Read Words with Inflectional Endings

Have you ever noticed that words can change? The word jump can become jumps or jumped or jumping. Those little letters at the end are called inflectional endings. People have been adding endings to words for a very, very long time! Let's look at how this idea grew.

So here is the big question: How do we read these new words when they have endings added on? That is what this lesson will teach you!

There are a few important things to know before we start. Every word with an ending has two parts: a base word and an ending. The base word is the word you already know. The ending is the new part that gets stuck on. Let's learn the main ideas!

Let's look at a picture that shows how one base word can turn into many new words. We will start with the word play and see all the words it can become.

Look at the picture above! The word play sits in the middle. Lines go out to four new words. Each new word has a colored ending. The ending -s means more than one or someone does it. The ending -ed means it already happened. The ending -ing means it is happening right now. The ending -er means a person who does it. One little word became four new words!

Here is a trick you can use every time you see a word with an ending. Follow these steps, and you will be a reading star!

Step 1: Look at the word. Do you see an ending like -s, -ed, or -ing at the end?

Step 2: Cover up the ending with your finger. What word do you see? That is the base word. Read it out loud.

Step 3: Now uncover the ending. Say the base word and the ending together. You just read the whole word!

Step 4: Think about what the ending tells you. Does -ed mean it happened before? Does -ing mean it is happening now?

This picture shows the three steps. First you see the whole word. Then you cover the ending with your finger so you can read the base word. Then you put it all together and say the whole word. You can do this with any word that has an ending!

Let's look at each ending one at a time. We will learn what it means and see words that use it. This is your guide to all the inflectional endings!

Some endings add just one letter, like -s. Others add two or three letters, like -ing or -est. But the trick is always the same: find the base word first, then add the ending!

Let's read the word fishing step by step. Follow along!

Great job! 🎉 You just read a word with an inflectional ending!

Most of the time, you just add the ending right onto the base word. But sometimes the base word changes a little. Here are some things to watch for.

Don't worry if these tricky parts seem hard. The most important thing is to always look for the base word first. If you know the base word, you can figure out the rest!

Once you get really good at reading endings like -s, -ed, and -ing, you will be ready to learn even more word parts! In second grade and beyond, you will learn about prefixes (parts added to the front of words) and suffixes (parts added to the end). You already know some suffixes — inflectional endings are a type of suffix!

Learning inflectional endings is the first step on a big adventure. Every time you learn a new ending, you can read more and more words. Keep going — you are doing great!

Now it is your turn! Try these five problems. Click "Show Answer" when you are ready to check.