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Primary English · Year 5Chapter 1 · Suffixes: -cious, -tial, -ant, -able and -ation
Year 5 English · Suffixes: -cious, -tial, -ant, -able and -ation · Lesson 1.3

Year 5 English: Words ending -ant, -ance, -ancy, -ent, -ence and -ency

Part of the Year 5 English suffixes: -cious, -tial, -ant, -able and -ation chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

1.3

Words ending -ant, -ance, -ancy, -ent, -ence and -ency

Year 5
Spell words ending -ant, -ance, -ancy, -ent, -ence and -ency (SP-Y5c)
Story. Mia has a job as a helper at the library. Her manager writes a note: "Your confidence and patience have been excellent." Mia wants to spell the nouns correctly on her certificate, so she thinks about the adjectives they come from.

Many nouns end in -ance or -ence, and their adjectives end in -ant or -ent. The -ancy and -ency endings follow the same pattern. The adjective is a clue to the noun.

Adjective (-ant or -ent)Noun (-ance or -ence)Noun (-ancy or -ency)
brilliantbrilliance-
toleranttolerance-
vacant-vacancy
confidentconfidence-
urgent-urgency
frequent-frequency

Key ideas

  • Adjectives ending -ant or -ent often change to a noun ending -ance or -ence.
  • Some adjectives ending -ant change to -ancy: vacant, vacancy.
  • Some adjectives ending -ent change to -ency: urgent, urgency; frequent, frequency.
  • Words ending -ient change to -ience: obedient, obedience.
Worked example 1.3.1
Write the noun made from the adjective confident.

Method. Confident is an adjective ending -ent, so the noun ends -ence.

  1. Find the adjective. Confident describes a person.
    confident
  2. Change -ent to -ence. The noun for this adjective ends -ence.
    confid + ence
  3. Write the answer.
    confidence

Check. Confidence is the noun. ✓

Worked example 1.3.2
Write the noun made from the adjective vacant.

Method. Vacant ends in -ant, and this adjective changes to -ancy.

  1. Find the adjective. Vacant means empty or free.
    vacant
  2. Change -ant to -ancy. The noun for vacant ends -ancy.
    vacan + cy
  3. Write the answer.
    vacancy

Check. Vacancy is the noun. ✓

Worked example 1.3.3
Which word is spelt correctly: importance or importants?

Method. The adjective is important, so the noun ends -ance.

  1. Find the adjective. Important is an adjective.
    important
  2. Change -ant to -ance. The noun ends -ance.
    import + ance
  3. Write the answer.
    importance

Check. Importance is the noun. ✓

Exercise 1C  Practice: -ant, -ance, -ancy, -ent, -ence and -ency

1
FWrite the noun made from excellent.
2
FWrite the noun made from urgent.
3
FWrite the noun made from frequent.
4
FWrite the noun made from tolerant.
5
FWrite the noun made from vacant.
6
FWrite the noun made from brilliant.
7
FWrite the noun made from obedient.
8
FWrite the noun made from decent.
9
FWhich word is spelt correctly: assistance or assistence?
10
PSTom writes innocense in his story. Correct the spelling.
11
PSElla says that important and importance have different endings because one is an adjective and one is a noun. Is she right? Explain.
12
RWrite one adjective ending -ent and its noun ending -ence or -ency.

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