Essential Medical Terminology
Petr Honč, Jana Přívratská, Kristina Hellerováhighly diverse language environments. Its goal is to introduce the language of medicine and
teach students basic Latin grammar and vocabulary they will need later in their studies and
future practices. The contents of this independent textbook have been tailored to the needs
of students with varying degrees of previous grammar knowledge; the book will serve mainly
as the source text for Medical Terminology courses, but it is also suited for self-study.
The first section of the textbook describes noun and adjective inflection, gradually
introducing students to the Latin declension system. The second part focuses on word
formation, a crucial component of medical terminology, which, in addition to Latin words,
often features words of Greek origin, compounds, and hybrid words. An overview of Latin and
Greek prefixes and suffixes further contributes to the reader’s understanding of specialized
medical terminology. The textbook also includes an introductory chapter on basic grammatical
categories and Latin pronunciation, as well as four review chapters that test the mastery of
the subject matter.
The following brief description of chapter structure will provide instructions on making
full use of the textbook. The introduction to each chapter features “keywords”, which are
to be linked to their English equivalents by the students, without prior explanation of their
respective meanings. Frequently encountered in medicine, the keywords have been selected
to represent particular grammatical elements discussed in class. Students are likely to
recognize and understand them based on similarities with their English counterparts, the use
of accompanying illustrations, or by a simple process of elimination.