Unlocking Word Meanings with Suffixes

Khan Academy

In this engaging vocabulary lesson, the narrator, David, leads viewers on a quest to defeat the "greatest enemy: Not Knowing Stuff" by mastering three specific words: courageous, description, and mythology. Using a digital blackboard style with colorful handwriting and whimsical illustrations, the video breaks down each word's definition, part of speech, and etymology. The lesson places a strong emphasis on morphology, specifically how suffixes like -ous, -tion, and -logy attach to base words to transform their meanings and grammatical functions. The video explores key grammatical concepts including the difference between adjectives, nouns, and verbs. It demonstrates how adding "-ous" changes a noun (courage) into an adjective (courageous), how "-tion" turns a verb (describe) into a noun (description), and how "-logy" denotes a field of study. Humorous illustrated examples—such as a brave girl facing an "Onion Beast" and a disappointed online shopper buying a "magic sword"—reinforce the definitions in memorable contexts. For educators, this video is an excellent tool for introducing or reviewing morphology and word analysis skills. It moves beyond simple rote memorization by teaching students how to deconstruct words to understand their building blocks. The playful tone and clear visual explanations make abstract grammatical concepts accessible for upper elementary students, providing a model for how to figure out unfamiliar vocabulary by looking at word parts and context clues.