Lesson video

Hello everybody.

It's Ms. Chamberlain-Webber here with another spelling lesson for you.

This one is particularly challenging, but in a really great way.

That's because we're exploring different suffixes that actually change the meaning of words today.

So there's going to be some information about word class, and what's really exciting is the fact that it's so much to remember sometimes, spelling rules, but we're actually going to be able to spot some patterns today.

Let's get started investigating the suffixes -ate, en, -ify, and -ise.

In today's lesson, we're going to start with key vocabulary.

We're going to investigate and generate rules for the four suffixes.

And then finally, I'm going to set you 10 spelling words that you can practise after the lesson too.

You will need paper or an exercise book, and a pencil.

Please try and find yourself a nice quiet space for today's lesson and make sure your brains are ready to learn.

If you haven't got a pencil or paper, pause the video and go and grab them.

Key vocabulary.

My turn, then your turn.

Verb.

A verb is a doing word.

Noun.

A noun is a person, place or thing.

Now we need to remember that there are two types of nouns, something you can physically touch or see, we call a concrete noun.

But sometimes we have things that we can't see.

This is an idea, or maybe a state of something, for example, love.

And this we call an abstract noun.

Our next key word, suffix.

Suffix is a group of letters at the end of a word that change the meaning.

Root.

A root word is the word onto which the prefix or suffix is attached.

I want you to pause the video here and decide which key word matches to the definition.

A doing or a being word.

Can you tell me what that is? Verb.

A person, place or thing is? A noun.

What two nouns can we have? Concrete or abstract.

Okay.

A group of letters at the end of a word that change the meaning is? A suffix.

The word onto which your prefix or suffix is attached is? Root.

Time to investigate and generate rules for the four suffixes.

Let's start with the first one, E-N.

Hey, are two words.

What do these words mean? And what do they have in common? Let's read them together.

Strength.

Length.

Pause the video now and have some thinking time to consider those two questions.

Strength means measurement of how strong something is.

This could be how strong a person is or how strong a thing is.

Length means a measurement of how long something is.

I might say the length of this room is five metres.

So what do these two words have in common? I'm sure you spotted best spelling is very similar, ending G, T, H.

But what about the meaning of these words? In fact, perhaps you could tell me what word class they both are.

They are both abstract nouns because we can't see or hold them ourselves.

They're an idea or concept.

Okay.

Let's see what happens when we add E, N.

Length.

The length of this green line is five centimetres, but if I add the suffix, E-N what does my word become? Please pause your video and write down what the new word with the suffix attached will be.

Lengthen means to make something longer.

I wonder then if you could tell me what the meaning of E-N suffix is.

E-N means to become.

By the addition of the suffix, E-N it means that my green line here has become longer, to lengthen.

Now, can you tell me what word class the abstract noun length has changed to? I know this is tricky, so I'm going to help you out.

It's changed to a verb, a doing word, to lengthen something.

Let's have a look at another example.

That abstract noun strength.

Think about adding that suffix E-N again, the word then becomes, strengthen, strengthen, by the addition of the suffix E-N changes word class.

Can you remind me how the abstract noun changes? Into a verb.

Now, has the spelling changed at all? My root word, strength, has it changed once the suffix is added? No, the spelling of the root word doesn't change for both length or strength.

What have we discovered so far? We know that E-N is a suffix, a group of letters at the end of a word that change its meaning.

And we know that E-N means what? To become, fantastic.

Generally for the suffix E-N, the spelling of the root word doesn't actually change.

It's time to look at our next suffix, -ate.

What do these two words mean? And what do they have in common? Pause the video here to think about these questions carefully.

Active.

This, in fact, is not an noun.

What word class is it instead? It's an adjective because it describes something being ready to engage.

For example, I might describe my class as very active children, or if my phone's receiving lots of messages, my phone is active.

But how about the other word, formula? What word class is this? It was a noun.

A formula is a method or procedure.

For example, I might follow a formula so that I make the correct science experiment or the right type of mixture for my science experiment.

Now let's look at how the suffix -ate is added to these words.

The suffix -ate has the same meaning as E-N, to become.

So if I've got my adjective active and my suffix -ate is added onto the end, what will my word become? Can you tell me anything interesting about the spelling once this suffix is added? Have some thinking time and pause the video now.

I think you noticed it.

It's the E in active at the end, we must remove it.

This is very similar to many suffix rules.

Here we go.

Instead of just adding the -ate, we must remove the E.

But does this always happen? Let's look at another word to see Formula.

What will happen to the root word here? Have a minute to think.

The same pattern happens.

Although it's not an E, this has an A at the end of the word, How is an E and an A similar? That's right, they're both vowels.

I must remove the A before I add my A-T-E.

So my rule is, the vowel must be removed before you add the suffix, A-T-E.

Tell me, what is the meaning of both these suffixes? To become, good.

Now what's the spelling rule for most of the spellings ending in A-T-E? Remember that, it's usually an E vowel we must remove.

I'm going to show you two words, and I want you to match the correct suffix, either E-N or -ate to the correct root word.

Time to pause the video and decide.

Captive, we must remember to remove that E.

And what's the suffix we add on to captive? That's right, captivate.

To captivate means to really grab someone's attention.

How about soft? Soften.

Soften is a verb to make something less hard.

Did you notice the spelling rule for adding E-N to this word? Well it doesn't change at all.

Time to review those key words.

I want you to read the sentence with me and decide which of the key words should go in the correct place.

Pause the video now and decide which key word is appropriate.

Okay.

A suffix is a group of letters that we can add to the end of a root word time for our third suffix, -ise.

What do these have in common? And what they actually mean? Remember the word class.

Pause the video and decide.

Energy is a person or thing's level of power.

Memory.

Memory is a mind, your mind's store of information, what I can remember.

So what word class are both these words? Abstract nouns, good.

We're going to add the suffix -ise onto the end, ise also means to become.

So let's have a go with the word energy.

Have you noticed something interesting about our spelling of energy? It follows a suffix spelling rule that's very common.

Energy becomes energise.

Repeat.

Energise.

The root word has a Y at the end, this means we need to remove the Y and add the suffix, just like we do with the vowels E and A earlier.

So what have we discovered so far? We now have three suffixes that all mean to become.

Show me what you've learnt about these suffixes today, with our first word, my turn, your turn.

Loose.

Loose is an adjective that means something that doesn't fit very well.

So this is an adjective that, when one of these suffixes is added onto the end, becomes a verb.

Pause the video here and think about which one is appropriate.

Loose becomes loosen, the verb to make something fit a bit less well, less tight.

Good work, did you spot the spelling rule for this? Point at the letter that was removed.

The E was removed and the suffix E-N added on at the end.

Remember if the root word ends in a vowel, then remove the vowel and add the suffix.

Time for our last suffix, -ify.

What do these two words have in common? And what do they mean? Remember the word class is important.

Pause and have a go.

Simple means plain and easy to understand.

I like it when someone explains something to me in a simple way, because then I can follow those instructions without confusion.

Beauty means qualities that are pleasing or look good.

Both these words are the same word class.

Can you tell me what that is? Nouns, that's right they're nouns.

In fact they're abstract nouns Extra great if you manage to get that too.

Time to add the suffix, to see what happens to these words.

Ify is the odd one out.

It has a very similar meaning to our other three suffixes, it's just slightly different, ify means to make.

So let's look at an example.

So let's look at simple.

Simple, plus -ify also turns into a verb, to simplify.

To simplify something means to break it down into small chunks or small steps in order to make something easier to follow.

Has anything happened to the spelling? Have you spotted the rule that's coming up quite often with these suffixes? Pause if you need more time.

That's right, you need to remove the E, before you add I-F-Y.

What have we discovered so far? Suffix is the group of at the end of the word that change its meaning.

which suffixes from today mean to become? Can you shout them, en, -ate -ise.

And which one means to make? Good job.

Now, this is the exciting part.

This is where we can really spot the patterns that we've been noticing today.

So please take your time and pause the video to see what the difference between the words in pink are and how they change when the suffix is added and the words in purple and how they change when we add the suffix.

Formula and memory are nouns and soft and pure are adjectives.

All these words change when a suffix is added, what class do they change to? Verbs.

So time for our spelling words.

I have 10 words here with all of the four suffixes included.

Now I want your pen and paper ready, because you're going to write these down one at a time as we go through them.

Remember that if at any time when you're writing these spelling words down, you feel like you don't have enough time to check them or write them down properly, please pause the video and then continue when you're ready.

Number one, accommodate.

Accommodate is a verb that means to welcome somebody.

Can you spot the double consonants in this word? There are two sets of them.

Can you point at the double C and the double M? It's really important we remember these 'cause they are the trickiest part of the root word.

And then remember when we're adding our suffix -ate, it goes on to the end of the word.

Number two, communicate.

Have you spotted a pattern similar to accommodate? Communicate has a double consonant too.

Can you point at it? Double M, make sure you write two Ms down when you're copying down this word.

Number three, exaggerate.

To exaggerate is a verb that means to either make something sound more better, or not as good as it is.

For example, I might exaggerate how lovely and sunny it is outside to try and make me feel great about English weather.

What have you spotted about this word as you've written it down? There's another double consonant.

This time it's a double what? Double G.

Number four, thicken.

To thicken means to make something wider, or if we're talking about a consistency of something like cream, it means to make it thicker, like whisking up cream.

The trickiest part about this word is the K sound.

Remember that it's made by two letters, C and K together.

Number five, straighten.

Straighten can be tricky because of the vowel sound in the middle.

Can you spot, what's tricky about the this vowel sound? It's the G and the H.

Please remember this when you're writing it down.

Number six, the root word for this is glory.

Can you say what the word with the suffix is? Glorify, to glorify means to worship or really, really think highly of something.

Number seven, purify.

Purify comes from the root word pure.

When something is simple, or if we're talking about a substance, something that's not contaminated, so it's not dirty, it's pure.

We often talk about pure water.

You can purify water so that you can drink it safely.

Number eight, specify.

Specify has an interesting spelling.

I want you to look carefully at the C in this word, although it's a C, it actually sounds like an S, specify.

Number nine, agonise.

Agonise is a verb to describe something that is actually not very pleasant and maybe bringing you some pain.

For example, I hope you're not going to agonise over these spelling words.

Have a look at the spending carefully.

It's quite simple, but the root word was agony.

Remember, we must remove that Y before we add I-S-E.

Finally, number 10, sympathise.

To sympathise means to feel sorry for someone.

I might sympathise with a little baby, that's making lots of noise and crying.

This has an interesting spelling, because the Y sounds like an I, but we must remember, it's a Y in sympathise.

Please pause here if you haven't finished your list and pause to check through every single spelling to make sure you've got it written down correctly.

This week's spelling list has four words that are a bit different to the others.

My challenge for you, before our next spelling lesson, is to decide why these words in bold are slightly different to the others.

What have we discovered during this lesson? There have been four suffixes, but what is a suffix? A group of letters at the end of a word that change its meaning.

There are three suffixes that mean to become, can you tell me what they are? en, -ate -ise.

And what's the final one that means to make? Great.

Before we go, let's remind ourselves what's happened to our word class when we add these suffixes.

In pink, these words are adjectives and purple are nouns.

Both these word classes are changed when a suffix is added to the root word.

Can you tell me what word class they become? Verbs, a doing or a being word.

You've done fantastically today.

Look at what you've achieved.

I hope I see you in the next spelling lesson and remember to practise all 10 words before the next video.