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5th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 11 of 11

Spelling Smarts

Suffixes and words to know

What your child practices

Children practice US spelling of words with suffixes (-ful, -ly, -ous, -ment, -able, -ible), doubling rules, i before e and commonly misspelled words.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 5.L.2 · spelling words correctly using suffix rules and spelling patterns

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Usually just add the suffix: comfort + able = comfortable, govern + ment = government.
  2. Drop a silent e before a vowel suffix (fame → famous), but some words change anyway (argue → argument).
  3. Use “i before e except after c” as a guide, then check the word.

Example: Add -ment to “argue.” Which spelling is correct? “Argue” ends in e. This word drops the e even before -ment. Answer: argument

Spelling Smarts in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 11 of 11 in 5th grade English Language Arts, after Research Ready.

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: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

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

  1. Question 1

    Add -ly to “happy.” Which spelling is correct?

    • hapily
    • happilly
    • happyly
    • happily

  2. Question 2

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • receive
    • resieve
    • recieve
    • receeve

  3. Question 3

    Add -ed to “admit.” Which spelling is correct?

    • admmitted
    • admitted
    • admittid
    • admited

  4. Question 4

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • government
    • governmint
    • govenment
    • goverment

  5. Question 5

    Add -ing to “begin.” Which spelling is correct?

    • begining
    • beggining
    • beginning
    • beginnig

  6. Question 6

    Add -ible to “reverse.” Which spelling is correct?

    • reverseable
    • reversible
    • reversibel
    • reversable

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