top of page

The Suffix -NESS: A FREE Morphology Lesson

Mar 19

2 min read

0

353

0

Morphology is a powerful tool for teaching older students both decoding longer words and understanding new vocabulary words. We use the suffix -ness to change the meaning of a word. Adding the suffix -ness to a base word changes an adjective into a noun. For example, sad becomes sadness. Less commonly, you can also turn a verb into a noun. For example, forgive becomes forgiveness.



suffix ness example of sadness


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


  1. for most words, simply add -ness to the end of the word

  2. if a word ends in consonant + y, drop the y and add -iness


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.


writing complete sentences


Teaching the Suffix -NESS

To teach your students about the suffix -ness, 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.


  1. You display a base word from the presentation.

  2. Students write the word with the -ness suffix in their writing notebooks or on a whiteboard.

  3. You display the words with the -ness suffix from the presentation (the next slide).

  4. Students check their spelling.

  5. 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 one week. 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.


suffix ness word list


More Morphology Practice

Do you love this lesson? You can access all of the morphology lessons for FREE on this website! You can also purchase the presentations!


Base Words

The Suffixes -S and -ES

The Suffix -ING

The Suffix -ER for Comparative Adjectives

The Suffix -EST for Superlative Adjectives

The Suffix -ER for Someone Who

The Suffix -ED for Past Tense Verbs

The Prefix UN- MEANING OPPOSITE OR NOT

The Prefix RE- MEANING AGAIN

The Prefix DIS- 

THE Suffixes -ER and -OR MEANING A PERSON WHO

The Prefix IN- Meaning Not

The Suffix -FUL Meaning Full Of

The Suffix -LESS Meaning Without

The Suffix -Y Meaning What Something is Like

The Suffix -LY Meaning How an Action is Done

The Prefix UNDER

The Prefix OVER

The Prefix NON

The Prefix PRE

The Prefixes BI/DI

The Prefix TRI

The Prefix QUAD

The Prefix OCT

THE SUFFIX ION

THE SUFFIX NESS

The Prefix SEMI

The Prefix SUPER

The Prefix MULTI

The Prefix POLY

The Prefix TELE

The Prefix MID

The Prefix MIS

The Prefix INTER

The Prefix DECA/DECI

The Prefix KILO

The Prefix SUB

The Prefix MILLI/MILLE





the suffix ness

#morphology #ness

Mar 19

2 min read

0

353

0

Comments

Share Your ThoughtsBe the first to write a comment.
bottom of page