If you are a parent of a child in primary school, you will probably be becoming aware of the increased focus on grammar and punctuation contained in the new National Curriculum. Your child’s school may have provided information about the new English grammar, punctuation and spelling tests which Year 2 and Year 6 children will be taking next summer. Depending upon when and where you went to school, you may find the information coming from school (and the terminology being used by your child) challenging. Whether you are bewildered by the terminology used or just want to know a little more to support your child, I hope you will find this blog useful. You can click on the Parent’s Start Page to link to information about different areas of grammar and punctuation. Alternatively, enter a term in the search bar or click on a word in the cloud of labels. If you have further queries, get in touch and I will try to help where I can.

Monday 16 May 2016

Suffix

A suffix is a small unit of meaning which is added at the end of a word to make a new word. 

Adding a suffix can change words in a grammatical way, for example changing the tense of verbs (want – wanted), changing a noun from singular to plural (car – cars, bus – buses) or changing an adjective to a different form (smart – smarter – smartest).

Adding a suffix can change the meaning of the word, e.g. host/hostess, kitchen/kitchenette, duck/duckling.

Adding a suffix can change the word class and alter how a word is used in a sentence.  There are a huge number of suffixes; the list below exemplifies just a few:
-ly can change an adjective into an adverb (brave/bravely, kind/kindly)
-ful can change a noun into an adjective (grace/graceful, beauty/beautiful)
-ness can change an adjective into a noun (sad/sadness)
-er can change a verb into a noun (help/helper, teach/teacher)
-ation can change a verb into a noun (consider/consideration)

The English language is very flexible in permitting these types of constructions, which means we can create new words easily.

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