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Inflectional suffixes: verbs

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Eight inflectional suffixes are part of the grammar of English, so you can’t write many sentences without them. Four attach to verbs, but they aren’t just letters or letter strings. They carry meaning, and their pronunciation and spelling often depends on what our mouths are saying before them, at the end of the base word.

Teachers often aren’t taught much about these suffixes, which are more flexible than they look e.g. some can be used to create nouns and adjectives. Most parents are even more poorly equipped to explain how they work.

Here’s an eight minute video about the use, pronunciation and spelling of the four English inflectional verb suffixes. I hope it helps you explain them to kids. Sorry if an ad appears because the video is on YouTube, I am trying to work out how to turn them off.

To see the first video in this series, about inflectional noun suffixes, click here.

To get the letter/spelling/suffix tiles used in this video, go to www.spelfabet.com.au/materials/moveable-alphabet-affixes-mnemonics. For 20% off anything in the Spelfabet shop until June 30 2026, use the code “EOFY 2026” at the checkout.

Alison Clarke

Speech Pathologist