how to spell: building words - intro

Building words with prefixes & suffixes intro from http:/www.howtospell.co.uk

Uncomfortably, disinterested, unmanageable, indifferently, unnecessarily, anticlockwise, misrepresentation... Do long words scare you?

By the end of the lesson they won't terrify you because you'll know how these words are built, and then we'll look at how to help spell them with a spelling strategy called syllable breakdown.

"You can improve your spelling, increase your knowledge of words and spellings, and dramatically improve your confidence with spelling if you understand that long words are often made up of a 'root' word plus 'bits' added to the beginning and/or end." (These "bits" are called prefixes and suffixes). Basic Skills Agency

Leaning how these long words are built will not only improve your spelling but will improve your reading skills too.

So what's a prefix, suffix and root word?

1. root word or sometimes referred to as a base word is a word which a prefix and suffix can be added to make another word. It's a word in its own right: like comfort, regular, organise, confident, respect

2. We can then add a little word called a prefix to the beginning of the root word to change the meaning or make it negative:

ir + regular = irregular, un + certain = uncertain, mis + understanding = misunderstanding, il + legal = illegal, dis + respect = disrespect.


3. We can a little word at the end of the root word called a suffix to change the tense or meaning of the word:

comfort + able = comfortable, regular + ly = regularly, respect + ful = respectful, , organised/organized

4. We can add both a prefix and suffix to the root word and get a really long word-
uncomfortable, disrespectfully, misunderstanding, illlegally.

Breaking these words down into syllables is a great way to remember these words.

Understanding how to identify syllables helps you to tackle long words, by breaking the word down into manageable parts.

This means you break them down into little spoken chunks and each chunk is called a syllable.

Each syllable usually has a vowel in it:

Say 'qualification' aloud. Listen to the way it breaks into syllables by saying it slowly and exaggerated
qua -- li -- fi -- ca -- tion (5 syllables)
advertisement = ad / ver / tise / ment (4 syllables)
When you break a word down into syllables it helps you see the part of the word you need work on.

Look at the following words and how we break them down.
We can see the prefix and suffixes

dissatisfied = dis /sat / is / fied
uncomfortable = un/com/for/ta/ble
irregularly = ir/ reg/u/lar/ly
immoveable = im/ move/ a/ ble

If you liked this then you'd like my Spelling Patterns and Pronunciation course check it here: howtospell-letterpatterns.co.uk/

That's it, thanks for listening and watching and see you in the next instalment: Building words using prefixes.