What is a suffix



Do you see that our snail has something fixed on his end?

The word suffix means something fixed onto the end, as with go / going.

Common suffixes are: s and es, ed, ing, er, est, y, ly, ful, ness.

Look: snail / snails; frog / frogs; cat / cats.

Look: tall / tallest;  fast / fastest

Look: help / helpful;  harm / harmful

The word before the suffix is added is called the root word.  Ask your child to tell you the root words:

1. helps        3. helper       5. helping

2. helped     4. helpful       6. helpfulness (two suffixes added to help)

Sometimes the root word has to be changed before adding a suffix. When you add suffix y to the root word rain > rainy;  you have to change y to i before you can add er or est:

1. rains        3. raining       5. rainier    

   
2. rained     4. rainy           6. rainiest 

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Knowing how vowels work with suffixes becomes critical in the upper grades but vowel lessons are not taught in the upper grades. I have created Vowel Power (grades 1-3) and Prefix / Suffix (4th grade and up) because our children do not know how to make changes to words. This makes schoolwork, homework, writing, and test-taking  - miserable. 

 
Vowel Power has a rabbit hopping through the woods. Prefix / Suffix has a dog looking through a metal fence.   Being a skillful reader makes life so much easier!

Thank you for visiting my blog, Mary Maisner