Types of Roots

Free Roots are roots that can occur alone as whole words. Many native words such as blue and berry, are free roots because they can stand alone as single words. Free roots can also be combined with other roots or affixes to form more complex words, for example blueberry and blu ish.

Bound Roots can never occur alone as whole words. For example, the roots cran and rasp cannot stand alone; they must occur in combination with other morphemes, such as cranberry and raspberry.

Almost all the Latin and Greek roots are bound roots. Some examples are:

Compounds are words constructed from two or more roots. They may or may not have affixes. For example,