How can you tell they’ve got it: Spelling Verb Endings?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Add -s or -es correctly to make plurals (e.g. 'cats', 'boxes'); Spell words with -ing and -ed endings (e.g. 'jumping', 'helped'); Add -er and -est to adjectives (e.g. 'quicker', 'quickest'). Or just try it together: When your child writes about more than one dog or talks about something that is happening now, do they add the right ending — like "dogs" or "jumping" — without making spelling mistakes?

English Spelling & Word Study Ages 5–6

Spelling Verb Endings

Your child can add endings to words without changing the base — like cats, jumping, helped and quicker.

In curriculum terms

Spell words with common suffixes (-s/-es for plurals and third person verbs, -ing, -ed, -er, -est) where no change to the root word is needed

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Add -s or -es correctly to make plurals (e.g. 'cats', 'boxes')
Spell words with -ing and -ed endings (e.g. 'jumping', 'helped')
Add -er and -est to adjectives (e.g. 'quicker', 'quickest')

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Try this together

When your child writes about more than one dog or talks about something that is happening now, do they add the right ending — like "dogs" or "jumping" — without making spelling mistakes?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Phonics Vocabularyages 4–7Spelling with suffixes requires knowing 'suffix', 'root word', and understanding how suffixes attach

Segmenting words into soundsages 4–7Must spell root words before adding suffixes

Spelling Verb Endingsthis skill · ages 5–6

Unlocks

Suffixesages 6–7Y2 suffix rules build on Y1 basic suffix spelling

Suffixesages 7–9Basic suffix spelling from Y1 provides foundation

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 2 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E1LY13low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns

AC9E1LY15low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

recognise and know how to use grammatical morphemes to create word families

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN1-SPELL-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

ENE-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Early Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E1LY08low confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand

VC2E1LY06low confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand

VC2E2LY06low confidenceEnglish · Level 2 · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Spelling from Dictationages 5–8 The Prefix un-ages 5–6 Tricky wordsages 5–8 Alternative Spellings for Soundsages 6–9

All Spelling & Word Study skills →