Children should be taught to think in terms of base words and suffixes whenever appropriate. Suffixes are easily learned and many base words will already be familiar from Phases Two to Five.

-s, -es - cats, stops, parks, catches, dishes, marries, bunnies
-ing to form continuous verbs - smiling, caring, rubbing
-ed to form past tense verbs - smiled, cared, rubbed
-er to form nouns - smiler, carer, rubber
-er to form adjectives - wiser, bigger, happier
-est to form adjectives - wisest, biggest, happiest

Teaching Suffixes

1. If a base word ends in an e which is part of a split digraph, drop the e if the suffix begins with a vowel (e.g. hope – hoping; like – liked: the e before the d is part of the suffix, not part of the base word). Keep the e if the suffix begins with a consonant (e.g. hope – hopeful; safe – safely).

2. If a base word ends in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i before all suffixes except those beginning with i (e.g. happy – happiness, happier; baby – babies; carry – carried). Keep the y if the suffix begins with i, not permissible in English (e.g. baby – babyish; carry – carrying), as ii is not permissible in English except in taxiing and skiing.

3. If a base word ends in a single consonant letter preceded by a single vowel letter and the suffix begins with a vowel, double the consonant letter. Another way of stating this guideline is that there need to be two consonant letters between a ‘short’ vowel (vowel sounds learned in Phase Two) and a suffix beginning with a vowel (e.g. hop – hopped, hopping; red – redder, reddest; run – running, runner).In all other cases, the suffix can simply be added without any change being made to the spelling of the base word. This means that for words in 1 and 3 above, the spelling of the base word does not change if a suffix beginning with a consonant is added (e.g. lame + ness = lameness; glad + ly = gladly). Similarly, no change occurs if the base word ends in any way other than those mentioned in 1, 2 and 3 above.

Lesson 199: Parts of speech

Revisit: /sh/ ch, ti, ci, ssi; /sh/ ch, ti, ci, ssi; /th voiced/, /th unvoiced/; /ng/ n(k)

Teach: Parts of speech are words that do different jobs in a sentence.

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the parts of speech: Fast girls run quickly.

Parts of speech

Lesson 200: nouns

Revisit: /ai/ ay, a-e, a, ey, ea, eigh aigh; /ee/ y, ey, ea, e-e, ie, e

Teach: Nouns name people, places or things

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the nouns: The boy ran home.

nouns

Lesson 201: verbs

Revisit:/igh/ ie, i-e, y, i, /oa/ oe, o-e, o, ow, ou

Teach: Verbs name an action. Every sentence must have one.

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the verbs: Children play in the park.

verbs

Lesson 202: adverbs

Revisit: /oo/ ue, ew, u-e, ou; /yoo/ ue, ew, u-e, u

Teach: Adverbs describe or change verbs

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the adverbs: The children played noisily.

adverbs

Lesson 203: adjectives

Revisit: /oi/ oy; /ow/ ou; /e/ e, ea; /i/ y

Teach: Adjectives describe nouns

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the adverbs: The clever girl ran home.

adjectives

Lesson 204: morphology

Revisit: /o/ a; /u/ o-e, ou; /oo/ u; /ar/ a, al;

Teach: Root words can help us with the meaning of words

Apply: Read/write the sentence then identify the roots: This car would benefit from having an automatic transmission.

roots

Lesson 205: plurals -s

Revisit: /or/ aw, au, ore, oar, oor, al, a, our, augh

Teach: Add -s or -es to a noun to mean there is more than one of something. Sometimes the noun changes (mouse-mice) or stays the same (fish-fish)

Apply: Read/write the sentence and identify the plurals: The drivers got very hot as they raced their cars around the track.

Adding suffixes: plurals

Lesson 206: -s or -es (leave)

Revisit: /ur/ ir, er, or, ear, ere; /air/ are, ear, ere; /ear/ eer, ere

Teach: When adding -s or -es leave the final letter of the base word in place

Add -s or -es to nouns to make plurals: chimney, donkey, goal, bunch

Apply: Read/write the sentence and identify the plural: The boy joined the group of excited boys playing in the park.

Lesson 207: -s or -es (change)

Revisit: /f/ f, ff, ph; /h/ h, wh; /j/ j, g, dge, ge

Teach: When adding -s or -es sometimes the noun changes (mouse-mice) or stays the same (fish-fish)

Add -s or -es leave the final letter of the base word: bunny, curry, puppy, hoof, knife

Apply: Read/write the sentence and identify the plural: The curious puppy joined the group of lively puppies in the garden.

Lesson 208: present tense

Revisit: /k/ k, c, ck, ch; /l/ l, ll, le, el, al, il;

Teach: The present tense of verbs talk about things happening now.

Apply: Rewrite the sentence in the present tense: Ben will play with Amy tomorrow. e.g. Ben plays with Amy today.

Lesson 209: -s/-es (leave)

Revisit: /m/ m, mm, mb, mn; /n/ n, nn, gn, kn

Teach: When adding -s or -es leave the base word when there is a long vowel before the final consonant

Add -s or -es to verbs to make present tense: join, play, print, crash, fizz

Apply: Rewrite the sentence in the present tense: Ben will meet Amy in the park tomorrow. e.g. Ben meets Amy in the park today.

Lesson 210: -s/-es (change)

Revisit: /r/ r, rr, wr; /s/ s, ss, c, se, ce, st, sc

Teach: When adding -s or -es to words that end in y - change the final y to an i: Add -s or -es to verbs to make present tense: cry, dry, worry

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the present tense verbs: A sudden crash startled the quiet night. Thunder crashes, echoing through the stormy darkness.

Book: Mango the Magician

Lesson 211: past tense

Revisit: /v/ v, ve; /w/ w, wh; /z/ z, zz, se, ze

Teach: The past tense of verbs talk about things happening now.

Apply: Rewrite the sentence in the past tense: Ben plays with Amy today. e.g. Ben played with Amy yesterday.

Lesson 212: -ed (leave)

Revisit: /ch/ ch, tch, t(ure); /sh/ sh, ch, ti, ci, ssi

Teach: When adding -ed leave the base word when there is a long vowel before the final consonant

Add -ed to verbs to make past tense: bang, boil, cook, destroy

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the past tense verbs: I asked Dad if he could cook pancakes for breakfast.

Dad cooked pancakes, and the delicious smell filled the air.

Lesson 213: -ed (drop)

Revisit: /ng/ ng, n(k); /zh/ su, si

Teach: When adding -ed to words that end with e drop the final e (suffix starts with a vowel)

Add -ed to verbs to make past tense: decide, hope, share

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the past tense verbs: With hope, Annie planted a tiny seed.

Every day, she watered it and hoped it would grow.

Lesson 214: -ed (double)

Revisit: /ai/ ay, a-e, a, ey, ea, eigh aigh; /ee/ y, ey, ea, e-e, ie, e

Teach: Double the final letter when adding -ed to these words

Add -ed to verbs to make past tense: jog, chat,

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the past tense verbs: I chat with my friends in class. We chatted about which songs we liked.

Lesson 215: -ed (change)

Revisit: /igh/ ie, i-e, y, i, /oa/ oe, o-e, o, ow, ou

Teach: When adding -ed to words that end in y - change the final y to an i

Add -ed to verbs to make past tense: fry, deny, pity

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the past tense verbs: I chat with my friends in class. We chatted about which songs we liked.

Lesson 216: present tense

Revisit: /oo/ ue, ew, u-e, ou; /yoo/ ue, ew, u-e, u

Teach: The present tense of verbs talk about things happening now.

Apply: Rewrite the sentence in the present tense: Ben played with Amy yesterday. e.g. Ben is playing with Amy right now.

Lesson 217: -ing (leave)

Revisit: /oi/ oy; /ow/ ou; /e/ e, ea; /i/ y

Teach: When adding -ing leave the base word when there is a long vowel before the final consonant

Add -ing to verbs to make present tense: bang, boil, cook, destroy

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the past tense verbs: I asked Dad if he could cook pancakes for breakfast.

Dad cooked pancakes, and the delicious smell filled the air.

Lesson 218: -ing (drop)

Revisit:/o/ a; /u/ o-e, ou; /oo/ u; /ar/ a, al;

Teach: Drop the final e when adding -ing to these words.

Add -ing to verbs to make present tense:

time, smile, rule

Apply: Read/write the sentences then identify the present tense verbs: Her smile brightened the cloudy day. Smiling, she made friends with a butterfly.

Lesson 219: -ing (double)

Revisit: /or/ aw, au, ore, oar, oor, al, a, our, augh

Teach: Double the final letter when adding -ing to words that end in a single consonant

Add -ing to verbs to make present tense: drop, skip, plot, nag

Apply: Read/write the sentences and identify the present tense verbs: The drop of rain danced on the windowpane.

Dropping down the window, it joined a playful puddle.

Lesson 220: -ing (no change!)