Matching root words, prefixes and suffixes

A Year 6 English worksheet created by a primary school teacher to help your child understand prefixes and suffixes, and practise matching root words.

What is a suffix in Year 6 English?

A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning or to form a new word. It's like a little tag you add to the end of a word to give it a new twist. For example:

• Adding -ful to joy makes joyful, which means full of joy.
• Adding -less to hope makes hopeless, which means without hope.

What is a prefix in Year 6 English?

A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. For example:

• Adding un- to happy makes unhappy, which means not happy.
• Adding re- to do makes redo, which means to do again.

What is a root word in Year 6 English?

A root word is the basic part of a word that carries the main meaning and can stand on its own or have prefixes and suffixes added to change its meaning. Think of it as the foundation of a word. For example:

• In the word helpful, the root word is help. 
• In the word replay, the root word is play. 

What is in this Year 6 English worksheet about suffixes and prefixes?

On the first page of this worksheet you’ll find twenty root words. They all make sense on their own, but they could all have either a prefix (a letter string that goes at the beginning of a word) or a suffix (a letter string that goes at the end of a word) added to them. On the second page you’ll find twenty prefixes and suffixes. You need to cut out all these cards and then work out which prefix or suffix goes with each root word. To make things harder, we are not telling you which are suffixes and which are prefixes! 

For more help with Year 6 English, check out our hub page, or try a new challenge such as our Year 6 English Challenge Pack.