Book excerpt: Many English words are formed by taking basic words and adding combinations of prefixes and suffixes to them. A basic word to which affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added is called a root word because it forms the basis of a new word. The root word are mostly from Latin and Greek. This is very similar to Chinese language, which contains Radical. Radicals normally give you some hints in meaning. By decoding the root words from Latin and Greek, you will find most deep words such as biology and medical term are easier to remember, you can even sense out a new word meaning even it is new to you or it is even French, Germain or Italian. You will not be intimidated by English words, on the opposite, you will enjoy the “decoding” approach as a fun way to expand your English vocabulary.