Words ending in tion, sion, cian । Important concept । Sahil Sir

Words ending in tion, sion, cian

Say these words louder: action, accommodation, admission, permission, mansion, electrician, politician, station.

You have noticed that the words endings –tion, –sion, and –cian all have a “shun” sound.

The endings sound much the same but are spelt differently so it’s difficult to remember which to use. But some –sion words have a softer “zhun” sound: television, explosion, collision

Words ending in tion are all nouns

-tion is the most common ending and we have some great words like action, condition, completion, relation, accommodation, addition, attention, communication, competition, condition, invitation, nation, position, protection, promotion, moderation, population, mention, solution, vocation, suggestion, station, occupation, revolution, rejection, location.

Let’s look at some basic rules.

Just add -ion to root words ending in -t

act —> action
suggest —> suggestion
interrupt —> interruption
prevent —> prevention
insert —> insertion
exhaust —> exhaustion
opt —> option
invent —> invention

Including words ending in -ct

act —> action
reject —> rejection
protect —> protection
inject —> injection
instruct —> instruction
inspect —> inspection
correct —> correction
collect —> collection
direct —> direction

With some words ending in -te, we drop the ‘e’ and add –ion

educate —> education
congratulate —> congratulation(s)
fascinate —> fascination
complete —> completion
relate —> relation
accommodate —> accommodation
separate —> separation
vacate —> vacation
pollute —> pollution
locate —> location

But in some words, we drop the ‘e’ and add –ation to make the pronunciation easier and you can hear the ‘a’ so that helps with spelling these: “in vi ta tion”, “in sp ra tion”, “pre pa ra tion”.

Also, listen to how the long vowel sound becomes a short sound when adding -ation so

invite (long sound thanks to the magic ‘e’) drop the ‘e’ and add ‘ation’ and the ‘i’ becomes a short sound – invitation, it helps with saying the word or it would be invition!

inspire —> inspiration
declare —> declaration
prepare —> preparation
combine —> combination
examine —> examination
explore —> exploration

In some words we drop the ‘e’ and add –ition the sound can help with the spelling short “e” again the long sound becomes a short sound

compete —> competition
define —> definition
pose —> position
compose —> composition
oppose —> opposition

Also ambition, audition, condition, tuition, nutrition.

In some words, we change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add –cation

apply —> application
certify —> certification
qualify —> qualification
justify —> justification
identify —> identification
multiply —> multiplication

-sion and -ssion endings “zhun” or “shun” sounds

vision, pension, occasion, explosion, collision, mission, passion, discussion, permission

Not that many nouns have -sion endings. They are often formed from verbs that end with -d, -de, -se, -t.

Drop the -de and -d and add -sion

collide —> collision
explode —> explosion
decide —> decision
comprehend —> comprehension
suspend —> suspension
expand —> expansion

With -se just drop the ‘e’ and add -ion

infuse —> infusion
televise —> television

——- > -ssion endings “shun” sound

mission, passion, session, confession, profession

When words end in -ss just add –ion

discuss —> discussion
confess —> confession
obsess —> obsession,
possess —> possession
express —> expression

-mit to -ssion

admit —> admission,
permit —> permission
omit —> omission
commit —> commission

-cede / -ceed to -ssion

succeed —> succession
proceed —> procession
concede —> concession

Words ending with -cian

There are a few nouns with -cian endings and they usually mean occupations or jobs: optician, politician, musician, beautician, dietician, electrician, technician, statistician, physician, magician

To help you remember some of these words have a root word ending in -ic so just add ian

electric — electrician Notice the hard c “k” sound in electric becomes a “sh” sound in electrician

music —> musician
optic —> optician
technic —> technician
clinic —> clinician
magic —> magician
politic —> politician

-tian Endings

There are only a few -tian endings and they usually mean place of origin or a belief: Martian, Dalmatian, Christian, Faustian, Croatian