Year 2 spelling: apostrophes, contractions and suffixes

Apostrophes and suffixes, explained

A contraction is two words squashed into one, with an apostrophe marking the place where letters have been left out. “Do not” becomes “don’t”, with the apostrophe where the o is missing; “I am” becomes “I’m”; “it is” becomes “it’s”; “she will” becomes “she’ll”; “could not” becomes “couldn’t”. Year 2 children learn several of these, including “can’t”, “didn’t”, “hasn’t” and “I’ll”. “Won’t” is the odd one out: it stands for “will not”, but more changes than just the missing letters. The key idea is that the apostrophe goes exactly where the letters are missing.

The second use is the possessive apostrophe for a single owner. To show that the book belongs to the girl, we write “the girl’s book”; Tom’s hat belongs to Tom; the dog’s bowl belongs to the dog. A useful test is to turn it around: “the book of the girl”. In Year 2 children only meet this with one owner. They are told not to use an apostrophe for ordinary plurals: “two apples” has no apostrophe. Plural owners come later, in Years 3 and 4.

Suffixes are the second half of the topic. The endings -ment, -ness, -ful, -less and -ly start with a consonant, so they are usually added straight on to the root word without changing it: enjoy becomes enjoyment, sad becomes sadness, help becomes helpful, hope becomes hopeless, and slow becomes slowly. The suffix -ful means “full of” and has only one l, even though it sounds like the word “full”. The suffix -less means “without”. There are a few exceptions. If a root word of more than one syllable ends in a consonant followed by y, the y changes to i: happy becomes happiness and happily, and merry becomes merriment. And “argue” drops its e to make “argument”.

Children also apply the spelling rules and guidance in the national curriculum’s spelling appendix for Year 2. These cover how to add -ing, -ed, -er and -est, and -es to words: drop the e from “hope” to make “hoping”; double the last letter of “hop” to make “hopping” (a one-syllable word ending in a single consonant after a single vowel); change the y to i in “cry” to make “cried”, but keep the y in “crying”; and change the y to i before adding -es, so “baby” becomes “babies”. These aren’t learned as abstract rules alone. Children use their knowledge of suffixes from reading to help them spell, and the reverse also works.

Many teachers practise all of this with short dictated sentences and regular spelling practice in groups. Apostrophe mix-ups are common long after Year 2, so getting the two ideas secure now, missing letters and one owner, saves a lot of confusion later.

Words your child will hear

Contraction

Two words shortened into one, with an apostrophe where letters are missing, such as “don’t”.

Apostrophe

A small mark (’) used for missing letters or to show something belongs to someone.

Possessive apostrophe

An apostrophe followed by s showing that something belongs to one person or thing, as in “the cat’s bed”.

Root word

The main word before an ending is added. The root of “hopeless” is “hope”.

Suffix

An ending added to a root word, such as -ful, -less, -ly, -ment or -ness.

Singular

Just one person or thing, such as one girl or one dog.

Plural

More than one person or thing, such as two girls or two dogs.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 2, pupils should be taught to:

• Spell by learning to spell more words with contracted forms
• Spell by learning the possessive apostrophe (singular)
• Add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly
• Apply spelling rules and guidance, as listed in English appendix 1

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: fixing a sentence

Common mistakes and how to help

How to help at home

• Squash two words into one. Say pairs such as “do not”, “it is” and “I will”, and ask your child to write the short version, saying which letters are missing. Cross the missing letters out with a pencil first if it helps.
• Whose is it? Pick up things around the house and say whose they are. “Whose shoe is this?” “Dad’s shoe.” Write the answer with the apostrophe, then check there is just one owner.
• Build suffix words. Write root words on scraps of paper, such as help, hope, care and sad, and the endings ful, less, ness and ly on others. Combine them and talk about which are real words and what they mean.
• Write notes and labels. Ask your child to write real notes and labels, such as “Mum’s mug” or “We can’t find the key”. Real messages make the apostrophe feel purposeful.
• Spot them in the wild. Look for apostrophes in signs and books. Ask whether each shows missing letters or something belonging, and whether it is a single owner.

Related topics

Everything in Year 2 English