Identifying Roots and Inflectional Forms Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: L.1.4.C

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

Whenever you build anything, you need to start with a foundation or base. When we are building words these foundations are called root words. Many root words can stand on their own as words. To change the grammatical nature of words we can add extra letters to create an inflection. By adding a few letters to the end of a word (inflection) results in the meaning or purpose of the word transforming to something else entirely. You will see this will often shift between singular and plural meanings. These worksheets will help students be able to breakdown roots and add inflectional forms.

Roots and Inflectional Forms Worksheets:

-ed Inflections – . -ed changes a word to past tense, something that has already happened. -ed can make different sounds at the end of a word.

Inflectional Forms – We add some more challenging words for this level.

Adding Inflectional Forms – Work with common words for this level.

-ed and -ing Inflectional Forms – These words are a bit advanced for the level.

Base and Root Words – Find the roots within words that have been inflected already.

Base and Root Words Worksheet 2 – Underline just the base/root word in each of the following examples.

-s and -es Suffixes – Cut apart the words below and place in the correct column for adding the suffix -s or -es.

-s and -es Suffixes Worksheet 2 – Chop up some more words for us here.

Inflectional Meanings – Fill in the blank with the correct word and inflectional meaning.

Inflectional Meanings Worksheet 2 – The vocabulary is more difficult here.

Working with Inflections – Add the appropriate endings to each word.

Appropriate Endings Worksheet – Add the appropriate endings to each word. These words require you to drop an e before adding the endings.

Appropriate Endings Worksheet 2 – More drop letters and add an inflection here.

Appropriate Endings Worksheet 3 – Add the appropriate endings to each word. Watch the spelling for the words, some will require a dropped letter, some will be doubled, and some will simply need the endings.

Where Are The Roots? Worksheet – Underline the root word for each given word.

What Are Word Roots and Inflectional Forms?

Whenever we see a word, we believe that it was made that way. That is not true. Every word has been through some sort of transformations. Their formation consists of borrowing a few words from other words or adding some letters at the end or the start. Suffixes and prefixes also play a huge role in forming words. Most words have suffixes and prefixes that totally change their meanings. Two important elements of the word formation are the root words and inflectional forms. Look into their details for more information.


Root Words

Before any sort of changes, a word remains in its true and pure form. It has one meaning and several words can be made out of that true and pure form. It is the most basic and raw part of the word. Such words have no prefixes or suffixes attached to them. They only have one definite meaning. These kinds of words are known as root words. They do not have any derivation. They were created this way. However, prefixes and suffixes can be attached to them to create new words with different meanings.


Here are some examples of the root words:
love (that can be turned into lovely by adding "ly")
use (that can be turned into reuse by adding "re" in the beginning)
port (that can be turned into report by adding "re" in the beginning)
view (that can be turned into preview by adding "pre" in the beginning)


Two root words can also combine together to form a different word. for example,
arm+chair - armchair
port+able - portable


Inflections

Inflection is an element of the word formation where you add one or more than one letters to a base word to add a grammatical meaning to it. The inflections are added to make words plural or comparative/superlative.


For example,
the words ending with y can be turned plural by replacing y with "ies"
party - parties
study- studies


What is the Purpose of Inflections?

I often like to describe inflections as a technique to use language camouflage. We often use this technique to either obscure or call out a frame of voice, mood, numbers, and in some cases gender. It is also important to remind ourselves that these language units are often applied to three specific parts of speech: adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Applying inflective parts will also result in tense changes for verbs, so I would suggest you cover tense changes right after this unit. When we are working with adjectives, they will often form a comparative form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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