WORD STUDY 1 1/ 



The children are probably acquainted with many of the 



familiar prefixes, suffixes, and roots. Pleasure and interest 



in such lessons is fostered if they are ac- 



Analysis companied by short talks on the people and 



the countries from which the words came, 



showing that words, like people, can travel long distances, 



bearing with them lasting traces of their original homes. 



By the time the child has finished the fifth grade, he should 



be familiar with the following: 



Anglo-Saxon prefixes : A, after, all, al, be, for, fore, mis, 

 out, un, under, well, wel. Suffixes: ar, ard, dom, ed (d 

 or t), er, est, ful, head or hood, ing, ish, less, ly, ness, s or 

 es in plural, 's or ' in possessive, some. 



Latin prefixes : ab, ad (with the change of letter depend- 

 ent upon the first letter of the root to which it is affixed), 

 bene, circum, contra, subter, re, semi. Suffixes: able, ess, 

 eer, er. 



Greek prefixes: ex, hemi, tele. Suffixes: ist, ise, ize. 

 At the beginning of the fifth year the pupils purchase 

 their own dictionaries, and they also have free access to the 

 unabridged edition. They must be taught 

 Dictionary ^ow to use these new books, which, with- 



out instruction, long remain sealed, like 

 the prophecies of old. The teacher calls attention to the 

 alphabetical arrangement of the words, then to the second 

 letter, ba before bea, be before bi ; then to the third letter, 

 bar before bat. The children are trained to open quickly 

 to the desired place, every one in his own dictionary, by 

 asking for A, for M, for any section, and even for first or 

 last part of the section devoted to any letter. This may 

 seem almost childish training, but one only needs to com- 



