step 1 of 6
You have found roots under endings. Now make labels for a play corner.
Player, playful, replay and playground share which root?
En anglais
Word families and root words
Explore words that share a root and connected meanings. Use roots, prefixes, suffixes and compound words to recognise word families and make likely guesses about unfamiliar words.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Generate at least 4 words in a word family from a given root (e.g., from 'play': player, playful, replay, playground)
- Explain how family members share a root and connected meanings, such as help, helper, helpful and helping
- Use knowledge of a word family to predict the meaning of an unfamiliar member (e.g., knowing 'act' helps understand 'actor', 'action', 'react')
1 · Read
A word family shares a root and connected meanings. Family members need not mean exactly the same thing. Check the meaning as well as the letters: matching sounds or letters alone do not make a family. To guess a new word, find a root you know, then use the added parts and the sentence.
Act means do. Actor, action and react share this root. React means respond to something that happens. A family's spelling can change: bake loses its final e in baker and baking. These words still connect to baking. Look for the root's meaning even when its spelling changes.
Cycle can name a repeating round or a vehicle with wheels. Recycle means process something for use again. Bicycle uses the wheel meaning. The ending -ist can name a person who does something. A cyclist rides a cycle. Cycle loses its final e before -ist. Use the sentence to choose the meaning that fits.
An ending can help explain a family word. -Er often names a person who does something: a painter paints. -Ness names a state or quality: sadness is being sad. -Ful means full of: joyful means full of joy. Combine the root and ending, then check the meaning in the sentence.
A prefix goes at the start. Re- can mean again, as in reread. Un- can mean not, as in unkind, or undo an action, as in unpack. Family words can also be compounds: playground joins play and ground. To build a family, try familiar beginnings, endings and compounds. Keep words whose meanings connect.
Family words share a root and connected meanings. Use added parts and the sentence to explain each word, including words whose spelling changes.
Original lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset.
Three original readings about word families, spelling and checking meanings, written for this dataset.
More to read
Family words can change spelling
Hope and hoping belong together. Hoping drops the final e from hope, but it still connects to the idea of hope.
Compare hoping with hopping. Hopping comes from hop, an action like a small jump. The words look close, but their roots and meanings differ.
Check a family using both clues: where the word comes from and what it means. A spelling change can keep a family connection. Similar letters can also hide different roots.
What does an ending change?
Care, careful and careless share care. Their full meanings differ.
Careful describes someone who takes care. Careless describes someone who does not take enough care. The ending -ful gives a full-of clue; -less gives a without clue.
When you explain a family word, find the shared root first. Then explain what the ending adds. A family connects words without making them all mean the same thing.
Check your meaning in the sentence
Read this sentence: "Please refill the empty jug." Fill is familiar, and re- can mean again. Refill means fill again. That meaning fits an empty jug.
Word parts give clues, but a guess may still need checking. Read the nearby words. Ask someone for help or use a dictionary if the meaning is unclear.
A dictionary can give several meanings. Choose the one that fits your sentence.
2 · Watch
En anglais3 · Play
En anglais
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Learn first
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.