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Features

Definition of Morphemes

Morphemes are the smallest meaningful part of a word. Therefore the letter ‘s’ is a morpheme when it indicates plural, the letter ‘y’ is a morpheme when it is used as a suffix to form adjectives, but the letter ‘t’ has no individual meaning when part of a word. It is referred to as a phoneme rather than a morpheme. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change meaning when altered, but it does not carry meaning by itself. Generally, a morpheme is a combination of letters, typically one syllable, like ‘gen’ which means to beget or start or family lineage.

Modes

Learn

  1. The app will start in Learn mode, with the Root Spinning. It will stop on a root, and then the prefix and suffix will spin and stop at a word. Shortly after that the whole word will be visible at the top. 

  2. Tapping the Prefix, Root or Suffix once will reveal the short definition of that morpheme.

  3. Tapping the Whole word will reveal the whole definition of the word.

  4. The player will have choices:

    1. Audio - Hear the word pronounced in American English​

    2. Sentence - Tap to see the word used in a sentence

    3. List - Tap to get a list of other words with that same Root.

    4. Test - Tap to get 4 options to test yourself. Choose the best answer. If testing in the learn mode there will be no points. 

  5. Pressing the Spin button will spin a new word from the same root. To change the Root, slide the root window and select the root you want to study. To change the Mode, tap the menu and find the mode you want to play

  6. To change the Root, slide the root window and select the root you want to study.

Nonsense

  1. Press the Spin button and three morphemes will drop into the slots.

  2. Use the morphemes to build a made-up word.

  3. Tap each morpheme if you need a definition of that morpheme.

  4. There are NO audio, sentence, list or test buttons as this mode if just for fun, Nonsense! But feel free to attempt to pronunciate yourself!

  5. Test yourself by sharing with your friends!

  6. Did you coin a great word? Share it with us for a chance to be featured on our website!

Challenge

  1. AUDIO, SENTENCE, LIST and TEST work the same as in Learn Mode.

  2. Earn points by tapping TEST.

  3. Points accrue as follows:

    1. 5 points for the correct answer without tapping any morphemes.​

    2. 4 points for the correct answer if viewing one (1) morpheme.

    3. 3 points for the correct answer if viewing two (2) morphemes.

    4. 2 points for the correct answer if viewing three (3) or more morphemes.

    5. 0 points for the incorrect answer.

Leaderboard

Playing a lot? See your growth! Keep your own score or Compete with your friends. Watch those numbers climb! The leaderboard works like any leaderboard and you have bragging rights.

Waiting for our first leaders!

Points as Currency

To be decided!

Audio/Visual Learning

For students who have difficulty learning to read, RootWords has different entry points. To learn through hearing RootWords has a word pronunciation feature. Tap it to hear the word in American English.

We use American English because the learner can hear each phoneme in a way that British English does not reveal. 

I.e. I hear car (automobile) in British English as ‘kah’. How did you just pronounce it?

​In particular, the letter ‘R’ is different in each Latin-based language (English, French, Italian, Spanish, etc.). In British English the ‘r’ is in the base of the throat, in French it is the top of the throat, in American English it is at the back of the tongue, in Italian it is more with the tongue and moving forward, and in Spanish it is at the tip of the tongue, not in the throat at all.

Also, by dividing the word into morphemes people with learning differences can focus on small bits and stay away from the confusion of supercalifragilistic type words. Do you think Mary Poppins knew morphemes? Probably!

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