Root words are words in the English language that form the basis, or root, of other words. Root words can be real words in themselves or the can be easily recognizable as the origin of other words. Root words can appear at the beginning or end of longer words and may have more than one meaning. The word “port,” meaning “to carry” or “to bear,” is a good example of a root word.
A prefix is a collection of letters that is not a word in itself but appears at the beginning of words and helps to form longer words. The prefix “ex”, for example, means “out” or “out of” and can be attached to the root word “port” to form “export,” meaning “to carry out”. Similarly, the prefixes “im,” meaning “in” or “into,” and “trans,” meaning “across,” can be attached to the same root word to form “import,” meaning “to carry in,” and “transport,” meaning “to carry across."
A suffix is group of collection of letters that appears at the end of a word and often adds to, or changes, the meaning of the word. In particular, a suffix indicates what part of speech, such as noun, adjective, verb or adverb, a word is and how it is used in a sentence. For example, if the suffix “able,” meaning “able to be,” is attached to the verbs “export”, “import” and “transport,” it produces the adjectives “exportable," “importable” and “transportable."
Word decoding, in itself, is not vocabulary. If students are merely sounding words without understanding what they mean, they aren't reading. However, if students develop their word decoding skills to the point where they can recognize words quickly and accurately, with little effort, they can direct their effort toward not merely sounding words, but thinking about their meaning. Skilled word decoding is a major milestone on the path towards fluent reading in the true sense of the word.