Something About a Suffix Trivia Quiz

Answer: waited

A verb is a type of word. An easy way to recognise a verb in a sentence is to think of them as actions or "doing words". The action in this sentence is to "wait" for something to happen.

Answer: camped

A suffix is a group of letters that we add to the end of a word to change its meaning. The -ed suffix is added to the end of the verb (the action) "camp" to show that it has already happened. A verb that tells us when something has already happened is called "past tense".

Answer: kicked

"Kicked" is the past tense verb in this sentence. Past tense verbs often end with -ed. Verbs can also end with the suffix -ing. The -ing suffix can tell us that something is happening right now ("the footballer is kicking the ball") or that it will happen in the future ("the footballer will be kicking the ball").

Answer: burned

The Great Fire of London happened in 1666. It was a fire that began in a bakery and destroyed many buildings in the English capital city. The fire "burned" for four days. Sometimes "burned" can be spelled "burnt", particularly in Britain.

Answer: slowed

In this sentence, the witch "slowed" down so that she didn't crash into the ground! Most verbs use the -ed suffix to make the past tense, but not all of them do. Sometimes we have to change the letters in the verb to make the past tense instead. For example, the past tense of "I see a bird" is "I saw a bird". "I eat my lunch" becomes "I ate my lunch". These are called irregular verbs.

Answer: banged

Even though lots of past tense verbs end with -ed, they have different sounds at the end. The verb "banged" in this sentence has a "d" sound at the end. Some -ed verbs like "jumped" and "licked" have a "t" sound at the end. Sometimes -ed makes an "id" sound at the end of words like "shouted" and "needed".

Answer: tipped

Sometimes when we add the -ed suffix to verbs, we have to add another consonant. The verb "tip" has a short "i" vowel sound followed by a short "p" consonant sound. Before -ed is added, we have to put in another p to make "tipped".

Answer: pegged

"Peg" has a short "e" vowel sound and a short "g" consonant sound after it. Before we put -ed at the end to make the past tense, we have to double the last consonant. Adding another g before -ed makes "pegged".

Answer: framed

The verb "frame" (which means to put a picture in a frame) ends with the letter e. Past tense verbs that end with e don't have -ed added to the end: "frameed" is an incorrect spelling. Instead of adding an extra e along with the d, we only add the d. "Framed" is the correct spelling.

Answer: danced

Like "frame", "dance" ends with the letter e. "Danceed" is incorrect because we don't need to add an extra e to make the past tense. We only have to add the d, so "danced" is the correct spelling.