Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

• before l, in- changes to il-: il‑ + legal = illegal

• before m, in- changes to im-: im‑ + modest = immodest

• before p, in- changes to im-: im‑ + patient = impatient

• before r, in- changes to ir-: ir‑ + rational = irrational

Other prefixes that are useful to know are:

Suffixes

A suffix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the end of a word to make a new word. Adding a suffix to a word changes a word’s meaning. When you write a suffix on its own, you put a hyphen in front of it, for example ‑ness. When you add the suffix to a word to make a new word, you do not keep the hyphen:

sad + ‑ness = sadness

There are spelling rules about adding suffixes to words. You can find these on pages 81 (#litres_trial_promo)–85 (#litres_trial_promo).

Two useful suffixes are ‑ful and ‑less. These are added to words to make adjectives. The suffix ‑ful means ‘full of’, while ‑less means ‘without’:

hope + ‑ful = hopeful (full of hope)

hope + ‑less = hopeless (without hope)

pain + ‑ful = painful (full of pain)

pain + ‑less = painless (without pain)

Here are some other suffixes that make adjectives:

There are some suffixes that mean ‘the state of’, ‘the condition of’ or ‘the quality of’. These make nouns:

Other suffixes that make nouns include:

Suffixes that make verbs include:

To make an adverb from an adjective you add the suffix ‑ly, which means ‘in this way’:

kind + ‑ly = kindly

proper + ‑ly = properly

real + ‑ly = really

week + ‑ly = weekly

Root words

A root word is a word which can stand alone and still make sense, for example read. You can add prefixes and suffixes to a root word in order to make new words:

read reads reading reader readable misread reread

Compound words

A compound word is one that is made from two or more root words. Lots of English words are made in this way.

girl + friend = girlfriend

soft + ware = software

after + shave = aftershave

Compound words can be written in different ways:

• as one word: bookcase wallpaper outrun skateboard

• as two words: post office fire engine eye shadow Roman Catholic

• with a hyphen: bone-dry one-way face-lift middle-of-the-road

Word families

A word family is a group of words that are related to each other because they come from the same root word.

sign signature signage signify significant signpost signal undersign design designate

solve solver solvent soluble solution dissolve resolve

Writing good English (#ulink_548cc62b-aceb-5a9a-abd3-03334b873199)

Once you know how sentences are made, you can start to put them together to make longer pieces of writing. A group of sentences together is called a paragraph.

Paragraphs

You start a paragraph on a new line. A paragraph contains one idea or one part of an argument. When you want to introduce another idea or another part of an argument, you start a new paragraph:

More British households have dogs than any other pets. A survey has found that 25% of homes in the UK have a dog. The labrador retriever remains the most popular dog, followed by the cocker spaniel and springer spaniel.

Cats are the next most popular pet in the country, being found in 19% of British homes. The favourite breed by far is the shorthair domesticated cat, although the Siamese, Burmese and Persian are all increasing in popularity.

If you are quoting direct speech, you start a new paragraph for each new speaker.

“Are you playing in the match after school today?” asked Nathan.

“No,” replied Simon. “I have to go to the dentist.”

If you are writing a story, each new event in the story should have its own paragraph. You do, however, need to link paragraphs to bring your writing together. This is called cohesion. If a piece of writing has cohesion then it all joins together smoothly.

Cohesion