Grade 5 Vocabulary, Morphology & Word Study: Suffixes -ence and -ance
144 printable 5th Grade vocabulary & word study worksheets on Suffixes -ence and -ance. 4 activity types: Match Up, Read and Draw, Sentence Scramble, Word Search. The first three are free to download; All Access opens all 144.
Practice pages support a program; they are not the lesson. These sheets reinforce Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency — Grade 5, the complete K–5 reading curriculum from Faith Readers. See every program →
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Includes 4 activity types: Match Up, Read and Draw, Sentence Scramble, Word Search.
Teaching Suffixes -ence and -ance
What it is
The endings -ence and -ance both make naming words: difference, patience, silence, importance, appearance, assistance. In speech they sound the same, because the vowel is unstressed, so the two spellings have to be sorted word by word.
When a child is ready
Teach it once the child reads three-syllable words and can find the base word inside a longer one.
If they struggle
Where a longer relative exists, say it to make the vowel audible: confidence next to confidential, residence next to residential. Most -ance words have no such relative, so do not drill the whole family; keep a short list of the ones the child actually writes, such as importance and appearance, and practice those.
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