Word Families in English - Learn ENGLISH about Word Families

Welcome back to the English  Danny Channel. I’m Dr. Don,  

and today I’m going to show you more ways to  expand your vocabulary using word families.

Remember, a word family is a set of words whose  meaning comes from the meaning of one ROOT WORD.  

For example, if you know the meaning of “help” you  can figure out the meaning of words like helper,  

helpless, helpful, and unhelpful. Today, we’re  going to look at three more common root words.  

The theme for today’s root words is THE  MIND. In today’s lesson, you will learn  

3 common roots for talking about the mind,  the brain, the thinking organ in our head.

The first root is MENT, which means mind or  thought. This root shows up in a number of words  

related to the mind and thinking, the first of  which is the adjective MENTAL. We just added the  

suffix -AL to our root word. The -AL suffix means  related to or pertaining to. And the adjective  

MENTAL means related to the mind, or related  to a disorder or illness of the mind.

For example, “He has great MENTAL ability.”  This sentence means he has great ability  

to accomplish things with his mind or  thoughts. We also refer to “mental illness”  

meaning sicknesses of the mind such  as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Another useful word we get using the MENT  root is MENTOR. We add the -OR suffix  

indicating a person to get this word, which means  an experienced and trusted advisor. “Our company  

encourages older employees to act as MENTORS  for our new hires.” Mentor can also be a verb  

meaning to act as a mentor for someone. “He  MENTORED me through the training sessions.”

If we add the suffix -ATION meaning an action  to our root we get MENTATION which is a noun  

meaning mental activity or high-level thinking.  

This is a technical word used in more advanced  English vocabulary settings such as psychology.

The word MENTAL can be modified further with the  -ITY suffix which turns it into a noun. Mental  

means related to the mind, so a mentality is a way  of thinking or the ability to learn or think. The  

word mentality is sometimes used to mean a way of  thinking which is characteristic of a person or  

group. “That’s a very negative mentality.” That’s  a way of telling someone their way of thinking is  

very negative—that it assumes the worst. Another  example sentence is “He’s got the right mentality  

to succeed here.” Meaning he has the right way  of thinking or the ability to think to succeed.

Our next root is PSYCHE, which is another root  coming from GREEK and it means mind or soul.  

A very common word built on this  root is psychology. We add the -OLOGY  

suffix meaning study of to get the study of  the mind—and psychology is the social science  

which deals with the mind and mental operations  and disorders. If we use the IST suffix, which  

means a person or member, we get PSYCHOLOGIST  which means a person who studies and practices  

psychology. “I’m feeling anxious these days.  Maybe I should see a PSYCHOLOGIST for help.”

Another word using this root is  PSYCHOSIS. Remember the psyche root,  

and then consider the word build on this root  psychoo meaning to give life to and psychosis  

meaning animated or alive – and here we get the  idea of thoughts or ideas that have become so  

animated they seem to be real. And psychosis  is a noun which means a severe mental disorder  

where one’s thoughts and emotions are taken to  be real—but they are distorted from reality.

If someone has a psychosis they need a  psychiatrist. Psyche is mind and iatros  

is a Greek word for doctor. So a psychiatrist  specifically means a doctor of the mind—a  

person who specializes in the study and treatment  of mental disorders or mental illnesses.

Our third and final root for today is ANIM,  which means mind but can also mean spirit, life,  

or even anger. The common word ANIMAL is  based on this root, and an animal is a  

living thing—something with a mind or spirit  of some kind (to use a technical definition,  

animals have organs of sense and are capable  of responding to stimuli around them).

But more common words using this root are ANIMATE  and ANIMATION. Animate is the verb and animation  

the noun. Animate means to bring to life or  to give something the appearance of movement.  

Animation is a noun meaning the state of  being full of life or vigor—for example,  

“He is full of animation.” But animation can also  refer to a specific technique of filming which  

produces the appearance of movement. For example,  “I like Walt Disney animation movies.” Sometimes  

these are called “animated” movies, which uses the  past participle of the verb animate to mean movies  

which have been animated, have been done in  a way to provide the illusion of movement.

Remember how I said that the ANIM root could  also mean anger? We have two common words which  

make use of this meaning of the root as well.  One is ANIMUS, which is a sense of hostility  

or ill will. “These two men show a strong ANIMUS  towards one another.” They really don’t like each  

other. But ANIMUS can also have a neutral meaning,  closer to the ANIM root meaning of spirit—it  

can mean a motivation to do something.  “There is a powerful animus for reform.”  

Here, this means a powerful  motivating force to reform something.

Another word using the ANIM root is ANIMOSITY,  which is strong hostility. “I feel nothing but  

animosity towards the other team.” That means,  I am very hostile towards the other team.

Mental, Psyche, Animal – these three words offer  different ways to talk about the mind in English.  

As a bonus, let’s look at that word MIND that I’ve  been using. MIND is a word of Germanic origin,  

and it originally means memory or thought.  It is related to the word MENT which was  

one of our three basic roots today, but  it’s also related to the Sanskrit word  

MANAS. That’s a lot to keep in  MIND. See you in the next video!