Decoding large words is one of the hardest parts of reading. Most of us can read the little, common words without difficulty. It's a different story when picking apart big ones. For eample, can you read the following words?

• auspicious
• obdurate
• sectarian

And those aren't particularly large or unwieldy words. Check these out:

• margaritaceous
• melanocomous
• spizzerinctum

Word analysis can help you tackle words such as these. You need never be stumped by the words you meet when reading. Often, if you can hear a word pronounced out loud, you will find that you actually are familiar with it. Most people's vocabulary of spoken words is much larger than their collection of written versions.

So how do you begin taking apart a large word? There are several steps to follow.

Nearly all large words can be broken into smaller chunks to make them easier to read and to understand. A good reader has several strategies to accomplish this goal. These strategies include:

• Checking to see if there are two smaller words put togethr to make a compound word.
• Looking for root words, prefixes and suffixes
• Dividing words into syllables
• Looking for Greek, Latin or other functional letter groups

Here's how each strategy works:

• Look for compound words

Compound words are larger words made up of two smaller words. The smaller words' meanings are related to the meaning of the big word. You are already familiar with many, many compound words. DOGHOUSE, for example, is a house for a dog. TURNCOAT is a traitor, someone who has changed sides (and uniforms!). If you can find the two smaller words that make up the big one, you're on your way to understanding the new, unknown word.

• Find root words, prefixes and suffixes

Many big words are actually familiar words in disguise. If you can strip away the added parts (the affixes), then you just may recognize the root word. Examples of this include UNASSUMING and REOCCURRED. You can see that the prefix un- and the suffix -ing have been added to the first word. If you take those off, you're left with the word "assume," which is likely to be familiar. Remove the re- and the -ed from the second word, and you are left with occur.

When you check for affixes, though, watch for changes in spelling. Many words drop a final "e" or double a final consonant before adding a suffix. Some words change in other ways. It's important to realize that you might need to make minor changes to your root word before you recognize it.

• Divide Words Into Syllables

All longer words break apart into sections called syllables, and we can use this to help us decode unfamiliar words. Syllables are groups of sounds that are said as a group. You can hear the separation between one syllable and the next. For example, we say cab-in-et. If a reader can discover where the syllables break apart, the unfamiliar word can be read in pieces, so to speak. We'll get into more detailed information about syllables and how they work in future lessons.

• Look for Greek, Latin or Other Roots

Many words have parts of older words contained within them. You already know a lot of these: tri- that means three in words like tricycle and triangle, metro that means a large urban area or city in words like metropolis and metropolitan, and mal that means wrong or bad or evil as in malign, malefactor, and maladjusted. Watch for more lessons on seeing these helpful letter groups within bigger words over the next few weeks.

There you have it! These four strategies form the basis of decoding larger words. Other lessons in this section will focus on them in greater detail, so visit often to get the latest!

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All good lessons include a way for you to practice on your own. Here's your chance to make sure you understand the ideas that I just presented.

Using books, magazines and newspapers, find and list at least ten examples of larger words for each of the strategies listed in this lesson. Find ten compound words, ten words with prefixes or suffixes, ten words that can be divided into syllables, and ten words that contain Greek or Latin roots that you recognize. If any of the words are new to you, look them up in the dictionary. Now, use each of your words in good sentences of your own.