📘 The padlock is already a word

What you’ll learn

1. The middle of the word staysSee that a prefix sits in front and a suffix sits behind a root you can already read, and that Year 1's un– does not change the root's letters.Lock is still inside unlock. A prefix is a hat. A suffix is a tail. Year 2 says teach the whole suffix as a chunk and build on the root you already know.
2. The hat that flips the meaningRead un– as not or the reverse, re– as again or back, and meet dis– and mis– as Year 3 cousins that also lean toward not or wrongly.Happy stays inside unhappy. Return wears re– for back. Dis– and mis– join the not/wrong family. Most prefixes sit down without changing the root.
3. The tail that fills or emptiesRead –ful as full of and –less as without on an unchanged root, using Year 2's consonant-start rule.Careful is full of care. Leafless is without leaves. Playful sits on play with no letter change. Cover the tail and the root is still there.
4. A new kind of word from an old oneSee that –ment, –ness and –ly can change the job of a word, and apply Appendix 1's y-to-i change in happiness.Enjoyment names the picnic. Slowly is how the snail moves. Happiness swaps y for i because happy has two beats and a consonant before y. Kindness is a noun you can watch.
5. How to crack a longer wordUse four moves to read a word with a hat or a tail, see why unkindness puts the hat on first, and meet sub–, super– and auto– as Year 3 and 4 hats.Cover, read the root, name the job, say the whole word. Un– sits on kind before –ness can name unkindness. Submarine is under. Tonight hunt one hat or tail in a book.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Department for Education (England), National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — Year 1 Writing: add prefixes and suffixes, including using the prefix un–. Year 2 Reading: read words containing common suffixes; pupils should be taught how to read suffixes by building on the root words that they have already learnt; the whole suffix should be taught as well as the letters that make it up; pupils should be encouraged to use morphology (such as prefixes) to work out unknown words. Year 2 Writing: add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly. Years 3 and 4 Reading: apply growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet. Years 3 and 4 Writing: use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
• Department for Education (England), English Appendix 1: Spelling — Year 1, Adding the prefix –un: the prefix un– is added to the beginning of a word without any change to the spelling of the root word; samples unhappy, undo, unload, unfair, unlock. Year 2, The suffixes –ment, –ness, –ful, –less and –ly: if a suffix starts with a consonant letter, it is added straight on to most root words without any change to the last letter; samples enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness, badly; exceptions argument, and root words ending in –y with a consonant before it but only if the root has more than one syllable (merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily). Years 3 and 4, More prefixes: most prefixes are added without any changes in spelling; dis– and mis– have negative meanings (disappoint, disagree, disobey; misbehave, mislead, misspell); re– means again or back (redo, refresh, return, reappear, redecorate); sub– means under (submarine); super– means above (supermarket); auto– means self or own (autograph); in– means not and becomes il–, im–, ir– before l, m/p, r. The suffix –ly is added to an adjective to form an adverb, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7ccc06ed915d63cc65ce61/English_Appendix_1_-_Spelling.pdf
• Common Core State Standards Initiative, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.4.b — Use frequently occurring affixes as a clue to the meaning of a word. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.3.d — Decode words with common prefixes and suffixes. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.4.b — Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known prefix is added to a known word (e.g., happy/unhappy, tell/retell). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.4.c — Use a known root word as a clue to the meaning of an unknown word with the same root. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.3.3.a — Identify and know the meaning of the most common prefixes and derivational suffixes. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.4.b — Determine the meaning of the new word formed when a known affix is added to a known word (e.g., agreeable/disagreeable, comfortable/uncomfortable, care/careless, heat/preheat), https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/2/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/2/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/3/ and https://www.thecorestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/L/3/
• Anderson, Bjorkman, Denis, Doner, Grant, Sanders and Taniguchi, Essentials of Linguistics, 2nd edition, §5.6 Derivational morphology — LibreTexts. Prefixes in English never change the category of the base they attach to, but they express clear meanings such as negation and repetition: un– on a verb (undo) or an adjective (unhappy); re– on a verb (redo). Suffixes can change category: –ment takes a verb and creates a noun; –ness takes an adjective and creates a noun; –ly attaches to adjectives. Order of affixation: in unkindness, un– must attach to the adjective kind first, because un– cannot attach to nouns and –ness creates a noun; the hat goes on before the tail, https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Linguistics/Essentials_of_Linguistics_2e_(Anderson_et_al.)/05%3A_Morphology/5.06%3A_Derivational_morphology

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