The -ly ending

Adds a syllable and turns a describing word into how something is done. The root almost never changes.

Word endings

-ly SUFFIX_LY_01

Strong rule · High reliability · Common · Early · Reading and spelling

• /li/ -ly: slowly, quickly, happily

Where Wiggler teaches it: Skill 13: Suffixes

Child explanation

Slow becomes slowly. The -ly bit tells you how something was done.

The rule

-ly is added to a describing word and is pronounced /li/. The root is usually unchanged, except that a final y becomes i.

What is really going on

One of the most transparent suffixes in English: the root is almost always visible and unchanged. That makes it a good first demonstration that a long word can be read by finding the word inside it.

Position in the word

• End of a word — The suffix position. For example: slowly, quickly, happily.

Examples

Easy examples

slowly, quickly, badly, sadly, kindly

More examples

loudly, softly, quietly, gently, nearly, really, finally, happily, easily, angrily

Pseudo-words

Made-up words that follow the rule. A child who reads these has the pattern rather than the vocabulary.

blimly, shugly, frapely

Contrast pairs

• slow versus slowly — The root is still visible.
• happy versus happily — The y changes to i.

Teacher note

Good early practice in covering the suffix and reading the root. Children who learn to do that with -ly transfer it readily to -ness, -ful and -ment, which is most of what suffix work is for.

Related rules

• Meaning suffixes: -ful, -less, -ness, -ment — -ful -less -ness -ment -able — Chunks of meaning on the end of a word. Unlike -ed and -ing, they leave the root almost untouched, which makes them the easiest suffixes to read.
• Y becomes I before a suffix — y + suffix → i — Happy becomes happier, cry becomes cried, baby becomes babies. A reliable change, and one that explains a lot of otherwise odd-looking words.
• The letter Y — y — The clearest case in English of position deciding sound. Y is a consonant at the start of a word and a vowel everywhere else — and which vowel depends on how many syllables the word has.

• Previous in Word endings: The -er and -est endings — -er / -est — Both are unstressed, so -er is /ər/ rather than the /ɜːr/ of her. The same ending also makes agent nouns: teacher, farmer, baker.
• Next in Word endings: The -tion ending — -tion — One chunk, one sound: /ʃən/. Read it whole and four-syllable words become manageable.
• All reading rules

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