step097.htm/20DEC2001

Step 97: ‑tion

In a very few words, 'ti' says sh, which is very strange. In many, many words, 'on' says un; it hardly ever says the sound in on, except in words beginning with con‑. If you put ti before on, you have ‑tion which is a common ending and sounds like "shun". (The exception is question, sounded as questi..on.) In these words, the stress is on the syllable before the ‑tion. There are hundreds of words like this. Many words end in ation, and in these words the a is long and has the stress. "Stress" means more emphasis on the syllable, spoken on a higher note than the other syllables.

ti = sh on = un ‑tion = shun ‑ation

patient won suction station

cau __ ous S __ ac ____ sens _____

ini __ al d __ e men ____ decor _____

essen __ al fr __ t atten ____ inform _____

confiden __ al __ i __ inven ____ educ _____

influen __ al L __ d __ inspec ____ consider _____

iner __ a pers __ prescrip ____ ventil _____

pruden __ al m __ th addi ____ popul _____

ribb __ subtrac ____ separ _____

cart __ por ____ associ _____

When the root word ends in ‑it, "shun" is spelt ‑ssion:

omit, omission; emit, emission; permit, permission; admit, admission.

When the root word ends in ‑ess or ‑uss, the ‑ss is kept in the ending:

impress, impression; process, procession; access, accession;

success, (succeed to the throne) succession; express, expression;

depress, depression; confess, confession;

concuss, concussion. In the ‑sion ending, the s sounds like z: television.

Note the only words where a 'shun' ending is spelt sh: cushion, fashion.