Topic: Word structure

These resources cover the internal structure of words, including how words can be built up from smaller meaningful parts, and ways in which words can change their form in order to mark grammatical distinctions.

Hyponymy (Stein)

Lesson

Activity 1

Look at these three nouns.

What is the relationship between them? Can they be arranged into a logical order? 

  • Dog
  • Poodle
  • Animal

We can label nouns as general or specific. The specific noun is included in the general noun.

Morphology - an introduction

In this lesson, students explore word morphology. Morphology is an area of language study concerned with how words are formed. While syntax is about the larger structures formed when words are put together, morphology is about the structure within words.

Morphology - an introduction: Activity 1

Activity 1: Finding word parts

From the list below, pick out the words that are complex. Can you break them down into meaningful parts?

  1. bread
  2. sunshine
  3. fossil
  4. sleepwalker
  5. unhappy
  6. umbrella
  7. rebuild
  8. laughing

There are some further questions on the next slide.

Now look at the parts of the words that you have found. Which ones can be used on their own?

Morphology - an introduction: Activity 2

Activity 2: Same word or different words?

Would you say the following are different words or the same word?

  • hesitate, hesitates, hesitated, hesitating

It depends what we mean by ‘word’! In one everyday sense, they are all different words.

Morphology - an introduction: Activity 3

Activity 3: How many words?

Look at the sentence below and answer the following questions:

  1. How many different words, in the sense of dictionary words, are there?
  2. Which items can be grouped together as forms of the same word?
  • I think teasing tigers is unwise, because I teased a tiger once and barely escaped alive.

 

Noun endings

Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology

Prefixes in adjectives

In this lesson, students will look at some common prefixes that can be added to adjectives and see how they change meanings.

Goals

  • Identify some common prefixes in adjectives.
  • Describe the meanings contributed by common adjective prefixes.
  • Experiment with acceptable and unacceptable prefixes for particular adjectives.

Lesson Plan

The teacher explains that today, we will look at adjectives with distinctive prefixes.

Spelling - Changing 'y' to 'i'

Goals

To learn and practise the spelling rules associated with base words ending in 'y' when endings (suffixes) are added.

Lesson plan

The lesson is divided into a series of activities where students group words according to whether they keep the final 'y' of the base word when a suffix is added, or change 'y' to 'i'. For each set of examples, students are asked to identify and make predictions about the patterns for this area of spelling.

Introduction

Spelling - Consonant doubling 1

Goals

To learn and practise the spelling rules associated with base words ending in consonant letters when endings (suffixes) are added.

Lesson plan

The lesson is divided into a series of activities where students group words according to whether they double the final consonant letter when a suffix is added, or not. For each set of examples, students are asked to identify and make predictions about the patterns for this area of spelling.

Introduction

Spelling - Consonant doubling 2

Goals

To learn and practise the spelling rules associated with base words (of more than one syllable) ending in consonant letters when endings (suffixes) are added.

Spelling - Eliminating 'e'

Goals

To learn and practise the spelling rules associated with base words ending in 'e' when endings (suffixes) are added.

Lesson plan

The lesson is divided into a series of activities where students group words according to whether they drop or keep the final 'e' of the base word when a suffix is added. For each set of examples, students are asked to identify and make predictions about the patterns for this area of spelling.

Activity 1

Spelling - Eliminating 'e': Activity 4

Sort the examples into two groups

 

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