One Step Now Education

July 31, 2026

vanguard

There are words that appear to be compounds in our language, but they are not. A carpet is not a pet for your car. A massacre is not a large parcel of land. I'm pretty sure vanguard is not someone who guards your van. And is it even related to guard?

To start, we'll see how vanguard is related to nouns and subject complements. Then we'll make a French connection that you may find intriGUing. You'll learn what a doublet is. Then we'll take a look at the job of a particular consonant digraph.

Meaning

What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?

I often begin with students by asking them where they may have heard a word if it is familiar to them. For me, I think of fashion or the arts, where the designer or artist is on the cutting edge and making waves. I relate it to innovation.

But what does Collins dictionary say is the definition of this word?

The entry for vanguard there tells me that someone in the vanguard of something is "in the most advanced part of it." Another definition says that the vanguard of an army goes into battle first.

This word is a noun. Nouns may function as subjects, objects, and subject complements. Here is an example of vanguard as a subject complement.

• In the 1960s, San Francisco had become the vanguard of the counter-culture in America.

A subject complement gives us more information about a subject and follows linking verbs, sensory verbs (smell, taste, feel, etc.), and change of state verbs (get, become, etc.), according to Cambridge Dictionary.

Structure

What are the elements that make up this word's structure?

So if this word is related to guard, let's start with this hypothesis:

van + guard

One of the above definitions referred to an army, which is almost like a guard. So I'm maintaining that as one of the elements.

But now I'm wondering about

Certainly a van is a type of vehicle, but could it also mean something more related to "first" or "advanced?" I'm looking at the word advanced and I see the letter string

Looks can be deceiving, and a letter string can mislead us. So we must always check an etymological resource. Just because an element looks like it is one doesn't mean it is. Even if I find it as an element in other words, I still must attest it in this one by checking out its history.

The Etymonline entry for vanguard says the word came to us in the mid 15th century. It is then followed by the phrase, vaunt garde. And then it hit me...artists are often referred to as avant-garde, a French term. The Etymonline entry goes on to explain the avant, "in front," and the garde as guard. So there is a relationship to guard. And we can leave our hypothesis as is.

van + guard

Relatives

What are the word's relatives and history?

Let's build a matrix around the base guarded. Or we might say they are unguarded. A child might have a guardian. The guardian can be said to have guardianship. Mostly though, we have lots of compounds for our base: lifeguard, bodyguard, safeguard, coastguard, and guardrail.

The word guard is from a Germanic term that came to us in English as ward. Words that come to us from two different language routes that are ultimately from the same root are known as doublets. Other doublets are frail (French) and fragile (Latin), as well as count (French) and compute (Latin).

With ward, we have etymological relatives warden, award, and wardrobe. Both guard and ward have a sense of "watch; protect." An award is a decision made after careful watch. A wardrobe is something to protect your clothes.

Graphemes

What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?

This same guarantee and warranty. Someone might use their wiles or to beguile someone. To reward someone is to regard them. And of course, a warden is also a guardian of sorts. They came from different French forms.

The after the >g> creates an interesting consonant digraph. We call it a consonant digraph, even though it has a vowel letter , because it spells a consonant pronunciation, /g/. The guitar, guys and guess.

Next Steps

What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?

Ok, so a vanguard isn't guarding anyone's van. What started out on the French battlefields is now at the forefront of art, fashion, or artificial intelligence. Last week, we had someone's back (endorse). This week we are out front.

Très avant-garde of us.

Stay curious,

Brad

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Taking the Next Step​
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​Welcome to Taking the Next Step, a monthly addendum to the WIN that gives a little window in how to teach scientific word study.

You may be wondering just how deep to go with the History of English with beginning students. To be honest, if I have students who are older than ten or that I think would be interested, I actually start there in one of my earliest sessions.

The depth with which you go into will depend on the student's interests as well as how much historical background the student already has. At the very least, I like to mention three key events: the invasion of England by Germanic tribes, the Norman Conquest, and the printing press. These three events happen to mark Old English, Middle English, and Modern English.

I do not get picky about dates, but I do begin by asking how old they think English is. I get lots of answers including a million years old! However, I mention that the Germanic tribes came over and started speaking what we now call Old English around 400, so about 1500 years ago. (I also tell them we call it Old English, but they didn't. After all, how could something be "old" that had just begun?) Then we look at some words from that time: love, water, tree, friend. We also see that some of these words had Latin roots, because the Roman Empire had once occupied the area.

I might mention the Vikings, because thanks to movies like How to Train Your Dragon, kids are pretty familiar with Vikings nowadays. I'll mention a few words from the Vikings, like give, skull, and egg. But then I mention 1066, an important date in English history: the Norman Conquest.

I show the connection between Normandy, Northmen (Norman) and Norse. We talk about how their domination over England during the next couple centuries is probably where the greatest influence on our lexicon happened. This is how words from Latin were introduced into our language a second time.

Then I conclude by showing them a video of a working printing press. We talk about the letters being in two cases: uppercase and lowercase, with the uppercase letters literally being in the "upper case." I mention how the printing press meant now we could distribute books and papers more easily. Therefore, the spelling needed to be standardized so that no matter where you lived, you could read it. Up until then, spellings were very regional.

Most kids I know enjoy hearing this history, or story, as that's how I present it. It's the story of our language, and it helps to situate the scientific word study we will be doing from that point forward.

Reply to this email and let me know how you work with your beginning students! The more we share ideas, the better we get.

PS. So many doublets to explore! Hospital and hotel, catch and chase...just the other day I was looking at regal and royal with a student. The Norman Conquest of England and subsequent rule was often the impetus for these dual adoptions, as the Northern end of France had differences from the language spoken in other regions.