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6th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 12 of 14

Spelling: Endings and Sound-Alikes

-ance or -ence, doubling and homophones

What your child practices

Children practice US spelling: when to double a final consonant, -ance and -ence, -cious and -tious, words that break i before e, and commonly confused words such as their, there and they're.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.10(D) · spelling with suffix rules, tricky patterns and commonly confused words

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Double the final consonant when the last syllable is stressed and ends in one vowel plus one consonant: forget → forgetting.
  2. Keep the e after soft c or g before -able: change → changeable.
  3. Learn tricky words by their parts: em-bar-rass has two r’s and two s’s.

Example: Add -ing to “forget.” Which spelling is correct? The stress is on “get,” which ends in one vowel plus t. Double the t. Answer: forgetting

Spelling: Endings and Sound-Alikes in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 12 of 14 in 6th grade English Language Arts, after Media Techniques and before Roots: mis, bene, man, vac, scrib, jur.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 -ous to “courage.” Which spelling is correct?

    • couragous
    • courageous
    • couragious
    • courageus

  2. Question 2

    Add -ion to “decide.” Which spelling is correct?

    • decideion
    • decition
    • desision
    • decision

  3. Question 3

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • foriegn
    • forein
    • foreighn
    • foreign

  4. Question 4

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

    • preffered
    • preferred
    • prefered
    • preferd

  5. Question 5

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

    • occurrd
    • ocurred
    • occured
    • occurred

  6. Question 6

    Which word is spelled correctly?

    • priviledge
    • privilege
    • privilage
    • privelege

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