Form a word by adding one prefix or suffix with the required spelling change.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Spin the reels until the three parts build the word in the definition, then pull the lever.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
What happens where the parts meet
Put "un" in front of "named" to make a word meaning given no name. Which spelling is correct?
Work one join through and see which part of the root has to change.
unnamed
un named
unamed
unnnamed
Answer: unnamed
How you get there
"un" and "named" join to make "unnamed". A prefix never changes the word it is added to, and it never changes itself: write both parts out in full and the spelling looks after itself. The version spelled "unamed" comes from losing one of the two letters where the parts meet.
Why the other answers tempt
The version with nothing changed at all looks the most honest, and it is wrong whenever the root has to give something up.
If they are stuck, say this
Write the prefix and then write the whole root. Neither part loses a letter, even when the same letter turns up twice at the join.
Spin the reels until the three parts build the word in the definition, then pull the lever.
Long words are built, not memorised. Take the root first, because it carries the meaning: appear is the picture of something coming into sight. Then read the prefix as an instruction to that root. un and dis both flip it, re sends it round again, mis says it went wrong. Finally the suffix sets the timing: ing for happening now, s for one person doing it, ment to turn it into a thing, and a blank to leave the plain verb. dis + appear + nothing gives disappear, the opposite of coming into sight. Build any unfamiliar word this way and you can usually work out what it means without being told.
What to say if they get stuck
Start with the root in the middle. Which of the four roots is closest to the meaning?
Now the prefix. Some flip a word to its opposite, some mean again, some mean badly.
The suffix reel has a blank on it. If the definition says "to ..." you usually want the blank.
Build the word unhappiness. Drag affixes onto the word - some will not stick.
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.
What to say if they get stuck
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.
How apply a prefix or suffix differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises one other skill, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: form a word by adding one prefix or suffix with the required spelling change, and it stops where one affix operation only.
Form one valid new word from a supplied base using the permitted letter operation. The operation is supplied; excludes compound joining, anagrams, and moving a letter between two words.
Questions parents ask about apply a prefix or suffix
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Form a word by adding one prefix or suffix with the required spelling change. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the spelling strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
The version with nothing changed at all looks the most honest, and it is wrong whenever the root has to give something up. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Write the prefix and then write the whole root. Neither part loses a letter, even when the same letter turns up twice at the join.
The skill map draws the line here: One affix operation only. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The spelling strand holds 3 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to apply a prefix or suffix are form a plural and resolve an irregular spelling. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Affix Slot Machine and Word Morpher, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to apply a prefix or suffix, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems
A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.
