Standard 3 - FINAL-Structural Analysis-Morphemes

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITY SHEET
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS: MORPHEMES

Standard Three
Curriculum Topic: Vocabulary
Teaching Point/s: Recognising free and bound morphemes in words
Activity:
Morphemes are the meaningful structural parts in words: root words, base words, prefixes, suffixes and
inflectional endings. They are the smallest units of meaning in words. There are two main types of
morphemes.

 Bound Morphemes: These must be attached to other morphemes (prefixes and suffixes)
 Free morphemes: These can stand alone as words in the English Language (base words)
Derivatives are formed when affixes are added to root words or base words.
When one does structural analysis, one uses knowledge of these meaningful parts of words to pronounce
and make sense of derivatives.
To do this, however, one must be able to recognise the morphemes.
The diagram below gives a general idea of the types of morphemes and the relationships between them.

Morphemes

Free Bound

Base Word Root Word Affix

Compound Contraction Prefix Suffix
Word

Inflectional
Endings

CURRICULUM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION (2020)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITY SHEET
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS: MORPHEMES

CURRICULUM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION (2020)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ACTIVITY SHEET
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS: MORPHEMES

Look at the following words. Can you identify the morphemes that make up each word?

beginning unhappily pretesting retracing carelessly

Remember prefixes are attached to the start of base words while suffixes are attached to the end of them.

Word Prefix(es) Base Words Suffixes
beginning begin ing
unhappily un happy ly
pretesting pre test ing
retracing re trace ing
carelessly care less, ly

N.B.:
Some letters would have been added to or dropped from the base words when the affixes (prefixes or
suffixes) were added. When the base word is identified, it is only the letters from the original word that
are written.

Separate each derivative below into the base word and affixes that make up the word.

Word Prefix(es) Base Words Suffixes

1. impassable

2. unlovingly

3. resetting

4. misinformed

5. unselfishly

6. disagreement

7. nonexistent

8. undeniably

Answer Key:

Word Prefix(es) Base Words Suffixes

1. impassable im pass able

2. unlovingly un love ing, ly

3. resetting re set ing

4. misinformed mis inform ed

5. unselfishly un self ish, ly

6. disagreement dis agree ment

7. nonexistent non exist ent

8. undeniably un deny able, ly

CURRICULUM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION (2020)