Inflectional Endings Overview
Inflectional Endings
An inflectional ending is a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning. They have spelling and pronunciation rules that are very helpful for a developing reader to learn. To learn these rules, we teach students to pay attention to the last letters of the base word.
Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphemes
Inflectional endings are often confused with derivational morphemes; although they are similar to one another, they are unique in their purpose within English.
Inflectional
An inflectional morpheme/ ending is added to a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb for the purpose of assigning a particular grammatical property to the word in question. Inflectional endings assign tense (past tense “-ed”/ preset tense “-ing”), number (plural “-s”), possession (“-‘s”), or comparison (“-er/ -est”).
– Inflectional endings do not change the base meaning or grammatical category of the word.
– All inflectional morphemes are at the end of a word (hence ‘inflectional endings’)
– There can only be one inflectional morpheme per word
Derivational
Derivational morphemes tend to alter the grammatical category of the word.
– Derivational morphemes change verbs to nouns, nouns to adjectives, nouns to verbs etc.
– There can be multiple derivational morphemes per word (prefixes and suffixes)
Types and Purposes of Inflectional Endings
‘-ED’ Endings
To make most verbs past tense, we add the ending ‘-ed.’
It is important for reading students to know that this syllable does not often sound the way it looks. Rather than saying /ed/, the ‘ed’ ending makes the sound /t/ as in “walked,” /d/ as in “saved,” and /id/ as in “lifted.” Our language also has several irregular verbs, which do not change to past tense by merely adding an ending; they change to a different word altogether. For example, the word “run” doesn’t become
In general, just add ‘ed,’
walk to walked
If the base word ends in ‘e,’ add only ‘d’
save to saved
If the vowel says its sound and there is a single consonant after, double the consonant
hop to hopped (compare to hoped)
If the base word ends in vowel+’y,’ add ‘ed’
play to played
If the base word ends in consonant+’y,’ change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘ed’
cry to cried
‘-ING’ Endings
To make a word present tense, we add the ending ‘ing.’
In general, just add ‘ing’
walk to walking
If the base word ends in ‘e,’ remove ‘e’ and add ‘ing’
save to saving
If the vowel says its sound and there is a single consonant after, double the consonant
hop to hopping (compare to hoping)
If the base word ends in vowel+’y,’ simply add ‘ing’
play to playing
If the base word ends in consonant+’y,’ simply add ‘ing’
cry to crying
‘-S/ES’ Endings
To make a word plural, we add ‘s’ to the end. Certain words require the ending ‘es’ instead.
In general, simply add ‘s’
walk to walks
If the base word ends in ‘e,’ add ‘s’
save to saves
If the vowel says its sound and there is a single consonant after, add ‘s’
hop to hops
If the base word ends in vowel+’y,’ add ‘s’
play to plays
If the base word ends in consonant+’y,’ change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’
cry to cries
If the base word ends in S, Z, X, SH, or CH, add ‘es.’ This adds a syllable and is pronounced /iz/.
misses, fizzes, foxes, brushes, lunches.
‘-ER’ and ‘-EST’ Endings
To compare two things, we use the ending ‘er.’ To compare three or more things, we use ‘est.’
In general, just add ‘er’ or ‘est’
tall to taller, tallest
If the base word ends in ‘e,’ remove the ‘e’ and add ‘er’ or ‘est’
nice to nicer, nicest
If the vowel says its sound and there is a single consonant after, double the consonant
thin to thinner, thinnest
If the word ends in vowel+’y,’ simply add ‘er’ or ‘est’
gray to grayer, grayest
If the word ends in consonant+’y,’ change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘er’ or ‘est’
silly to sillier, silliest
