Word Families

FITRA MAQEVIRA / 1852132011

HARDITA ARIYANI / 1852132026
 A word family is the base form of a word
plus its inflected forms and derived forms
made with suffixes and prefixes plus its
cognates, all words that have a common
etymological origin, some of which even
native speakers don't recognize as being
Word Families related. Word families help students learn to
read, while building their vocabulary. Being
able to recognize patterns and common 
phonetic sounds is the foundation for 
strong spelling skills.
The idea is that a base word and
its inflected forms support the
same core meaning, and can be
considered learned words if a
learner knows both the base word
and the affix. It has been shown
that word families can assist with
deriving related words via affixes,
along with decreasing the time
needed to derive and recognize
such words
There are two types of word families
1) Based on the similarity of the sound "a group of words with
particular features in common", that is, there are many words that
have one rhythmic pronunciation, such as the words hat and cat which
are one word family.

Examples of word families based on similar sounds:

-blame – came – name – same – tame – shame – lame – frame –
flame – fame – game

Bake – brake – fake – awake – cake – flake – lake – make – shake –

wake – take
There are two types of word families
2) Based on the similarity of the basic words "a group of related
words that are formed from the same word" a group of words formed
from the same root word, also called a word family. For example
help, helper, helful

Examples of word families of the same root with prefix and suffix
added:
Retake – intake – taker – taken

Overreact – react – reaction – counteract – counteractive – interact –

interaction – interactive
What is Word Families Instruction?

• Lessons are broken down into word families or rimes

• Lesson typically begin with a short vowel and all the
different rimes with that vowel.

- An, at, am, ap, ack

• After all the short vowel rimes have been taught,

lesson typically move to the long vowels
Common Word Families

Words such as 'cat,' 'bat,' 'rat,' 'mat,' 'sat,'

and 'that' are examples of words that are
in the '-at' family. This chart outlines the
most common word families. Students
can learn to read and spell more than a
thousand words using these word
families.
Common Word Families
a e i o u
-ack -eat -ice -ock -uck
-ain -ell -ick -oke -ug
-ake -est -ide -op -ump
-ale -ight -ore -unk
-all -ill - ot
-ame -in
-an -ine
-ank -ing
-ap -ink
-ash -ip
-at -it
-ate
-aw
-ay