When Sounding Out Doesn’t Work

A fifth-grade student misspelled *artest.  Is it art + ist or art + est? There are words you can sound out but there seem to be more words in which sounding out doesn’t work. She couldn’t sound this one out.

The final syllables in dentist /dɛn təst/ and shortest /ʃɔr təst/ feel the same for most of us. The vowel phonemes in the final syllables reduce to schwa because they’re unstressed.

If I over-articulate the /ɛ/ in <-est> and the /ɪ/ in <-ist>, my student could spell these suffixes correctly while she’s with me. But that won’t prepare her for independent spelling. She probably won’t remember to mispronounce the suffix to help herself spell it. I doubt I would.

Another option is studying the suffixes. We reviewed the meaning of the two suffixes.

<-est> is a superlative suffix that alters the meaning of the base to mean the “most”

<-ist> is an agent suffix indicating “someone who does or is involved with _____ (base)”

I wrote several bases on cards. She chose one and said a sentence in which the base was suffixed with /əst/. Then she added the suffix to the base as we talked through the meaning of the words.

In a later session, I dictated phrases using words including those two suffixes for her to spell. Again, we talked through the idea we get from each suffix and the meaning. Sounding out doesn’t work for these two suffixes. We noticed words with those suffixes as we read. We could brainstorm words that would use an <-ist> and others with an <-est> suffix. 

Here are some with -ist

• cycle
• solo
• pure
• type
• style
• flute

Her misspelling gave us the opportunity to learn more than just the spelling of artist. It demonstrated how the language system works.

Here’s a resource with a couple of matrices, a wipe-out game to practice choosing between these two suffixes, and a correct the spelling activity to see how your student is doing with thinking through the choice between the agent suffix <-ist> and the superlative suffix <-est>.

Happy Spelling!