Suffixes -tian, -sion, -tion

Catherine
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Catherine…

Finn And I’m Finn. Now make sure you pay attention because we have a lot of information …

Catherine That’s right… and attention and information are a good introduction to the programme.

Finn They are. They both end in ‘shun’ /ʃ(ə)n/, which is the suffix we’re talking about.

Catherine Suffixes are groups of letters at the end of words which can change the form or meaning of a word, or both.

Finn And we’ll tell you about the three different ways to spell the suffix ‘shun’ .

Catherine And we’ll give you examples of words with all three spellings, plus some tips for knowing which spelling to use…

Finn We’ll have a quiz…

Catherine …and we’ll finish with a top tip for learning vocabulary.

Finn But first, let’s hear a news report about the theft of a valuable statue.

Catherine While you listen, think about this question: Where was the statue from? Here’s the report.

INSERT A man was charged today following an investigation into the theft of valuable objects from the museum. The man confessed after witnesses came forward with information and his description appeared in the newspapers. In his confession ,he said that he had gained admission to the museum by pretending to be a security guard. Police recovered items including a priceless Venetian vase and an Egyptian statue.

Catherine
So, we asked you: Where was the statue from?

Finn
And the answer is: Egypt. It was Egyptian .

Catherine That’s right. And the word Egyptian has the suffix ‘shun’ spelt t-i-a - n . And we usually find this spelling in adjectives that describe where something or someone comes from.

Finn So, the stolen Egyptian statue came from Egypt …

Catherine Exactly, and the Venetian vase came from Venice .

Finn In these examples, the suffix ‘shun’, spelt t-i-a-n, turns the noun into an adjective; and these adjectives are often written with a capital letter because they come from proper nouns. Now, another example is Martian - and Martians come from Mars !

Catherine I suppose they do. Let’s listen to another clip with more words that end in ‘shun’ . See if you can spot them.

INSERT CLIP 1 A man was charged today following an investigation into the theft of valuable objects from the museum. The man confessed after witnesses came forward with information and his description appeared in the newspapers.

Finn So we had three words ending in ‘shun’ - investigation , description …

Catherine …and information .

Finn Now here, the ‘shun’ at the end is spelt t-i-o-n .This is the most usual spelling for ‘shun’ .

Catherine And words with ‘shun’ spelt t-i-o-n are nouns. They usually come from verbs.

Finn So the word investigation comes from the verb investigate … the word description comes from describe …

Catherine …and the word information comes from the verb inform .

Finn There are many words with this spelling of ‘shun’ . We told you to pay attention at the start of the programme …

Catherine Yep and there are other words like addition , subtraction , accommodation , population …

Finn Many, many more. So that’s words with the suffix ‘shun’ spelt t-i-o-n and t-i-a-n . Now let’s look at the third spelling of the suffix ‘shun’ : s-i-o-n .

Catherine And here they are in another clip.

INSERT CLIP 2 In his confession ,he said thathe had gained admission to the museum by pretending to be a security guard.

Finn So we had confession and admission.

Catherine Yes, nouns with the ending ‘shun’ spelt s-i-o-n are often based on words ending in double -s or - m-i-t like confession from confess …

Finn E xpression from express …

Catherine … discussion from discuss …

Finn … admission from admit …

Catherine …and permission from permit .

IDENT
You’re listening to BBC Learning English.

Catherine And we’re talking about the suffix ‘shun’ . We can spell it in three different ways …

Finn There’s t-i-a-n , as in Egyptian or Venetian. These are adjectives which indicate someone or something’s origin.

Catherine Or we can spell it s-i-o-n . And these words are nouns and are often based on verbs ending in - s-s , like discussion from discuss .

Finn …or verbs ending in -t like permission from permit .

Catherine And finally, the most common spelling t-i-o-n , as in nouns like information and ambition .

Finn Oh, ambition, yeah. Catherine, do you have a secret ambition ?

Catherine I have an ambition. It’s not so secret but I would love to go to Africa on a safari. What about you, Finn?

Finn Oh, yes, travel as well. I’d love to travel through South America one day.

Catherine I hope you get to do it.

Finn Thank you.

Catherine Quite soon. Now, time for a quiz. What is the correct spelling for the ending of these words. Is it t-i-o-n, s-i-o-n, or t-i-a-n? Ready?

Finn OK…

Catherine Number one: Egyptian …

Finn Egyptian is t-i-a-n .

Catherine Good. Number two: permission.

Finn Permission: s-i-o-n .

Catherine And number three: attention.

Finn Attention ends with the suffix ‘shun’ spelt t-i-o-n .

Catherine Fantastic. And that’s the end of the quiz. Well done if you got them right.

Finn
And now, here’s a top tip for learning vocabulary: to help you learn new words, try linking them into a story. Now this can really help you remember their meaning.

Catherine Top tip. And there’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Both
Bye!