A word family is a group of words built from the same root word: help, helper, helpful, helping, unhelpful. Spotting the root helps children spell and understand new words.
What your child will learn
- Find the root word inside a longer word
- Group words that belong to the same family
- Spot words that look similar but aren’t related
- Use root words to work out the meaning of new words
Find the root
Peel off the prefixes and suffixes to find the root: dis-agree-ment has the root “agree”. Knowing the root often explains the meaning — a disagreement is when people don’t agree.
Some families come from other languages: “graph” means writing, so an autograph is your own writing; “phone” means sound, as in microphone and telephone.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. Which word is in the same family as “help”?
- helpful
- hello
- heap
- hill
Show answer
Answer: helpful. Helpful is built from help.
2. What is the root word of “unhappy”?
- happ
- un
- hap
- happy
Show answer
Answer: happy. Take off un- to find the root: happy.
3. Which word is in the same family as “light”?
- night
- like
- lift
- lighthouse
Show answer
Answer: lighthouse. A lighthouse shines a light.
Tips for grown-ups
- Pick a root word and see how many family members you can list together.
- When you meet a long word, hunt for a smaller word hiding inside.