English · Prefixes & Suffixes
Word Morpher
Build the word unhappiness. Drag affixes onto the word - some will not stick.
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Why this works
Long words are rarely new words: they are small words wearing extra parts. "un-" flips the meaning to its opposite, and "-ness" turns a describing word into a naming word (an adjective into a noun). Split any unfamiliar word into root + affixes and you can usually work out what it means without ever having seen it before.
Helping a child through Word Morpher
Hints, least revealing first
- Prefixes clip onto the front. Which one turns a word into its opposite?
- Once you have unhappy, you can keep going - suffixes still fit on the end.
- When -ness joins a word ending in y, the y turns into an i: happy → happiness.
When they finish it: “unhappiness - built from three parts!”
2 11+ skills this exercise practises
Each of these has its own page, with a worked example on it.
- Apply a prefix or suffixForm a word by adding one prefix or suffix with the required spelling change.
- Form a derived wordForm one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation.
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