Your current location:

Unit 9: Adding suffixes: the spelling rules

Page 1 of 19

Unit 9: Suffixes: why we need to double letters, change them or drop 'e'

Unit StartCourse Testpage 2page 3Course Testpage 5Course Testpage 7Course Testpage 9Course Testpage 11Course Testpage 13Course Testpage 15Course Testpage 17Course Testpage 19Unit End

Page 1 of 19

The Spelling Rules for Adding Suffixes

Teaching point - learning to spell A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a root word to change its meaning.

Look at these examples:

English spelling English spelling
help + s = helps help + ing = helping help + ed = helped
help + er = helper help + ful = helpful help + less = helpless
helpful + ness = helpfulness helpful + ly = helpfully
English spelling English spelling

Learn the Words:

In the above examples, you do not need to change the root word when you add a suffix.

In this unit, we will look at when you do need to change the root word.

Suffixes can be broken up into:
Vowel suffixes – the suffix begins with a vowel.
Consonant suffixes – the suffix begins with a consonant.

For example:

English spelling English spelling
Vowel suffixes

ing es ed er
en est ish y*
able ible al ous
English spelling English spelling

English spelling English spelling
Consonant suffixes

s less ful ness
ment ly ty
English spelling English spelling

*At the end of a word, y is pronounced with an ee sound.

You have not completed Learn the Words activities for the word list on this page.

next part of the spelling course
Take a test in these words.

X
X
Please turn your screen to landscape to play this game.
X

The Spellzone interactive course is intended to be used online and may not be printed.

"Thank goodness for Spellzone during this remote learning phase. The site is easy for students to navigate independently and they're really enjoying the activities and spelling games. You get an awful lot for your money with Spellzone. Really reassuring is the very prompt response with helpdesk queries. I've very rarely needed the helpdesk, but when I have, the issue has been addressed and sorted within a very short time."

Sarah Taggart, Oasis Academy Lord's Hill