Giving Meaning to Roots

Worksheet Description

This worksheet is centered on the concept of forming new words by adding the suffix “-less” to a set of given root words. The task for the students is to transform each root word listed under the column “ROOT WORD” into an adjective that indicates the absence of the item or quality associated with that root word. For example, students are expected to add “-less” to “heart” to form a word that means “without heart.” The worksheet provides the meanings for these new words in the middle column and leaves space in the right column for students to write the corresponding “-less” word.

The educational focus of this worksheet is to teach students how to use the suffix “-less” to create adjectives that express the lack or absence of something. It helps students understand the morphological process of changing nouns and verbs into adjectives with a specific meaning. This activity also serves to enrich students’ vocabulary by familiarizing them with adjectives that are not always commonly used. By completing the worksheet, students learn to think about words in terms of their components and how these components can be manipulated to form new words with related but distinct meanings.