Year 2 spelling: -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly and -tion

Suffixes -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, -ly, explained

A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a root word to make a new word. In this topic, five suffixes are taught together. Adding -ment turns a verb into a noun, so enjoy becomes enjoyment. Adding -ness turns an adjective into a noun, so sad becomes sadness. Adding -ful means full of, so care becomes careful, and adding -less means without, so hope becomes hopeless. Adding -ly usually turns an adjective into an adverb, so bad becomes badly. Talking about what each ending does to the meaning helps children remember the spelling.

Endings such as -ing and -er start with a vowel, and, as your child is also learning in Year 2, the root word often changes when they are added (hike becomes hiking). These five are different, because they all start with a consonant letter. The main rule is that the ending is added straight on, and the root word keeps every one of its letters. So hope + less is hopeless, with the e still in place. The word thin + ness is thinness, with the n of the root and the n of the suffix side by side, and sad + ly is sadly. Children who have just learned to drop the e before -ing find this a surprise, so it is worth saying clearly.

There are two exceptions to know about. The first is a root that has more than one syllable and ends in a consonant followed by y, such as happy, funny or lucky. The y changes to i before the ending, which gives happiness, happily and luckily. A root with only one syllable, such as shy, keeps its y: shyness, shyly. The second is argument, where the e of argue is dropped before -ment. The spelling of -ful is also a common trap: it has only one l, even though the word full has two. So the word is careful and not “carefull”.

The topic also covers words ending in -tion. This is the most common way to spell the “shun” sound at the end of a word, and it is found in station, fiction, motion, action and lotion. Children learn that the ending has the letters t-i-o-n, even though the sound doesn’t suggest a t. The ending -tion is learned by sight and by saying the word out loud. There are other spellings for this sound, such as -sion and -cian, which are taught in later years, so Year 2 children only need to learn -tion.

Words your child will hear

Suffix

A group of letters added to the end of a root word to change its meaning or job.

Root word

The word before a suffix is added. The root of careful is care.

Consonant

Any letter that is not a, e, i, o or u. The suffixes -ment, -ness, -ful, -less and -ly all start with one.

Noun

A naming word. Enjoyment and sadness are nouns.

Adjective

A describing word. Careful and hopeless are adjectives.

Adverb

A word that tells you more about a verb, often ending in -ly, such as badly or happily.

Syllable

A beat in a word. Happy has two syllables and shy has one.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 2, pupils should be taught to:

• Spell words with the suffixes –ment, –ness, –ful, –less and –ly
• Spell words ending in –tion

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

Try it: adding the suffix

Common mistakes and how to help

How to help at home

• Build a word. Write root words (care, hope, sad, enjoy) and suffixes (-ful, -less, -ness, -ment) on separate bits of paper. Your child joins them and reads the new word, then says what it means.
• Opposites game. Pair up -ful and -less words: careful and careless, helpful and helpless, hopeful and hopeless. Say a word and ask your child to give the opposite and spell it.
• How are you doing it? Ask your child to describe how someone is doing something using an -ly word: slowly, sadly, happily, badly, quietly. Take turns acting it out for the other to guess.
• -tion treasure hunt. Look for -tion words on signs, packets and in books: station, action, lotion, fiction. Write the ones you find on a list and add new ones each week.

Related topics

Everything in Year 2 English