G'day mate. How're ya? Today, I wanna argue why you can hardly increase the number of active vocabulary without having a better understanding of etymology. I am not saying I've just infatuated with word roots like prefix and suffix, so it's extremely important for everyone to learn them. From my perspective, they immensely help speculate the meaning of a word that you have never come across. Let's get cracking!
First up, learning etymology is almost akin to grammar and pronunciation. What do I mean by this? Well, etymology has a limited number of prefixes and suffixes out there, so that you won't take so much time to go through them, as compared to memorising word-by-word, which is almost impossible to finish, right? There are many ways for you to learn word roots, such as finding free online sources or reading an English dictionary. In either way, I am sure you're gonna find it very useful for boosting vocabulary.
Reading an English dictionary, in particular, should be the best and the quickest way to nail the whole range of etymology. To put it simply, you're just going to peruse the dictionary from cover to cover in order to make it. How simple is that? Understandably, it's not gonna be easy for you, in partial because you have never tried to read any dictionary before. I believe everyone could get used to it. But, of course, before embarking on this big project, you're gonna make sure you've already fully understood basic English grammar rules and been fully capable of enunciating all 44 sounds of English pronunciation. These are prerequisite for everyone to start reading a dictionary, otherwise it's gonna be a waste of time, precisely because you don't really know how you subvocalise or even vocalise the details of the dictionary due to the paucity of clear pronunciation and grammar rules.
If you know grammar rules and can pronounce 44 sounds clearly, then there won't be problematic for you to read a dictionary and learn every word roots within a certain period of time. For me, presumably I took 6 months to master the whole entry of word roots reading through my Oxford dictionary 20 years ago. I'm not talented at all, so everyone can do it as I did before. If you want to learn etymology without reading a dictionary by yourself, then you should consider taking my Zoom Group Lesson, which is running right now. I highly recommend taking this course, because I'm sure you'll be able to streamline the mastery of not just etymology but essential grammar as well. Please feel free to contact me if you're interested.
Thanks for reading. Good evening!