Making New Words

Making Nouns from Other Words

Turning a verb or a describing word into a thing: teach becomes teacher.

Mastered by: The -er ending (the person who does it) is usually usable by 4 to 5
Practice items: 80
Sections: 9

Play it

Each one opens full screen, already set to this skill.

The rule, explainedShow ↓

Add a piece to the end of a word and it turns into a different kind of word.

"-er" makes the person who does it: teach becomes teacher, bake becomes baker.

"-ness" turns a describing word into a thing: kind becomes kindness, dark becomes darkness.

Someone who paints is a painter.
When you are happy, you feel happiness.

Watch for: "Cooker" for cook, "swimmist" for swimmer - the right idea with the wrong piece. School-age children are still sorting these.

What this skill is

English builds new words out of old ones by bolting an ending on. Add -er to a verb and you get the person who does it: teach, teacher. Add -ness to a describing word and you get the quality itself: happy, happiness. This is called derivation, and it is worth targeting directly, because a child who understands the pattern can work out a word they have never heard before - which is most of what reading comprehension asks of them.

What to expect

-er comes first and comes easily, often overgeneralised in a charming way: a child may call a nurse a "shotter" or a vacuum a "sucker". That is the pattern working correctly on a word that happens not to exist. The abstract endings are much later and much harder, because the resulting word names something you cannot point at.

Try this at home

Play "who does it?" on the way somewhere. Someone who bakes is a ____. Someone who paints is a ____. Someone who farms is a ____. Then flip it: a singer is somebody who ____.

When to refer

A school-age child cannot work out the meaning of a derived word they know the root of ("if somebody who teaches is a teacher, what do you call somebody who builds?").

Print it

Making Nouns from Other Words worksheet80 items across 9 sections, with answer key · PDF

Put it into practice

Tap any item below to open it full screen, one at a time, so a child can answer without reading the answer first.

These activities are a starting point, not the practice itself. A structured task is a good way to introduce a form and to find out whether a child has it yet. What actually moves it into everyday speech is using it in the real world and in ordinary play — which means the four things below matter more than finishing the list.

Recast
Say their sentence back correctly, without asking them to repeat it. Child: “he goed.” You: “he went! Where did he go?”
Expand
Add one or two words to what they said and hand it back. Child: “big truck.” You: “a big red truck!”
Simplify what you ask
Cut a long instruction into single steps and say them in the order they happen, rather than repeating the long one louder.
Follow their lead
Use whatever they are already playing with. A form practiced on something they chose is the one that shows up again tomorrow.

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