I have been taking Making Math Real courses in the bay area. I’m currently in the Fractions, Decimals and Advanced Placement course. This week we were learning about equivalent fractions, which is where my post originates.

This base ends with a <u> which at first struck me as odd, but I have encountered vowel final bases before. A base is not “a word,”  but a morpheme. We know that native English words don’t end with <u>. Since this base is bound, it is not seen unless it has an affix (prefix or suffix). So this base must have something attached to it to make a complete word. After studying it, I have found it to be scattered all over math with words like: equal, equaling, equilateral, inequality.

The word <equivalent> is a compound, containing more than one base. A compound could actually have more than two bases. The second base <vale> base  denotes “being strong.” It comes from Latin valere. This English base is seen in words such as <valedictorian>, <valiant> and even <ambivalent>. While we think of someone as valiant being strong, that might not be the first thought for someone who is a valedictorian. The word <valedictorian> is a compound with <dict> having to do with “say.” While we think of a valedictorian as the person with the highest grades, but historically they were the person who gave the speech at graduation, a strong speech/word if you will. 

Going back to <equivalent>, I find one of the common misspellings this word is the medial <a>.  Most people are taught to spell by pronunciation alone. Since the <a> is pronounced with a schwa, there is no reliable way to spell by pronunciation. It must be looked at by morphemes, <vale>.  Understanding that this is the secondary base reduces spelling errors for that schwa. 

Another misspelling is the suffix <-ent>, which can be confused with <-ant>. The choice between these two may seem arbitrary, but the choice goes back to its Latin roots. The Latin roots of these bases are: aequivalere and valere. Note that both have the Latin infinitive suffix -ere. Because of the first letter of the infinitive stem is an <e>, that highly correlates to the use of an <e> starting suffix in English. While it’s unrealistic to remember all the roots that bases come from, knowing that there is a reason and connection as to why sometimes helps students to make a more accurate choice. This knowledge can also help when choosing whether it is an <-ence> or an <-ance>. The choice again will be the (Latin) suffix starting with an <e>.  It is something to take note of when this is a struggle for you or your student.

Lastly, I’ve only included a few words in this Word Sum Wednesday post. Let’s see if you can find other compounds with the <equ> base.  I will leave you with this last thought of inquiry. What is the base of <equine> and is there a relation to the base in this study?