1, B2.2, A3.1): Grade 8 students use consolidated knowledge of morphemes to read complex words accurately and automatically, and to understand new words in context, including in history, geography, science and math. These roots appear constantly in Grade 8 history (immigrant, credible, verify), geography (migration, junction) and science (fluid, reflect, conifer).

How to help at home:

  • Choose a "root of the week" and see who can find the most family words in the news or on signs.
  • Point out bilingual signs and packaging: bilingual is a root word you see every day in Canada.
  • When your child is reading a history or science text, ask: "Is there a root you know in that word?"

Common difficulties:

  • Over-peeling (seeing fer in fern, fin in a fish's fin). Encourage checking the meaning or the dictionary's etymology.
  • Mixing up immigrate and emigrate. Memory hook: immigrate = moving in; emigrate = exit.
  • Forgetting assimilated prefixes: in- becomes im- before m and p (immigrant, impossible).