Learning about suffixes

Why are suffixes so important?

Understanding the different types of suffixes, and how and why they are fixed to bases to create new words, is an important part of understanding how the English spelling system works.

In this activity we built a list of different suffixes by identifying them in words, from a variety of books. The children had to prove that the sufffix was a 'real suffix' by building a word sum to demonstrate their thinking.

For example: <action>

• In <*ac + tion>, <tion> is not a real suffix because <ac> is not a base (it doesn't hold any meaning); but
• in <act + ion>, <ion> is the real suffix because <act> is the base and holds the meaning.

When the children had gathered a number of real suffixes we played a game to show that there are two different types of suffixes.

As the children shared the suffixes they discovered, I sorted them into two groups. The children's task was to think about and reflect on why I had sorted them into these two groups. 

• One group of suffixes started with a vowel letter: <-ed> <-ing> <-er> <-y> <-ion> 
• The other group of suffixes started with a consonant letter: <-ment> <-th> <-ful>.

The children discovered there are vowel suffixes and consonant suffixes!

The vowel suffixes are often called 'interesting suffixes' because they might cause a change to a base:

love/ + ing--> loving

The consonant suffixes are often called 'boring suffixes' because they don't make any changes to the base:

love + ly --> lovely

We are gathering and proving different suffixes.

The children had to think about why some suffixes
were placed on the left column while others were placed
on the right column.

Here are some word sums for your family to work on together. Remember to think about any changes to the base!

love + ed --> 
move + ment -->
move + ing --> 
like + ly -->
like +ed -->
nice + ly -->