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Reading Inflectional Endings

Read words containing taught GPCs with common inflectional endings (-s, -es, -ing, -ed, -er, -est) and the prefix un-; read multi-syllable words with taught patterns

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What a learner can do afterwards

  • Read suffixed words fluently (e.g. 'jumping', 'wanted', 'faster')
  • Identify the root word when a suffix is added
  • Read words with prefix un- (e.g. 'unhappy', 'undo')

1 · Read

A root word carries the main meaning. Find the root and ending, then read them together. Read -ing with short i and ng, as at the end of sing. An -ing word can describe an action going on. The whole phrase tells when: 'is resting' is now; 'was resting' was before.

looking
Look plus ing makes looking. Read the root and ending together.

Regular verbs often use -ed for a past action: 'Ben kicked the ball.' Remove -ed from kicked to find kick. Kicked ends with a t sound; played ends with a d sound. After a root ending in a t or d sound, -ed adds a spoken beat, as in waited.

The prefix un- goes at the front of a word. It can mean not: unfair means not fair. It can also reverse an action: untie means undo a tie or knot. Read the prefix and root together. Keep them together as one written word.

un-fairunfair

For a one-beat root with one vowel letter followed by one final consonant letter, double that consonant before -ing, -ed, -er or -est when the vowel is short. Do not double w, x or y. Hop becomes hopping; sad becomes saddest. Roots ending in two consonant letters, such as help, do not need another consonant before these endings.

hopping

Remove a real ending to find a root. If a consonant was doubled, remove only the added copy: swimming loses -ing to leave swimm, then the extra m comes off to leave swim. Other spelling changes need other checks. Ring has no -ing ending. Compare roots to find related words. Read the root and ending together.

swimm + ingswim + m + ing

The endings -er and -est compare things. Slower compares speed with something else. Slowest means slowest in the whole group. You can be slower than several people. Use -est when you mean the most of that quality in the group.

slowslowerslowest

For more than one, cup becomes cups, with an s sound. Bag becomes bags, with a z sound. After endings such as s, sh, ch or x, add -es: fox becomes foxes, with an extra spoken beat. Read the whole ending with its root.

cup + sbag + sfox + es

The ending -s can also mark a present-tense verb: 'She hums.' It is not a count of people. It has a z sound in hums. To find words with endings in a sentence, check every word. In 'The birds are singing', birds has -s and singing has -ing.

bird + ssing + ing

Read roots, endings and prefixes together. Check spelling changes, and read the whole sentence to work out time and meaning.

2 · Watch

3 · Play

step 1 of 6

You have blended sounds to read whole words. Ben's game story says, 'Ben kicked the ball.'

Which part of kicked is added after the root kick?

kicked

Take it off screen

Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.

Where it sits

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.

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Reading Inflectional Endings · English, ages 5 to 7 · LightMySky