The Key Professional Terms

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affix

(n) a word part that can go at the beginning or the end of a word to modify its meaning; both prefixes and suffixes are affixes.

collocation

(n) A group of words that are commonly or naturally used together; fast food, a quick shower, and save time are examples of collocations.

compound noun

(n) two nouns that connect to make a new noun, such as homework, timeline, and classroom

idiom

(n) a language chunk that becomes a common expression; the meaning of an idiom is different from the meaning of the individual words in the idiom. For example, the idiom to be in hot water means to be in trouble.

modal

(n) an auxiliary or helping verb that adds a degree of certainty, possibility, and time to a verb (may, might, can, could, will, would, should)

particle 

(n) a grammatical classification of words that do not belong to other parts of speech; particles in phrasal verbs look like prepositions and act like adverbs (for example, look up, sit down, come over, find out).

phrasal verb

(n) a two- or three-word phrase that includes a verb and a particle; the meaning of the root verb is changed by the addition of the particle. Line up, drive over, come down with, and see through are examples of phrasal verbs.

prefix

(n) A word part that goes in front of the root word; in reread, re- is the prefix. A prefix changes the meaning of the root word; for example, re- (meaning again), un- (meaning not), and pro (meaning for).

register

(n) a style of language used in a particular setting or context; for example, formal language (formal register) is used in a business meeting, and informal language (informal register) is used among friends. The register of a piece of writing, how formal, informal, friendly it is, depends on the audience, purpose, and genre.

root

(n) the main part of a word that prefixes and suffixes can attach to; this is the part of the word that carries the key meaning; in the word reread, read is the root.

suffix

(n) a word part that goes at the end of the root word. A suffix changes the word form of a root word; for example, -ize makes a noun into a verb as in energize. Other common suffixes are -ation, er, and -ly

word family

(n) all of the words related to a central word, known as the root word; a word family contains all the related words of the root. For example, if assess is a root, then assesses, assessed, and assessment are in the same word family.