Question 1
Which word belongs to the same family as 'help'?
💡 'Helpful' shares the root 'help' — they're in the same word family.
Year 2 — Vocabulary
Word building
Build a word family (words that share the same root), use prefixes and suffixes to build new words, and build compound words by joining two smaller words.
Understand
A WORD FAMILY is a group of words that share a common part, like 'play', 'player', 'playful', 'replay'. A COMPOUND WORD joins two smaller words together, like 'sun' + 'flower' = 'sunflower'.
“play, played, playing, player, playful”
All of these words share the root 'play' but change slightly with different endings — that's a word family. Each one is related to the same core idea (playing).
Spot it
Which words belong to the same word family?
Question 2
Which two smaller words make the compound word 'toothbrush'?
💡 'Toothbrush' joins 'tooth' and 'brush' together.
Question 3
Which word belongs to the same family as 'quick'?
💡 'Quickly' shares the root 'quick'.
Think about it
How does knowing one word family help you learn several new words at once?
Try it
Build the compound word.
rain + bow
Question 1
What compound word do you get from 'rain' + 'bow'?
💡 Join the two words directly together, with no space.
Practise
Build the word or find the matching word family.
Question 1
What compound word do you get from 'foot' + 'ball'?
Question 2
Which word belongs to the same family as 'teach'?
Question 3
What compound word do you get from 'snow' + 'man'?
Question 4
In one phrase, what do we call a word made by joining two smaller words together?
💡 It's the third skill named in this lesson's introduction.
Question 5
Which word belongs to the same family as 'kind'?
Question 6
What compound word do you get from 'bed' + 'room'?
Apply
Read the passage, then answer the questions below.
Sarah is a great helper. She helped her mum bake a cake, and she loves being helpful whenever she can.
Question 1
How many words from the 'help' word family appear in this passage?
💡 Look for every word that shares the root 'help'.
Question 2
What did Sarah help her mum do?
Question 3
Name one word from this passage that belongs to the 'help' word family.
💡 Look for any word sharing the root 'help'.
Challenge
Can you build your own compound word by joining two smaller words, like 'star' + 'fish'?
Review
A quick mastery check — 3 questions.
Question 1
What compound word do you get from 'cup' + 'cake'?
Question 2
Which word belongs to the same family as 'happy'?
Question 3
Why is knowing one word family useful?
Want to practise building words from prefixes, suffixes and roots? Try the word-family builder →