Morpheme Activity Pack
Morphemes are units of language carrying meaning, which cannot
be divided into smaller meaningful parts.
DSF Literacy Services have developed this kit containing
morphemes from Greek, Latin and Anglo Saxon origins, to help
students understand the origins of the English language, and how
words can be formed in a variety of ways from their parts,
through a fun and multi-sensory approach.
Morpheme Activity Pack
Contents
This Morpheme Activity Pack includes:
• 34 x Greek Morpheme Cards
• 34 x Latin Morpheme Cards
• 34 x Anglo Saxon Morpheme Cards
• 2 sets of 3 Joining Letter Cards (in black)
• 1 x Information Booklet
About the Morpheme Activity Pack
The Morpheme Activity Pack was developed by DSF Literacy Services with the intention
of it being used with students in upper primary and lower high school, who either
may be having trouble with literacy and spelling, or would like to advance their reading
and writing abilities.
Each morpheme card is colour-coded according to the language it originated from, and
on the reverse side, the morpheme is rewritten with information including its origin, the type
of morpheme it is (combining form, prefix, root, suffix) and a short definition.
Using this pack will help students to learn the meaning of parts of words. Improving
this understanding assists the development of word knowledge (especially for longer
words) and spelling.
The Morpheme Activity Pack is a fun way to cultivate an appreciation of language in
students. Some examples of activities using the Morpheme Activity Pack have been
included in this booklet, as well as lists of definitions and words possible to make using
the available morpheme cards.
We hope you enjoy using the Morpheme Activity Pack!
Definitions - Greek
Greek Morphemes Type of morpheme Basic Meaning
ana Combining form back, backward
Combining form against, opposed to , opposite,
anti reverse of, not, preventative
astro Combining form star
auto Combining form self
bio Combining form life
chron Combining form time
cosm (abbreviation of Combining form universe
cosmo)
cycl Combining form circle, wheel
gen Combining form born, produced, from growing
geo Combining form earth
gram Combining form something drawn or written
graph Combining form writing
hydro Combining form water
ic Combining form of, relating to
ite Combining form fossil
ism Combining form state of being
ist Combining form "an expert in"
kilo Combining form one thousand
logy Combining form study
matic Combining form derived from "matos" meaning "willing"
meter measure, unit of measure, device
Combining form for measuring
micro Combining form little, small
naut Combining form sailor
nom Combining form law
ortho Combining form correct, straight
path Combining form suffer
phil Combining form love of
phon Combining form sound
photo Combining form light
poly Combining form many
psych Combining form mind, self, spirit, soul
scop Combining form look at, examine
tele Combining form distant, far
therm Combining form heat
• ‘e’, ‘o’ and ‘y’ are terminal vowels of combining forms.
• ‘e’ and ‘o’ have no specific meaning
• ‘y’ is used to form nouns and adjectives - having the quality of, or
verbs - apt to, inclined to
Definitions - Latin
Latin Type of morpheme Basic Meaning
Morphemes
able Suffix capable or worthy of
al Suffix relating to
bi Prefix two
cede Root go, move, yield
centi Latin and Greek One hundred, or one hundredth
Prefix
con Prefix together, with
de Prefix away, off
dent Root tooth
dis Prefix apart, asunder, away
duct Root convey, lead
Suffix Latin meaning: "one who" or
er ""one who observes"
Anglo Saxon meaning: comparative
fer Suffix bear, carry
flect Root bend, curve
ible Suffix capable or worthy of
ile Suffix ability to, capable of, belonging to
in Prefix not
ion Suffix action or process
ive Suffix tending to, of the quality of
ject Root throw
mobile Root moving
im Prefix not
numer Root number
or Suffix "one who"
ped Latin Root
Greek Combining Form Latin Meaning: foot
Greek Meaning: child
port Root bear, carry
pre Prefix before
pro Prefix before, for, in favour of, on behalf of
re Prefix again
rupt Root break
script Root record, write, written
struct Root build
tract Root pull
ure Suffix act or result
vis Root see
Definitions - Anglo Saxon
Anglo Type of
Saxon morpheme Basic Meaning
Morphe all around, thoroughly, affect with,
be me Root cover with, cause to be
bear Root carry
bow Root to bend
cast Root to throw
come Root come, together
enclosed yard, sovereigns assembly, woo
court Root or pay homage
dom Root house
ed Suffix past tense verbs
end Root the opposite side, limit
fare Root go, food
farm Root cultivated land
fore Root beforehand, front
hand Root person who does something with his hands
head Root top of the body, chief person, leader, ruler
high Root of great height, lofty, tall, exalted
hold Root to keep, tend, watch over
hood Root covering, guard, protection
ing Root Meaning: verb form: action
Meaning: adjective form: belonging
ish Suffix to/somewhat
king Root leader of the people
knight Root boy, youth, servant
used to form nouns, especially
le Suffix appliances or instruments. Apt to, or
less Root without,
laible to. lacking
ly Suffix adverbial suffix, having the quality of.
rain Root moist, wet
self Root one's own person, same
some Root same, plural
un Prefix not
ward Root guard, protect
way Root road, path, course of travel
wel Root in a satisfactory manner
with Root against, back
yard Root enclosure, garden, court, house, yard
yond Root beyond, yonder
Brainstormed Words
(This is not a complete list – can you come up with more?)
Greek Origin
automobile telephonist destruct
anachromism destruction
immobile
analogy destructor
graphite nautical instruct
hydrograph antigen structure
hydrometer antipathy tractor
hydrophilic cycle traction
microgram cyclic distract
microscope cyclist protract
microscopy bicycle protractor
photometer bicyclist detract
photograph biogenic detractor
thermometer general intractable
thermograph biology traction
thermite biographical portable
chronometer biography dental
chronology autobiographical dentist
cosmology autobiography denture
cosmonaut geology indent
cosmic product
orthopedic Latin Origins production
orthography numeral conduct
phonology numerable conduction
phonic precede conductor
concede conductive
telephone
centipede deduct
astronaut
centimetre deductible
astronomic
centigram ductile
astronomical
conscript reflect
astrology
descript reflective
biography
description reflection
autonomic
descriptive reflector
automatic
prescriptive deflect
pathology
prescription deflective
psychopath
scripture deflectable
psychology
scripter deflection
polygenic
inscription deflector
polycyclic
construct conjecture
polygraph
construction conical
telescope
constructive reject
telescopic
constructible rejecter
telephone rejectable
deconstruct
telephonic deconstruction
telephony deconstructive
Latin Origins (cont.) Anglo Saxon Origins
inject knighthood wardless
injection knighted beyond
deject knighting yonder
knightly forecast
project
forebear forebear
projection
beared castle
projector bearing casting
projective bearable kingdom
pedal unbearable highway
biped welcome highly
bipedal comely farmyard
centipede become farmhand
portal courtyard foreyard
deport forecourt yarded
courted yarding
portable
courting ended
report courtly ending
porter handsome endless
reporter handhold welfare
portion forehand withhold
disrupt handed rainbow
disruption handing rained
disruptive handless raining
rupture unhand bowed
handle bowing
infer
kinghood bowless
defer
hooded being
prefer hooding bely
confer hoodless selfless
visible selfhood forehead
vision unhood headway
visor wayward behead
warded headed
reward beheaded
warding heading
headless
Activity 1: Latin Word Webs
Write a Latin root in the circle. Choose some prefixes that can be used with the Latin root
and write them on the top line. Then see how many words you can make when you add
different suffixes!
This activity is designed for use with morphemes from Latin origin.
Prefix: _________________
Prefix: _________________ _____________________ Prefix: _________________
_____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
Prefix: _________________ Prefix: _________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
_____________________ _____________________
Prefix: _________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________ Prefix Suffix
Remember: co s
Not all prefixes and suffixes fit _____________________
con ed
with each other or with your _____________________ de ing
Latin root. _____________________ dis al
You don’t have to have a prefix im ible
AND a suffix to make a word – in able
but a root can’t stand alone, so infra ive
you will need at least one prefix ob ly
OR suffix.
sub or
Sometimes, you can use more Choose your prefixes and super ion
than one prefix or suffix with suffixes from here, and pre ism
your Latin root. think of others if you can! pro ist
re ile
un ure
Latin Word Webs - Example
Prefix:
Prefix:
Prefix: ad-
ob- adjective de-
object deject
objects con- dejects
objected conjecture dejected
objecting dejection
objection dejecting
objector
objective
objectable Prefix:
objectionable
ject in-
inject
Prefix: injects
pro- injected
project injecting
projects injection
Prefix: injector
projected
injective
projecting re-
projection injectable
reject
projector rejects
projective rejected
projectile rejecting
rejection
rejecter
rejectable
Building Words with Greek Morphemes
Most Greek words are made up of a combination of morphemes (sometimes called Greek
combining forms) such as tele + phone (telephone) or kilo + gram (kilogram). To make the words
easier to say, a letter may be added in between the morphemes, for example therm + o + meter
(thermometer) and sometimes we drop an individual letter (such as a y or an e) at the end of a
morpheme when adding a new morpheme starting with a vowel, such as micro + scope
(microscope) becomes micro + scop + ic (microscopic) or logy becomes logic. We can build lots of
words using one Greek morpheme as our starting point.
Example
The Greek morpheme ‘graph’, which means “writing”, can be combined with other Greek
morphemes to make new words. A Greek morpheme can be at the beginning, the middle or the end
of a word. For example: graphic, geographic or photograph. Longer words can be formed by
adding more morphemes to the beginning or the end of a word – autobiography (auto + bio +
graph + y).
autograph
auto ic
telegraph
bio ite
photographic
graph =
geo y graphite
tele al graphic
photo geography
poly autobiography
If needed – add joining letters: o e
polygraph
Your turn! Try building some words using the Greek morpheme logy (which comes from ‘logia’,
meaning the study of a subject or area). Use your morpheme tiles and then
micro _________________
bio _________________
hydro _________________
ist
psych
_________________
logy ic = _________________
chron
al _________________
phon
_________________
path _________________
geo _________________
astro
If needed – add the Joining letter o - or drop the y if adding ic or ist
Activity 2: Syllables and Morphemes
Syllables are speech units of language usually consisting of a single uninterrupted
sound formed by a vowel, surrounded by one or more consonants. Syllables are
represented in written language as words or parts of words. Syllables do not necessarily
carry meaning.
Morphemes are meaningful linguistic units such as base words, prefixes, suffixes,
roots and combining forms that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts.
Using a selection of words from the example list in this booklet, have students
determine how many syllables and morphemes are in each word. The morphemes can
be determined by constructing the words with the morpheme cards and counted. The
syllables can be determined by listening to the “beats” in the word. Each syllable
contains a vowel sound, therefore the number of syllables in the word will correspond to
the number of vowel sounds the student can hear in the word.
Examples
Greek Syllables Morphemes
autograph 3 (au/to/graph) 2 (auto/graph)
biology 4 (bi/o/lo/gy) 2 (bio/logy)
Latin
construction 3 (con/struct/ion) 3 (con/struct/ion)
reflect 2 (re/flect) 2 (re/flect)
Anglo Saxon
handsome 2 (hand/some) 2 (hand/some)
beheaded 2 (be/head/ed) 2 (be/head/ed)
Activity 3: Finding Words in Context
Many Greek based words are used in Science and Mathematics t extbooks.
Common Greek combining forms used in Science are micro, scope, bio, graph, meter,
phon(o), photo, auto, tele, therm and hydro.
Greek Numeral prefixes such as mono- (1), di- (2), tri- (3), tetra-(4), penta- (5), hexa- (6),
hepta- (7), octa- (8), nona- (9), deca- (10), centi- (100), and kilo- (1000) are used not only in
mathematics and geometry, but in sciences such as chemistry and biology. DSF Literacy
Services has included centi- and kilo- in the Morpheme Activity Pack as a starting point to
introduce students to these familiar morphemes.
Use the morpheme cards to introduce more morphemes to be researched in texts and
reference materials.
Example
Astro is a Greek combining form meaning star.
Ask students to find as many astro words as possible in their science
book, in the dictionary, or on the internet. For example, astrophysics,
astrochemistry, astrobiology, astrogeology.
Activity 4: Morphing
Using the morpheme cards, students will challenge themselves to discover how many
words they can make using a set of cards in 10 minutes.
First, the teacher should construct some example words to establish the basic group of
cards in the set. The students should write down the teacher’s list.
Then have students see if they can move the morphemes around to create other new
words. These can also be written down.
For each word created, students need to decide whether it is a real word in English or a
non-word. Students should clarify the meaning of each word if they do not already know
it, though many of them will know the meaning of the spoken word.
Explain the meaning of the bases in the set and also make sure that students understand
the meaning of the prefixes and what the suffixes tell us (e.g., noun, adjective, verb).
It can be fun to take a few moments to think about what a non-word could mean if it
were a real word. This can be worked out using the meanings of the morphemes written
on the back of the morpheme card.
Examples
Greek
Teacher list:
Microscope, Telephone
Student list: Microphone, Telescope
Latin
Teacher list: Product, Injection
Student list: Project, Projection, Induct, Induction
Anglo Saxon
Teacher list: Become, Welfare
Student list: Welcome, Befare (non-word)
Activity 5: Balderdash
Make Non-Words
Divide the group into two teams. One team invents ten non-words with Latin cards
and the other team invents ten non-words from the Greek cards. Teams use the cards
to make up the words, but as they make them up, they write down the non-words they
have invented.
Swap and Spell
When both teams are ready with their list of words, they swap their set of cards. Students
then take turns to read the words out one by one to the other team. After each word is
pronounced, the other team has to use the cards to make the non-word the other group
has invented. The group who made up the word decides if it is correct or not.
Make Up Meanings
Each team then picks three of their non-words and figures out what the meaning could
be, based on what they know the prefix, base, combining forms and suffix to mean. This
can be a humorous or crazy meaning if desired.
Discussion points
• While students are working out their non-words, the teacher should facilitate
discussion about whether the words they have made are real or non-words. If they are
real words, it will be useful for students to review those words and to see how easy it
is to spell them once they have the building blocks of these morphemes or “meaning
bits”.
• Teachers will also need to help the students to pronounce the non- words as they
make them up. Elicit the awareness that the way we pronounce multi-morpheme
words depends on where the stress goes in the word. In stressed syllables the vowel is
pronounced but it sometimes may be short or long; in unstressed syllables the vowel
is most often pronounced as a schwa sound. Elicit the awareness that the written
vowel does not change even though we pronounce it as a schwa.
• Highlight that real or non-words can be spelled reliably because the spelling of each
morpheme stays the same.
• Bring out possible meanings of the non-words. Note especially the morphemes that
show the jobs the words do in sentences (e.g., al and ible would be endings on
descriptive words or adjectives; ure, or ion would be endings on nouns or name words).
See over the page for some examples of non-words that can be made with Latin and Greek
morphemes.
Latin root Some non-words with this root
cede incedible
flect biflectible
struct prostruction
script rescriptible
dent redentive
mobile promobile
ped prepedal
rupt deruption
tract bitraction
vis previsile
duct biductive
numer denumerable
port preportable
ject disjector
Greek morphemes/combining forms Some non-words from these
morphemes/combining forms
geo antigeopathist
meter geometer
psycho psychograph
thermo thermopath
hydro hydrocosmic
scop astroscopic
graph orthograph
naut nomonautic
path anapathic
cosm anticosm
photo photophile
nom bionomism
gram antigram
chron polychronic
phon orthophonology
phil polyphilite
cycl autocyclic
Several resources were used in the compilation of the
Morpheme Activity Packs, including:
1. D.R. Bear, M. Invernizzi, S.Templeton, F. Johnston. Words their Way; Word
Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. 4th Ed. © Pearson
Education Inc. 2008
2. Birsh, J.R. Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills. Paul H. Brookes
Publishing Co. Inc. 2005
3. Carreker, S. & Birsh, J.R. Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills
Activity Book. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. Inc. 2005
4. E.H. Fine and K. Doner. Cryptomania; Teleporting into Greek and Latin with
the CryptoKids.© Tricycle Press. 2004
5. Ramsden, M. Rescuing Spelling. Southgate Publishers 1993
6. A. Sack. Shortcut to Word Power; Essential Latin and Greek Roots and
Prefixes. 3rd Ed. © White Pine Printers. 2003
7. http://eli.tamu.edu/resources/anglo-saxon-roots.html
8. http://www.boiseschools.org/curriculum/la_supplement/root_wordlist.pdf
9. http://www.corelearn.com/calendar/documents/Prefixes-Anglo-Saxon.doc
10. http://www.etymonline.com/
11. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0907013.html
12. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0907036.html
13. http://www.mondofacto.com/dictionary/suffix.html
14. http://www.wordinfo.info/
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