Language Arts Grade Six

Unit Six, Lesson Four: Word Families


  1. mask
  2. trash
  3. flash
  4. gash
  5. flask
  6. geology
  7. landforms
  8. basin
  9. range
  10. plateau
  1. valley
  2. summit
  3. pass
  4. trail
  5. route
  6. survive
  7. beaver
  8. trapper
  9. individual
  10. rugged
Word Families

All the members of a word family are made from the same root word. Often there are words which are related to the word family which have been slightly altered, but these should be thought of as members of the extended family and not the nuclear family. (An extended family includes uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc. A nuclear family includes only parents and children.)

Here's a nuclear family and some members of its extended family:


		run
		running
		runs
		rerun
		
		extended family member: ran

Some words may have many extended family members.

Here's another example of a word family:


		word
		words
		wording
		worded
		reword

As you can see, prefixes can also be added to the root word.

Here are a few more word families:


		fix
		fixes
		fixed
		fixing
		prefix
		suffix
		
		can
		cans
		canned
		canning
		canner

		carpet
		carpets
		carpeted
		carpeting

		build
		builds
		building
		builder
				
As a challenge exercise, you should try to think of root words with very large word families. In this lesson, the word "fix" had the largest word family with a total of six members. (Although we might be able to add another member, fixation, to make seven. Can you think of more?)


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