KS2 English: Suffixes - part 4 of 4

Letter Character:
Learning the rules for adding suffixes can help you become better spellers. The good news is that the rules we use for adding the suffix –ation mostly work for the vowel suffix –ous as well.

So let’s run through the ‘Rules for adding the vowel suffix-ous.’

So when the root word ends in two consonants …

… you know Rule 1 tells us to just add the suffix.

And if you know rule 2 then you’ll know that when the root word ends in a consonant followed by an e…

… then e must be removed before the suffix is added.

And with Rule 3 in your head you’ll always know that when the root word ends in a consonant followed by a y …

… you must change the y to an i before adding the suffix.

However with –ous there are a couple of exceptions to the rules.

Exception 1 - is that if your root word ends in o,u,r; words like humour and odour; if they end like that …

… you must change that o, u, r, ending to o, r before you add the -ous suffix.

Exception 2 is that when adding –ous to root words like courage and advantage which end in the letters ge …

… you ignore the rule to remove the e when the ‘g’ keeps its ‘j’ sound.

And that’s the rules and exceptions for –ous! However, words that end in -ous are often tricky to spell because they don’t have clear root words. So it’s worth knowing that the /i/ sound you often hear before the suffix –ous, is occasionally spelt with an unexpected ‘e’. This happens in words like hideous which sounds like it should be spelt with an i but is actually spelt with an e. The same is true of courteous, simultaneous and spontaneous.

On the other hand: curious, oblivious, obvious and tedious …

…are all spelt just as they sound, with an i.

LC:
With words you don’t know the temptation is to spell out what you hear so keep your wits about you …

…and when in doubt - check it out!