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Word Families

Change the root word so that it fits the gap

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Topic: South Africa – freedom, people and nature. You already know this task from Year 9. This year you revise the word families from Year 9 and learn many new ones – with help cards that show you what a prefix or a suffix does to a word.

What do you have to do?

You get a sentence with a gap and a ROOT WORD in capital letters. Change the root word so that it fits into the gap – often it becomes a different word class.

  1. Read the whole sentence. What does it mean?
  2. Look at the words before and after the gap. Which word class do you need?
  3. Change the root word with a suffix (-tion, -ness, -ful, -ly …) or a prefix (un-, im-, ir- …).
  4. Check again: plural (-s)? past tense (-ed)? negative meaning? spelling?

Example · ROOT WORD: FREE

Nelson Mandela fought for the ________ of all South Africans.

➜ the + ___ + of → I need a noun → free + -dom

✅ Nelson Mandela fought for the freedom of all South Africans.

🔎 Word class detectives

Nounafter a, an, the, my, his, a good …-tion, -ment, -ness, -ity, -dom, -er
Verbafter I, you, they …, to, can / willpast: -ed · en-, -ise
Adjectiveafter is, was, very, feel, look or before a noun-ful, -less, -ous, -al, -able, -ive
Adverbtells us how something happens-ly

Look back at Year 9: Word Families (surf lifesavers) and Tricky Words (people / peoples, sheep, news, advice …).

Help table · What do prefixes and suffixes do?

The colour shows what the new word becomes. Read the table from left to right: ending → new word class → examples → watch out!

🇩🇪 Kurz auf Deutsch

Ein Suffix (Nachsilbe) steht am Ende des Wortes und ändert meistens die Wortart: explain → explanation (Verb → Nomen), power → powerful (Nomen → Adjektiv), peaceful → peacefully (Adjektiv → Adverb). Ein Präfix (Vorsilbe) steht am Anfang und ändert die Bedeutung, aber nicht die Wortart: possible → impossible (beides Adjektive). Achte auf die Rechtschreibung: Oft fällt ein -e weg (explore → exploration) oder aus -y wird -i (happy → happiness).

Word family trainer – one family at a time

You see one word family and the word class of every word. Think of the word first (say it or write it down) – then tap Show. Stuck? Tap 💡 Help and you see the root word and a gap for every new letter. Then go on to the next family.

All word families at a glance (table)

Task 1 · Which word class is it?

Warm-up: drag every word into the right box. Look at the ending!

Correct: 0 / 0

Task 2 · Make the opposite: un-, in-, im-, il-, ir- or dis-?

Which prefix makes the opposite of the word? Tip: look at the first letter (m/p → im-, l → il-, r → ir-).

Correct: 0 / 0

Task 3 · Revision: our class trip to Cape Town

The word families from Year 9 (help, suggest, secret, explain, illegal, employ, explore, immediate, recover, warn, nerve). Fill in the correct form (one word). Stuck? Click 💡 Hint.

Task 4 · New words: Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom

New word families: equal, free, courage, govern, power, peace, elect, believe, possible, success, depend, educate, similar.

Task 5 · Exam training: saving the rhinos

Old and new words mixed – just like in the exam. Try it without hints first!