This week (25th September 2016), year 6 will be learning about words ending in -cial and -tial. These endings are generally pronounced as ‘shul’.

What does it mean?

These endings come from the suffix -ial which loosely means ‘of’ or ‘relating to’

E.g. the word residential is built from the word residence and the suffix -ial  (the root word being ‘reside)

so the word residential means relating to residences‘

A ‘residential area’ is an area that has a lot of residences (homes)

Patterns?

There are two different spellings for ‘shul’  and the ending depends on whether the word arrived in English via French or Latin (or both).

Looking at the letter before the ‘shul’ sound can help use identify whether it is -tial or -cial

If the letter before the ‘shul’ sound is a vowel, it is a good bet that the spelling will be -tial. If the letter is a consonant, -cial will be more likely.

Grammar 

Like the -ious  suffix, words ending in -ial are generally adjectives.

Words