Powerful, thinker, unhappy: suffixes and prefixes
Read the text about a geographer and writer on page 46 of your book, and then our own text about a children’s writer. To build words, take a root word and add letters. A suffix goes at the end: help + ful = helpful; art + ist = artist; pay + ment = payment; sing + er = singer. A prefix goes at the start: happy becomes unhappy; responsible becomes irresponsible; like becomes dislike; correct becomes incorrect. Prefixes often give the opposite meaning, so un-, dis-, in- and ir- mean not. Always check in a dictionary, because not every prefix goes with every word.
| Root | Add | New word |
|---|---|---|
| help | -ful | helpful |
| art | -ist | artist |
| pay | -ment | payment |
| sing | -er | singer |
| happy | un- | unhappy |
| responsible | ir- | irresponsible |
| like | dis- | dislike |
| correct | in- | incorrect |
Salwa Ragab is a writer of children’s books. As a young girl, she was a curious reader, and she asked her teacher many questions. She became a helpful tutor and then a careful writer. Her stories are playful and her characters are kind. Her biggest achievement is a book about a friendly camel. Many readers think she is very talented.
Word builder. Write twelve root words on small cards (care, help, art, pay, happy, kind, like, correct, use, move, sing, teach). On other cards write the endings and beginnings. Join cards to make real words. Check each in a dictionary.