Know Your Suffixes: -cian, -sion and -tion

There are many different ways of making the 'shun' sound at the end of words.

For example:

nation    magician    television

It can be hard to know which suffix to use, but there are rules to help.

If the root word ends in c, then the suffix is usually cian. This is often the case with the jobs people do.

optic    optician

If the root word ends in d, de, s or se, then the suffix is usually sion.

provide    provision

confuse    confusion

Otherwise, the suffix is usually tion.

direct    direction

reduce    reduction

Are you ready to have a go?

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