Chunking Long Terms into Morphemes

Decode long technical words by splitting them into meaningful parts before pronouncing them.

Long technical words look intimidating because readers try to sound them out letter by letter. A faster method is to chunk the word into morphemes, the smallest units of meaning, and pronounce each chunk. Morphemes are also where syllable breaks usually fall, so meaning and sound support each other. Worked example: photosynthesis. Chunk it as photo / syn / thesis. Photo means light, syn means together, and thesis means placing or putting. Each chunk is easy to say on its own: FOH-toh / SIN / THUH-sis.

Joined, it means 'putting together with light,' which is exactly what plants do when they build sugar using light energy. Try another: 'thermoregulation' splits into thermo / regul / ation. Heat, rule or control, and a noun ending: the control of body heat. The habit to build is to look for familiar parts first and sound out letters only as a last resort.

• 1Chunk long words into morphemes before pronouncing.
• 2Morpheme breaks often match syllable breaks.
• 3Each chunk gives both a sound and a meaning.