How can you tell they’ve got it: Word Families and Root Words?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Generate at least 4 words in a word family from a given root (e.g., from 'play': player, playful, replay, playground); Explain how members of a word family are connected in meaning (e.g., 'solve, solution, dissolve all relate to finding answers or breaking apart'); Use knowledge of a word family to predict the meaning of an unfamiliar member (e.g., knowing 'act' helps understand 'actor', 'action', 'react'). Or just try it together: If your child knows the word "cycle," can they work out what related words like "recycle," "bicycle," or "cyclist" mean by thinking about the shared root?

English Vocabulary Ages 7–9

Word Families and Root Words

Your child can build a family of words from one base. From play comes player, playful, replay and playground.

In curriculum terms

Explore word families based on common root words, understanding how words are related in form and meaning through shared roots, prefixes and suffixes (e.g., solve → solution, solver, dissolve, insoluble)

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Generate at least 4 words in a word family from a given root (e.g., from 'play': player, playful, replay, playground)
Explain how members of a word family are connected in meaning (e.g., 'solve, solution, dissolve all relate to finding answers or breaking apart')
Use knowledge of a word family to predict the meaning of an unfamiliar member (e.g., knowing 'act' helps understand 'actor', 'action', 'react')

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Try this together

If your child knows the word "cycle," can they work out what related words like "recycle," "bicycle," or "cyclist" mean by thinking about the shared root?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Root Words & Inflectionsages 6–9Word families build on Y2 root words and inflections

Word Parts as Cluesages 5–8Morphological awareness supports word family exploration

Word Families and Root Wordsthis skill · ages 7–9

Unlocks

Greek and Latin Roots for Word Meaningages 9–11Greek and Latin roots/affixes knowledge builds on word family exploration; learners must understand how words relate through shared roots before systematically studying classical roots

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E3LY10medium confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

understand how to apply knowledge of common base words, prefixes, suffixes and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word to read and comprehend new multimorphemic words

AC9E1LY15medium confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

recognise and know how to use grammatical morphemes to create word families

AC9E5LA08low confidenceYear 5 · Language

understand how vocabulary is used to express greater precision of meaning, including through the use of specialist and technical terms, and explore the history of words

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN1-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

EN3-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 3

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E3LY04medium confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Literacy strand

VC2E4LY04medium confidenceEnglish · Level 4 · Literacy strand

VC2E2LY06medium confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Formal and Informal Englishages 7–10 Defining Wordsages 6–9 Literal vs Figurative Languageages 8–9 Root Words & Inflectionsages 6–9

All Vocabulary skills →