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– What is “ex”?

"Ex" is a root that means "former." This root is one of the most common parts of some words, for example, ex-president, ex-chief, ex-musician.

Other words can be found in the root “ex”: ex-husband, when a man left his wife after a divorce. In this case, by “husband” we usually mean “spouse”. For example, when a lady married a handsome man and took him for her husband. Their common son said: “Dad is no longer my husband, but my ex-husband.” The son found out about both his dad and his aunt (ex-wife).

Due to the fact that words with the root “ex” mean the same as without it, they sound dissonant. Therefore, the expression “former” eventually replaced the use of the root “ex”. Unfortunately, the once popular term “ex-head” now only causes irritation among businessmen. They prefer to use adjectives at the end - former director, former adviser.

Why is the word “ex” spelled together?

Perhaps many of you have already noticed that “ex” is now used quite rarely. But the reason is not only the obsolescence of the term. According to the rules of the Russian language, adjectives formed from nouns using the suffix “-sya” are written with a hyphen.