The Suffix -FUL: A FREE Morphology Lesson
- Cate O'Donnell
- Mar 1, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 28, 2024
Morphology is a powerful tool for teaching older students both decoding longer words and understanding new vocabulary words. We use the suffix -ful to change the meaning of a word. Adding the suffix -ful to a base word changes a noun, verb, or adjective into an adjective. The suffix -ful means full of. For example, joy becomes joyful.
Adding a suffix to a word may change the spelling of the word. Here are the rules for spelling words with the suffix -ful.
most words, add -ful to the end of the word
if the word ends in y, drop the y and add -iful to the end of the word
It is helpful for students to know the parts of speech as they work on morphology. If your students need to work on parts of speech, I highly recommend this writing program. It teaches writing complete sentences based on parts of speech. If you need to, you can even use these two programs at the same time.
Teaching the Suffix -FUL
To teach your students about the suffix -ful, display the presentation below. You can access the presentation from this website for free. You can also purchase the slideshow for use at school.
Since suffixes can change both the spelling and meaning of words, I recommend focusing on the meaning of the words by having students write or say sentences.
You display a base word from the presentation.
Students write the word with the -ful suffix in their writing notebooks or on a whiteboard.
You display the words with the -ful suffix from the presentation (the next slide).
Students check their spelling.
Students say or write a sentence using the base word. Then, say or write a different sentence using the word with the prefix.
This is a spiral review lesson. On day one, your students will learn how to add the suffix -ful. On day two, your students will learn how to add the suffix -ful to words that end in a y. The rest of the week is review practice. You also get 25 mixed review practice slides to use later in the year.
Check out this list of words with the suffix. You can use this list to build your own activities for your classroom. You can also get a printable .pdf.
Do you love this lesson? You can access all of the morphology lessons for FREE on this website! You can also purchase the presentations!
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