James Baquet

    Lily is chatting with her classmate Becky in the common room of their dorm.

    Lily: Hi, Becky. We’ve been given a long list of words to study. Can you help me with some of them?

    Becky: Sure!

    Lily: Some of the words have “-verse” in them: converse, diverse, and reverse.

    Becky: Great! “Verse” here is from “vert,” which means “turn around.” So let’s start with “converse.”

    Lily: Why did you put the accent on the first syllable? Isn’t it “conVERSE?”

    Becky: Well, to converse — pronounced that way — means to talk with another person, to have a conversation. It’s a verb. But this word is a noun, and means “the opposite.”

    Lily: Can you use it in a sentence?

    Becky: Of course. “Men don’t understand women. But the converse is also true. Women don’t understand men, either.”

    Lily: I get it.

    Becky: There’s an adverb form: “Conversely, women don’t understand men.”

    Lily: Got it. There the accent is on “verse,” right?

    Becky: That’s right. “Con” here means “against.”

    Lily: What’s next?

    Becky: Let’s see… “Diverse” means “of different types.” “Di” can mean “two,” so here the root is “turned different ways.”

    Lily: Uh-huh.

    Becky: In recent years, we’ve talked of the diversity of, say, a student population, or an ecosystem.

    Lily: Meaning its members are of different types?

    Becky: Yes. There’s also a common verb form, to diversify.

    Lily: How can I use that?

    Becky: Let’s say a company is made up only of men, from one country. The management can diversify the staff by hiring more women, and people from other countries.

    Lily: Is that a regular verb?

    Becky: Yes, with a slight change in spelling. The other forms are “he diversifies” and “last year we diversified.” But we keep the “-y” in the gerund: “diversifying.”

    Lily: Thanks! One more word: “reverse.” That means “to go the opposite direction,” right?

    Becky: Right. To literally turn around. The “re-” can mean “again,” or maybe “back.”

    Lily: What are the different forms of “reverse?”

    Becky: Well, one of them sounds the same, but it’s a noun. It basically means the same as “converse.”

    Lily: So?

    Becky: “Men don’t understand women. But the reverse is also true. Women don’t understand men, either.”

    Lily: Aha!

    Becky: Another noun form is “reversal.”

    Lily: How could I use that?

    Becky: “His company suffered several reversals before it was finally successful.”

    Lily: There is an adjective form “reversible,” and its opposite, “irreversible.”