The Suffixes ER and OR: A FREE Morphology Lesson
Cate O'Donnell
3 min read
Mar 20
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Morphology is a powerful tool for teaching older students both decoding longer words and understanding new vocabulary words. We use the suffixes -er and -or to change the meaning of a word. Adding the suffixes -er and -or to a base word changes a verb into a noun. Specifically, the noun is a person or tool that performs the action. For example, teach becomes teacher.
The suffix -er is much more common in English. This suffix can be used with any type of base word. The suffix -or is lesson common. It comes from Latin, so it is used with Latin roots. You will notice that words that end in -ate tend to have the -or suffix. Other words with the -or suffix do not follow a specific pattern.
It is helpful for students to know the parts of speech as they work on morphology. If your students need to work on parts of speech, I highly recommend this writing program. It teaches writing complete sentences based on parts of speech. If you need to, you can even use these two programs at the same time.
Teaching the Suffixes -ER and -OR
To teach your students about the suffixes -er and -or, display the presentation below. You can access the presentation from this website for free. You can also purchase the slideshow for use at school.
This suffix does not change the spelling of base words, so you will want to focus on the meanings of the words.
You display a base word from the presentation.
Students write the word with the -er or -or suffix in their writing notebooks or on a whiteboard.
You display the words with the -er or -or suffix from the presentation (the next slide).
Students check their spelling.
Students say or write a sentence using the base word. Then, say or write a different sentence using the word with the suffix.
This lesson is designed to last six days. You also get 25 mixed review practice slides to use later in the year.
Check out this list of words with the suffix. You can use this list to build your own activities for your classroom. You can also get a printable .pdf.
More Morphology Practice
Do you love this lesson? You can access all of the morphology lessons for FREE on this website! You can also purchase the presentations!
Base Words
The Suffixes -S and -ES
The Suffix -ING
The Suffix -ER for Comparative Adjectives
The Suffix -EST for Superlative Adjectives
The Suffix -ER for Someone Who
The Suffix -ED for Past Tense Verbs
The Prefix UN- MEANING OPPOSITE OR NOT
The Prefix RE- MEANING AGAIN
The Prefix DIS-
THE Suffixes -ER and -OR MEANING A PERSON WHO
The Prefix IN- Meaning Not
The Suffix -FUL Meaning Full Of
The Suffix -LESS Meaning Without
The Suffix -Y Meaning What Something is Like
The Suffix -LY Meaning How an Action is Done
The Prefix UNDER
The Prefix OVER
The Prefix NON
The Prefix PRE
The Prefixes BI/DI
The Prefix TRI
The Prefix QUAD
The Prefix OCT
THE SUFFIX ION
THE SUFFIX NESS
The Prefix SEMI
The Prefix SUPER
The Prefix MULTI
The Prefix POLY
The Prefix TELE
The Prefix MID
The Prefix MIS
The Prefix INTER
The Prefix DECA/DECI
The Prefix KILO
The Prefix SUB
