What do you take away from a word to find its roots ?

Many of the words we use in our daily language come from a root word. Once you pull off any prefixes or suffixes, the root is usually what remains. For example, “egotist” has a root word of “ego” plus the suffix "-ist." “Acting” has the root word “act”; “-ing” is merely the suffix.

Explanation:

(see below)

Explanation:

You can take away prefixes (like il-, intra-, un-, in-) and suffixes (-tion, -sion, -ation, -fy, -itis).

For example, in the word:

transportation

trans- is the prefix meaning "across, over, or beyond"

ation- is the suffix "indicating an action, process, state, condition, or result"

If we break apart the word to find its root word, then we have:

trans port ation

         port  - root word meaning "to carry"