Root words interactive exercise - Free Printable

Let’s go through each word and find its base word — the simplest form of the word before any endings like -er, -s, -ed, -ly, etc. are added.

We’ll do this one by one:

1. teacher → remove “-er” → teach
2. helpful → remove “-ful” → help
3. clues → remove “-s” → clue
4. artist → remove “-ist” → art
5. arrived → remove “-ed” → arrive
6. laughed → remove “-ed” → laugh
7. building → remove “-ing” → build
8. longest → remove “-est” → long
9. asks → remove “-s” → ask
10. farmer → remove “-er” → farm

11. flowers → remove “-s” → flower
12. branches → remove “-es” → branch
13. braver → remove “-er” → brave
14. numbers → remove “-s” → number
15. unkind → remove “un-” (prefix) → kind
16. missed → remove “-ed” → miss
17. trees → remove “-s” → tree
18. smaller → remove “-er” → small
19. voices → remove “-s” → voice
20. churches → remove “-es” → church

21. friendly → remove “-ly” → friend
22. foolish → remove “-ish” → fool
23. repay → remove “re-” (prefix) → pay
24. owner → remove “-er” → own
25. lowest → remove “-est” → low
26. replace → remove “re-” → place
27. tables → remove “-s” → table
28. started → remove “-ed” → start
29. shorter → remove “-er” → short
30. sleepy → remove “-y” → sleep

All done! Double-checking a few tricky ones:
- “unkind” → yes, “un-” is a prefix meaning “not”, so base is “kind”
- “repay” → “re-” means again, so base is “pay”
- “friendly” → ends in “-ly”, but it comes from “friend”, not “friendl” — correct!
- “sleepy” → change “-y” to get “sleep” — that’s right!

Final Answer:
1. teach
2. help
3. clue
4. art
5. arrive
6. laugh
7. build
8. long
9. ask
10. farm
11. flower
12. branch
13. brave
14. number
15. kind
16. miss
17. tree
18. small
19. voice
20. church
21. friend
22. fool
23. pay
24. own
25. low
26. place
27. table
28. start
29. short
30. sleep