學習的好處

After having a taste of etymology, we can start to analyze the benefits of learning etymology,

1. High efficiency - Once you catch one, you learn all.

For example, if you learn the meaning of "gress" from "progress". You will automatically have some senses when you see the word "regress", "transgress" and any other XXXgress. Well goes the Chinese saying, putting two together to get three (舉一反三).

2. Memorize less words to get more.

Try a simple math problem here:

Question:

Assume any two prefixes, roots or suffixes can make into one new word, how many new words will you learn if you study 100 in total of prefixes, roots and suffixes?

Answer : 100*99/2 = 4950 >>>>> 100

Why not learn etymology if it can save your time fifty-ford??

OK, the model is problematic because not any two of them can be made one word in reality. Let's divide by 10

Answer : 4950/10 = 495 >> 100

Still, five times greater!!! (Only math geek learns English through calculation, but I find this PROOF unrealistically convincing to most of the people)

3. Capable of guessing unknown words.

One of the most intriguing benefits of learning etymology is that you can guess the meaning of a word even if you haven't seen the word before. Imagine you're taking the exam like TOEFL and GRE, you probably have no choice but to give up one question if the any keyword in the question is unknown to you. Now, if the word is subjected to analysis (70% chance). Bang! You're still in the game simply because you know these prefixes, roots and suffixes.

4. Enhance your speed of reading English.

Most of the people read from left to right. When you see a word progress, you process P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S one by one. If you memorize this word by etymology, you understand the word soon after you finish reading. That is, when you see the "pro", you have the "forward" meaning in your mind. When you see the "gress", you have the "step". Together, you get "forward step = step forward". Compared to methods of memorization, using etymology is most straightforward because the prefixes and roots MUST be in the word you read.