4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 14 of 14

Spelling Rules

Endings, plurals and tricky words

What your child practices

Children practice US spelling rules for adding endings (doubling, dropping e, changing y to i), plurals and common tricky words.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 4.4; 4.7 · spelling words correctly using rules for endings, plurals and common words

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

Short vowel plus one consonant: double it before -ing or -ed (hop → hopping).
Silent e: drop it before -ing (make → making).
Consonant plus y: change y to i before -ed or -es (carry → carried).

Example: Add -ed to “carry.” Which spelling is correct? “Carry” ends in a consonant plus y. Change the y to i, then add -ed. Answer: carried

Spelling Rules in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 14 of 14 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Media and Sources.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

Question 1
What is the plural of “box”?
- boxxes
- boxies
- boxs
- boxes
Question 2
Add -ness to “happy.” Which spelling is correct?
- hapiness
- happines
- happyness
- happiness
Question 3
Which word is spelled correctly?
- Wednesday
- Wedensday
- Wensday
- Wednsday
Question 4
Which word is spelled correctly?
- tommorrow
- tomorrow
- tommorow
- tomorow
Question 5
Which word is spelled correctly?
- aggain
- again
- agian
- agen
Question 6
Which word is spelled correctly?
- believe
- beleve
- beleive
- belive

What your child practices

How we explain it

Spelling Rules in Alabama

Sample questions

More 4th grade