Wordy Wednesday: Fun with Suffixes

Word Play
 
The English language can be complicated and frustrating and even downright maddening at times, but it can also be a lot of fun to play around with if you don't take it so seriously.

One night at dinner I decided our family should take turns naming all the words we could think of that ended with -tion. I can't remember what inspired it. I had no idea that the game would take on epic proportions and become so additive. PROPORTION. ADDICTION. Oh, no. It's starting again.

I mentioned (MENTION) the game to a group of students in one of my sections (SECTION). For the next week they were all using as many -tion words as they could. English majors can be quite competitive (COMPETITION) when it comes to language. And then I wrote about it in a Facebook group of professors  and watched as the thread exploded (EXPLOSION) into a list of every -tion word from every discipline taught at the university level today. EDUCATION. Turns out what I thought would be a fun little game to play at dinner with my children became an OBSESSION for the group of PROFESSIONals in the Facebook group. And what about EXPLOSION and OBSESSION and PROFESSION? Technically they are lacking the T, but -ion is part of the same suffix family at -tion and shares the same meaning of act or process. So do they count? You get to decide. Do you want the game to be about the letters or the meaning of the suffix? Either way is fine. The point is to have fun while you exercise all those language muscles in your brain. What matters most is the mental EXERTION, not the REGULATIONs.

So how does playing these games help improve your reading level?

Playing with words is one of the best ways to increase your vocabulary and boost your reading level. The more familiar you become with the meanings of various prefixes and suffixes the better you get at ascertaining and deducing (DEDUCTION) the meaning of unfamiliar words you encounter in your reading. Most people tend to just skip over words they don't know when they are reading. Playing these games motivates (MOTIVATION) you to seek out new words, new prefixes, new suffixes. The games boost your confidence when you encounter new vocabulary words because you already have some idea what the word means. Something that is un- or non- is not whatever the root is. You might not recognize the root, but you know it's a negative (NEGATION) of whatever it is. The more you play, the better you get at determining (DETERMINATION) the meaning of words. And the better you get, the more your vocabulary grows and grows.

You can Google to find a list of more suffixes and their meanings for more OPTIONS. You can also play with prefixes, but I can tell you from experience that suffixes tend to be far more interesting and challenging. I play word games with my kids all the time, especially when we're in the car and everyone is a little cranky. It's a great DISTRACTION when you are stuck in line or waiting around for someone. Word games are great because they don't require any special equipment. You can play them on any mode of TRANSPORTATION and in any LOCATION.