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4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 13

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.

Maine Learning Results learning standard: Language 2 · spelling words correctly using rules for endings, plurals and common words

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Short vowel plus one consonant: double it before -ing or -ed (hop → hopping).
  2. Silent e: drop it before -ing (make → making).
  3. 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 Maine

In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 12 of 13 in 4th grade English Language Arts, after Media and Sources and before Firsthand or Secondhand?.

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: Maine 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

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • tommorow
    • tomorow
    • tommorrow
    • tomorrow

  2. Question 2

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • Wednsday
    • Wedensday
    • Wensday
    • Wednesday

  3. Question 3

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

    • biteing
    • bitng
    • biting
    • bitting

  4. Question 4

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

    • carryed
    • carried
    • carred
    • caried

  5. Question 5

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

    • stopped
    • stopd
    • stopet
    • stoped

  6. Question 6

    What is the plural of “knife”?

    • knifes
    • knives
    • knifs
    • nives

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