Test preparation

Punctuation is a set of marks used in a sentence to add clarity and meaning in the piece of writing. There are 14 punctuation marks in English. These punctuations are:

• Commas
• Period or Full Stop
• Apostrophes
• Colon
• Semicolon
• Exclamation mark
• Question mark
• Parenthesis
• Brackets
• Braces
• Dash
• Hyphen
• Ellipsis 
• Quotation mark

Etymology and word roots are crucial for understanding the structure and evolution of the English language, both in spoken and written forms. Semicolon by Cecelia Watso, The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg, History in English Words by Owen Barfield, Made in America by Bill Bryson, are some of the best books to study etymology and roots. 

The detailed study about etymology and roots helps in knowing word roots and prefixes/suffixes can help you learn and understand new words. Etymology is helpful in language learning because it helps you identify shared roots across languages.

Students need to be clear that while etymology is the study of the origin and history of words, roots are the core, unchangeable part of a word, often derived from ancient languages like Latin or Greek. Look for affixes (prefixes and suffixes): These are word parts added before or after the root, modifying the meaning but not the core of the word. Identify related words with the same root, showing the word's evolution.

Word roots are the basic units of meaning in a word. They can be termed as the 'stem' of the word with prefixes and suffixes adding specific nuances to the meaning. It's that part of the word that's left after all affixes are removed — the prefixes like "un-" or "anti-" and suffixes such as "-able" and "-tion." For example, in a word like "lovely," when you take away the suffix "-ly," you're left with the root word "love."  

Etymology in English language is the study of the origin and evolution of words, that includes their constituent sounds and meanings across time. It's a subfield of linguistics that examines how words change and develop.

A root word has nothing added at the beginning or the end. While some root words are standalone words in English, others need a prefix and/or a suffix to create a meaningful word.

Root words often combine with prefixes and suffixes to change both their meaning and word class. For example, adding prefixes like dis– and un- changes the meaning of the root. Like, discomfort aor unhappy, are the opposites of comfort ad happy, the root words.

Understanding etymology can help students grow vocabulary, understand the distinctions of language, and recognize patterns in word formation. It can also help study and observe the cultural and historical contexts.

Etymology is the study where research about history of words and their origins is done. It keeps a track of how the meaning and forms of words have changed over time. Some of Etymology tools and ways are etymological dictionaries, studying older texts, and comparison of different languages.