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4th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 20

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 4L2 · 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 New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 12 of 20 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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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?

    • diferent
    • diffrent
    • different
    • differant

  2. Question 2

    What is the plural of “box”?

    • boxies
    • boxes
    • boxs
    • boxxes

  3. Question 3

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • beautyful
    • beutiful
    • beautifull
    • beautiful

  4. Question 4

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

    • stopd
    • stopped
    • stopet
    • stoped

  5. Question 5

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

    • hoping
    • hopeing
    • hopinng
    • hopping

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • libary
    • librery
    • liberry
    • library

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