The Suffix -ION: A FREE Morphology Lesson

Mar 18, 2024

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Morphology is a powerful tool for teaching older students both decoding longer words and understanding new vocabulary words. We use the suffix -ion to change the meaning of a word. Adding the suffix -ion to a base word changes a verb into a noun. There are several ways to spell the -ion suffix to make the /shun/ or /zhun/ sound at the end of the word.

Adding a suffix to a word may change the spelling of the word. Here are the rules for spelling words with the suffix -ion.

if a base word ends in -ss or a consonant + t, add -ion
if a base word ends in a t + silent e, drop the e and add -ion
if a base word ends in -ne, -ve, or re, drop the e and add -ation (there are also some base words that we just add -ation, such as information
sometimes we add -ition to base words, this is a less common pattern, and is based on word etymology
if a base word ends in -d or -de, drop the -e and add -sion
if a base word ends in -se (the /z/ sound), drop the -e and add -sion
if a base word ends in a short vowel + t, drop the -t and add -ssion
if a base word ends in a consonant + y, drop the -y and add -ication
there are also words that don’t follow one of these patterns

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 -ION

To teach your students about the suffix -ion, display the presentation below. You can access the presentation from this website for free. You can also purchase the slideshow for use at school.

Suffixes change both the spelling and meaning of words. I recommend following this routine to practice both spelling and meaning.

You display a base word from the presentation.
Students write the word with the -ion suffix in their writing notebooks or on a whiteboard.
You display the words with the -ion 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 suffix.

This lesson is designed to last two weeks. 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.