Root Words Worksheets - Free Printable

You’ve uploaded a worksheet titled “Root Words - Suffixes”. The task is to add the suffixes -s, -ed, and -ing to each root word listed in the first column.

This is a foundational grammar exercise designed to help learners understand how verbs change form to indicate tense (past, present) or plurality (with -s).

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✔ How to Solve It:

For each root word, you will:
- Add -s → for third person singular present tense (e.g., “he walks”)
- Add -ed → for past tense (e.g., “she walked”)
- Add -ing → for present participle or continuous tense (e.g., “they are walking”)

⚠️ Important Rules to Remember:
1. Regular verbs: Just add -s, -ed, -ing.
2. Verbs ending in ‘e’: Drop the ‘e’ before adding -ing (e.g., “love → loving”) but keep it for -ed (e.g., “love → loved”).
3. Verbs ending in consonant + y: Change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding -es or -ed (but NOT for -ing). However, none of these words end in ‘y’, so we don’t need this rule here.
4. Verbs ending in ‘ck’: Just add -ed and -ing normally (no spelling change needed).

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📝 Completed Worksheet:

Here’s the completed table with correct forms:

| Root word | with -s | with -ed | with -ing |
|-----------|-------------|-------------|-------------|
| visit | visits | visited | visiting |
| block | blocks | blocked | blocking |
| look | looks | looked | looking |
| end | ends | ended | ending |
| kick | kicks | kicked | kicking |
| follow | follows | followed | following |
| stay | stays | stayed | staying |
| laugh | laughs | laughed | laughing |
| spray | sprays | sprayed | spraying |
| walk | walks | walked | walking |
| bark | barks | barked | barking |

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💡 Explanation of Key Examples:

- visit → visits / visited / visiting
→ Regular verb; no spelling changes needed.

- look → looks / looked / looking
→ Simple addition of suffixes.

- end → ends / ended / ending
→ Again, regular verb.

- kick → kicks / kicked / kicking
→ Even though it ends in ‘ck’, we just add suffixes directly — no change.

- follow → follows / followed / following
→ Ends in ‘w’ — still regular.

- stay → stays / stayed / staying
→ No spelling change required.

- laugh → laughs / laughed / laughing
→ Regular verb despite the ‘gh’ — just add suffixes.

- spray → sprays / sprayed / spraying
→ Same as above.

- walk → walks / walked / walking
→ Very common regular verb.

- bark → barks / barked / barking
→ Also regular.

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✔ All words on this list are regular verbs, so no irregular forms (like “go → went”) are involved. This makes it straightforward!

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🎯 Learning Goal:

This exercise reinforces:
- Verb conjugation
- Spelling rules for suffixes
- Understanding present, past, and continuous tenses

Great practice for early elementary or ESL learners!

Let me know if you’d like a printable version or flashcards for these words! 📘✨