Greek and Latin root words, necessary in english?

Question

I am a freshman and our teacher is making us learn and memorize GLR (greek and latin) root words. We have a quiz each week on a page of the packet she gave us with all of them. I am just wondering, is it necessary? What do i learn with it? If it has anything to do with spelling I dont think its really necessary, but i dont know. Any opinions?

Answer 1

I had to memorize Greek and Latin roots when I was in the ninth grade. You'll be amazed at how much memorizing the roots improves your vocabulary. Greek and Latin roots are everywhere in the English language. You will be able to decipher the meaning of words you've never seen before as a result of studying the roots. Of all the things I studied in high school, learning the roots helped me more than nearly anything else. I am in law school now, and I still use my knowledge of Greek and Latin roots daily.

Answer 2

Considering that roughly 60 - 80% of English words have Latin and Greek roots, it can be nothing but beneficial. It is also the easiest A you will ever get, so you really shouldn't complain - as you are yet but a freshman, you have no idea what is in store for you academically. Just wait until you get to the higher math classes or Physics. You will wish you had Latin and Greek roots again, trust me.

Answer 3

Re: "I am just wondering, is it necessary?"

Not necessary but definitely beneficial. You will be a better person for having gone through this because so many scientific and technical terms in English are derived from Latin and Greek roots.

If you spoke Icelandic or German, especially Icelandic, you wouldn't have to worry about it because these languages coin a lot of new words using native Teutonic roots. For example, Icelandic has Reiðhjól (Ride-Wheel) for "bicycle" and German has Fahrrad (Travel-Wheel). But English is a big borrower much like Japanese and borrows most of its new words.

I'm sorry you don't enjoy it. To me, language and vocabulary building were always easy and enjoyable subjects in school. Math, Chemistry and Physics were harder and more intimidating.
Take care!

Answer 4

We don't. Any language can be used or none at all. The only restriction is that the words are treated as if they were Latin, which used to be the language known by all zoologists, whatever their native language. Im actuality, we can pull the scientific names from anywhere. An animal or plant can be named after a person (Storeria dekayi wrightorum is named after three), a place (Odocoileus virginiana), a bad pun (Kogia, a whale is a pun on the English "codger") or pulled from any language at all and latinized. Tiktaalik comes from Greenland Esquimoan, for example.

Answer 5

It is not necessary, but it will enrich your understanding and capacity to use language. Each time you encounter a new word, you will be more equipped to ferret out its meaning with a good sound background in Greek and Latin roots.

Your appreciation of things that you read will deepen and your sense of the history of language will be more profound.

Go ahead and commit yourself to learning the roots, and trust that the results will be well worth the effort.

Answer 6

It is very useful to know both Greek and Latin roots, especially once you start studying an advanced field (upper-year studies at university, and beyond). You will generally have a much easier time learning the nomenclature of your field.

It goes a long way...