membership
ownership
partnership
childhood
falsehood
priesthood
fairness
kindness
tidiness
enjoyment
employment
ornament
Spelling toolkit for words that have the suffix ‘ship’, ‘hood’, ‘ness’ and ‘ment’
◆ Many words in the English language have a group of letters at the end of them called a suffix.
These suffixes give the root word (such as kind) a different meaning (e.g. kind may become
kindness).
◆ship, hood, ness and ment are a group of suffixes which suggest a state of being. For example,
‘kindness’ is the state of being kind, or ‘childhood’ is the state of being a child.
◆ You just simply add these suffixes to the end of words unless the root word has a final y which
needs to be changed to i, such as in tidiness which comes from tidy. This change usually occurs when
the root word is an adjective (note how in the word employment the y remains – employ is a verb).
membership
ownership
partnership
childhood
falsehood
priesthood
fairness
kindness
tidiness
enjoyment
employment
ornament
Spelling toolkit for words that have the suffix ‘ship’, ‘hood’, ‘ness’ and ‘ment’
◆ Many words in the English language have a group of letters at the end of them called a suffix.
These suffixes give the root word (such as kind) a different meaning (e.g. kind may become
kindness).
◆ship, hood, ness and ment are a group of suffixes which suggest a state of being. For example,
‘kindness’ is the state of being kind, or ‘childhood’ is the state of being a child.
◆ You just simply add these suffixes to the end of words unless the root word has a final y which
needs to be changed to i, such as in tidiness which comes from tidy. This change usually occurs when
the root word is an adjective (note how in the word employment the y remains – employ is a verb).
hop, hopping, hopped
beep, beeping, beeped
dine, diner, dinner
big, bigger, biggest
blast, blasting, blasted
hope, hoping, hoped
drag, dragging, dragged
burn, burner, burning
write, writer, writing
Spelling toolkit for adding ing, er, ed or est to words which end in a single consonant
◆ Sometimes the final consonant (letters which are not vowels) are doubled when adding
suffixes such as in the word hopping (note that the p is doubled from the route word hop).
◆ The final consonant is doubled when it follows a ‘short’ vowel sound (this is where the
vowels A,E,I,O,U do not sound like their letter sound like you would hear in the alphabet).
For example, in the word big the vowel is i, but it isn’t pronounced I (or eye). Therefore,
the final consonant of g is doubled when adding the suffix to make bigger or biggest.
◆ Some words that end in a consonant, such as beep, do not double the final consonant as
this consonant follows a long vowel sound. In the case of beep, the vowel sound is ‘ee’, which
sounds like the letter E.
◆ Also note that if a root word, such as write, ends in an e then this e is removed when
adding the suffix. When this e is removed you must check to see if there is a consonant at
the end of the remaining letters that needs to be doubled (if it follows a short vowel
sound). For example, dine becomes din when removing the e, and din has a short vowel sound
of i so it becomes dinner when adding er (the final consonant of n is doubled).
hop, hopping, hopped
beep, beeping, beeped
dine, diner, dinner
big, bigger, biggest
blast, blasting, blasted
hope, hoping, hoped
drag, dragging, dragged
burn, burner, burning
write, writer, writing
Spelling toolkit for adding ing, er, ed or est to words which end in a single consonant
◆ Sometimes the final consonant (letters which are not vowels) are doubled when adding
suffixes such as in the word hopping (note that the p is doubled from the route word hop).
◆ The final consonant is doubled when it follows a ‘short’ vowel sound (this is where the
vowels A,E,I,O,U do not sound like their letter sound like you would hear in the alphabet).
For example, in the word big the vowel is i, but it isn’t pronounced I (or eye). Therefore,
the final consonant of g is doubled when adding the suffix to make bigger or biggest.
◆ Some words that end in a consonant, such as beep, do not double the final consonant as
this consonant follows a long vowel sound. In the case of beep, the vowel sound is ‘ee’, which
sounds like the letter E.
◆ Also note that if a root word, such as write, ends in an e then this e is removed when
adding the suffix. When this e is removed you must check to see if there is a consonant at
the end of the remaining letters that needs to be doubled (if it follows a short vowel
sound). For example, dine becomes din when removing the e, and din has a short vowel sound
of i so it becomes dinner when adding er (the final consonant of n is doubled).
difference
prosperous
secretary
primary
flattery
smuggler
formal
freedom
frightening
general
Wednesday
heaven
Spelling toolkit for polysyllabic words with unstressed vowels
◆ polysyllabic – more than one syllable.
◆ Unstressed vowels (also known as a schwa) – when a vowel sound is not stressed when
read within a word. For example, the i in business is not stressed (it may sound like
busyness if you did!)
◆ It’s tricky to learn how to spell these words. However, if you use related words (e.g.
station for stationary) then you may only have a small part of a word to learn. You may also
remember the spelling if you say the words how they may sound if they didn’t have the
schwa (e.g. Wednesday – sounds like wed-nes-day).
difference
prosperous
secretary
primary
flattery
smuggler
formal
freedom
frightening
general
Wednesday
heaven
Spelling toolkit for polysyllabic words with unstressed vowels
◆ polysyllabic – more than one syllable.
◆ Unstressed vowels (also known as a schwa) – when a vowel sound is not stressed when
read within a word. For example, the i in business is not stressed (it may sound like
busyness if you did!)
◆ It’s tricky to learn how to spell these words. However, if you use related words (e.g.
station for stationary) then you may only have a small part of a word to learn. You may also
remember the spelling if you say the words how they may sound if they didn’t have the
schwa (e.g. Wednesday – sounds like wed-nes-day).
difference
prosperous
secretary
primary
flattery
smuggler
formal
freedom
frightening
general
Wednesday
heaven
Spelling toolkit for polysyllabic words with unstressed vowels
◆ polysyllabic – more than one syllable.
◆ Unstressed vowels (also known as a schwa) – when a vowel sound is not stressed when
read within a word. For example, the i in business is not stressed (it may sound like
busyness if you did!)
◆ It’s tricky to learn how to spell these words. However, if you use related words (e.g.
station for stationary) then you may only have a small part of a word to learn. You may also
remember the spelling if you say the words how they may sound if they didn’t have the
schwa (e.g. Wednesday – sounds like wed-nes-day).