2. Roots
 English is a language that is derived from mainly German,
Latin and Greek, as well as, some other languages.
 Because of this, one needs to master and memorize a
large amount of these root words.

3. General Roots
 Root Words- Root Words are where many of our
common English words originate from.
 Often a root word is a word in itself or is easily
recognizable as the origin of other words.
 Sometimes root words have several different
meanings.
 Root Words may come at the beginning or end of
longer words.

5. Prefixes
 Prefixes help to form longer words, but are not words
in themselves.
 Prefixes only come at the beginning of words and
usually have one distinct meaning.

6. Prefix examples - verb
Be : fool – befool, calm – becalm
Em : power : empower, body : embody
En : rich – enrich, large – enlarge

7. Examples – Opposites / antonyms :
 Un : happy – unhappy, lucky – unlucky
 Mis : lead – mislead, fortune – misfortune
 Non : co-operation – non-cooperation, violence –
non-violence
 Dis : honest – dishonest, honour – dishonour
 In : discipline – indiscipline, correct – incorrect
 Ir : regular – irregular, religious – irreligious
 Ig : noble – ignoble,
 Im : moral – immoral, patient – impatient
 Il : legal – illegal, literate – illiterate

8. What is a suffix?
 A suffix is a word ending.
 It is a group of letters you can add to the end of a root
word* e.g. walking, helpful *
 There are various suffixes we use. Probably the most
common are 'ed' and 'ing'. Here are some other suffixes
and examples.
 A root word stands on its own as a word, but you can make
new words from it by adding beginnings (prefixes) and
endings (suffixes).
 Ex. 'comfort' is a root word. By adding the prefix 'dis' and
the suffix 'able' you can make new words such as
'discomfort' and 'comfortable'.

9. Examples of Suffixes (Noun)
 Al : propose – proposal, arrive – arrival
 Ance : attend – attendance, remember –
remembrance
 Tion : prepare – preparation, inform –
information
 Ness : kind – kindness, fearless – fearlessness
 Ment : treat – treatment, move – movement
 Hood : boy – boyhood, child – childhood
 Ship : hard – hardship, free – freeship
 Ty : national – nationality, moral – morality
 Ion : suggest – suggestion, select – selection

10. Example of suffix - adjectives
 Ous : courage – courageous, danger – dangerous
 Ly : like – likely, love – lovely
 Able : accept – acceptable, enjoy – enjoyable
 An : America – American, India – Indian
 Ful : power – powerful, pain – painful
 Al : nature – natural, nation – national
 En : gold – golden, stole – stolen
 Ive : effect – effective, inform – informative
 Ish : fever – feverish, child – childish
 Ent : appear – apparent, differ – different
 Some : trouble – troublesome, tire – tiresome
 Y : thirst – thirsty, taste – tasty

11. Examples of suffixes
 Examples of verb:
 En : deep – deepen, dark – darken
 Ize : centre – centralize, system – systematize
 Fy : pure – purify, just – justify
 Example of Adverb :
 Ly : lucky – luckily, equal – equally
 Example of opposites / antonyms:
 Less : use – useless, help – helpless

12. Spelling Rules
 There are at least ten Spelling Rules which guide us
in making / writing words.
 There are always exceptions to these rules.

13. Rule - 1
 Suffix spelling rules - double letters
 For most short (one syllable) words that end in a single
consonant (anything but 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u') you need to
double the last letter when you add a suffix.
 e.g. run + ing = running
 For most longer (more than one syllable) words that end in
'l' you need to double the 'l' when you add the suffix.
 e.g. travel + ing = travelling cancel + ed = cancelled

14. Rule No. 2
 Adding suffixes to words can change or add to their
meaning, but most importantly they show how a word will
be used in a sentence and what part of speech (e.g. noun,
verb, adjective) the word belongs to.
 e.g. If you want to use the root word 'talk' in the following
sentence: I was (talk) to Samina. You need to add the
suffix 'ing' so that the word 'talk' makes better sense
grammatically: "I was talking to Samina".

15. Rule 3
 Usually when you add a suffix to a root word the
spelling of both stays the same: e.g. care + ful =
careful.
 There are several important groups of words where
the spelling of the root word changes when you add
a suffix.

16. Rule 4
 sun + y = sunny If the word ends with more than one
consonant, you don't double the last letter: e.g.
pump + ed = pumped sing + ing = singing

17. Rule 5
 For most longer (more than one syllable) words that have
the stress on the last syllable when you say them and end
in a single consonant (anything but 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u') you
need to double the last letter.
 e.g. begin + er = beginner,
 prefer + ing = preferring
 If the word has more than one syllable and ends in a single
consonant, but the stress isn't on the last syllable, then you
don't need to double the last letter before adding a suffix.
 e.g. offer + ing = offering,
 benefit + ed = benefited

18. Rule 6
 If you have a word ending in a consonant and a
suffix starting in a consonant, you don't need to
double the last letter of the word: e.g. enrol + ment =
enrolment, commit + ment = commitment

19. Rule 7
 'y' to 'i' rule :
 When you add a suffix to a word which ends in a
consonant followed by a 'y', change the 'y' to 'i'.
 e.g. The word 'happy' ends in 'py'.
 When you add the suffix 'ness', change the 'y' to 'i' to make
the word happiness: happy + ness = happiness.
 Exceptions to the rule : If you are adding the suffix 'ing' to a
word ending in 'y', keep the 'y'.
 e.g. The word 'copy' ends in 'py'.
 When you add 'ing' the 'y' doesn't change to an 'i' because
you would have 2 'i's together: copy + ing = copying.

20. Rule 8
 Silent 'e' rule
 When you add a 'y' or a suffix which starts with a vowel
(a,e,i,o,u) to a word which ends in a silent 'e', drop the
silent 'e'.
 Silent 'e' words are ones that end with a consonant and
have an 'e' at the end, such as hope, like, love.
 If you say the word to yourself you don't really hear the 'e'
at the end.
 e.g. The word 'noise' ends in a silent 'e'. When you add the
suffix 'y', the 'e' is dropped to make the word, noisy: noise +
y = noisy.
 The word 'like' ends in a silent 'e'.

21. Rule 9
 Silent 'e' rule
 When you add the suffix 'ing', the 'e' is dropped to make
the word, liking: like + ing = liking.
 Exceptions to the rule : If a word ends in 'ce', or 'ge', keep
the 'e' if you add a suffix beginning with either an 'a', or an
'o'.
 This is done to keep the 'c' or 'g' sounding soft.
 e.g. The word 'peace' ends in 'ce'. When you add on the
suffix 'able' the silent 'e' is kept to make the word,
peaceable: peace + able = peaceable

22. Please Note
 All these rules also apply to words which have a prefix
before the root word.
 If you add the suffix 'ness' to the root word 'unhappy' you
would still change the 'y' to 'i‘.
 un + happy + ness = unhappiness
 Verbs, nouns and professions Adding a suffix to a word can
change the job that word does.
 There are several forms of the 'shun' sound which are all
suffixes that can change root words from nouns to verbs,
or give you important clues about what the word is doing.

23. Rule 10
 From verbs to nouns...
 Adding '-tion' Adding 'tion' to a root word can change the
word from a verb (action word) to a noun (name of person,
place or thing): e.g. inject (verb) + tion = injection (noun)
instruct (verb) + tion = instruction (noun)

24. From verbs to nouns...
 Sometimes the spelling changes slightly between the verb
and the noun. The important thing is that you can see that
the verb and noun are related in meaning. e.g. relax (verb)
+ tion = relaxation (noun) describe (verb) + tion =
description (noun) Use this when: - there is a consonant
before the 'tion' sound (normally the root word ends in 't')
N.B. if the root word ends in 't', you drop the final 't' before
adding the suffix. - the root word ends with a long vowel or
a short 'l'

25. Phonics-Explained
 Phonics is a method of teaching, reading and using the
sounds of words.
 Phonics is usually helpful to beginners, who are just
learning English and are unfamiliar with common spellings
of sounds.
 Phonics does not help in decoding the meaning of a word.
Just because you know how a written word sounds when
spoken, does not mean that you understand the meaning
of that word.
 Phonics may be helpful to new learners, who are working
on their pronunciation of written English.

26. Thanks to …
 http://www.redwoods.edu/Eureka/ASC/Handouts/Word%20
Decoding/Word%20Decoding.pdf
 A ready reckoner in English Grammar & Composition
(second language) Std. X by Dinesh J. shah, Dr. Janakbhai B.
Shah & Bharatiben R. Shah (Atul Prakashan)