Chapter 1. presentation of medical english

1. Medical Terminology
Huyen Doan Van MD., PhD

2. • Text:

3. Pronunciation guidelines
•For ae and oe, only the second vowel is pronounced.
bursae, pleurae, and roentgen.
• The soft sound of s and j are given to c and g, respectively, before e, i,
and y in words of Greek or Latin origin.
cerebrum, circumcision, cycle, gel, gingivitis, giant, and gyrate.
• Before other letters, c and g have a hard sound.
cardiac, cast, gastric, and gonad.
• The letters ch are sometimes pronounced like k.
cholesterol, chorea, and cholemia.

4. •pn appears at the beginning of a word, p is silent, only n is
pronounced. E.g. pneumonia and pneumotoxin.
•pn appears in the middle of a word, p and n are pronounced.
orthopnea and hyperpnea.
•ps appears at the beginning of a word, p is silent and only s is
pronounced. E.g: psychology and psychosis.
• When forming the final letter(s) of a word, e and es are commonly
pronounced as separate syllables. E.g: syncope, systole, and nares.
•i appears at the end of a word (to form a plural), it is pronounced eye.
E.g. bronchi, fungi, and nuclei.
•All other vowels and consonants have normal English sounds.

5. Pronunciation marks

7. Basic elements of a medical word
1. Word root
2. Combining form
3. Suffix
4. Prefix

8. Word Roots
• Word root: contains its primary meaning
• Greek roots: to build words for disease, condition, treatment, or
diagnosis
• Latin roots: anatomic structures

9. English Term Greek or Latin Term Word root Word Analysis
skin Dermatos (Gr)
Cutis (L)
Dermat
cutane
Dermat/itis
Inflamation of skin
Cutane/ous
Pertaining to skin
kidney nephros (Gr)
renes (L)
Nephr
ren
nephr/oma
Tumor of kidney
ren/al
Pertaining to kidney
mouth stomatos (Gr)
oris (L)
Stomat
or
stomat/itis
or/al
Pertaining to the
mouth

10. Combining forms: word root + vowel (o, i)

11. Suffixes: end of word, change the meaning of word

12. Prefixes: beginning of a word or word root

13. Defining medical words: suffix, first part of the word and
middle part of the word

14. Building medical words
• Rule 1:
A word root links a suffix that begins with a vowel
• Rule 2:
A combining form (root + o) links a suffix that begins with a consonant
• Rule 3
A combining form links a root to another root to form a compound
word. Example rule 3: osteoarthritis
What is snake eye?