4th Grade spelling
4th Grade Words Ending in Tion
Spell the /shun/ ending with tion: information, education, position and more. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: The ending tion says /shun/ and is the most common way to spell that sound.
The ending tion is the most common way to spell the sound /shun/ in English. It nearly always attaches to a base that ends in t, or to a verb: educate becomes education, protect becomes protection, collect becomes collection. Students hear the sound easily but have to remember the letters, because nothing in the word's pronunciation says t-i-o-n.
This list gathers thirty common words that end in tion, including information, education, population, competition, conversation and the short ones like nation, action and option. Fourth grade is when most students meet these words in reading and science, usually as abstract nouns, and when spelling work shifts from single-syllable patterns to endings that carry meaning. Seeing the same four letters repeat across thirty words is the point: the pattern becomes automatic.
30 entries. Our solver needed 0.8 wrong guesses on average: 26 easy, 4 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is position (2 misses), the quickest information (0).
- information Easy · 0
- education Easy · 1
- action Easy · 1
- position Medium · 2
- production Easy · 1
- attention Easy · 0
- situation Easy · 1
- election Easy · 1
- addition Easy · 1
- population Medium · 2
- station Easy · 1
- section Easy · 0
- construction Easy · 0
- collection Easy · 1
- direction Easy · 1
- operation Easy · 0
- competition Easy · 0
- nation Easy · 1
- application Easy · 0
- condition Easy · 1
- location Easy · 1
- protection Easy · 0
- solution Medium · 2
- generation Easy · 0
- foundation Easy · 1
- edition Easy · 1
- option Medium · 2
- function Easy · 1
- connection Easy · 0
- conversation Easy · 0
Words worth a closer look
- informationThe longest common word here and a good test of doubled-sound confusion: the n before the m is easy to drop. Say it in syllables: in-for-ma-tion.
- conversationStudents often write conversion for conversation. Point out the extra syllable: con-ver-sa-tion has four beats, conversion has three.
- positionContains both an s and a tion, which makes it a good word for noticing that the /sh/ sound and the /z/ sound can sit next to each other.
- nationOne of the few short words on the list with no verb to build from. The a is long, the tion is unstressed.
- competitionCompete drops its e and loses a vowel change: compete, competition. Show how the e before the ending disappears and an i takes its place.
Teaching it
Start by asking students to find the verb inside the noun. Educate, collect, protect, direct and connect all sit inside their tion words, and the t usually survives. Words like nation and station have no verb to lean on, so they need to be learned as whole shapes. Common errors are sion for tion (spelling nation as nasion) and dropping the i (informashun is rare in writing, but infomation is not).
In hangman, the ending is a gift: once the t, i, o and n are guessed, the rest of the word falls quickly, and long words like conversation score as easy. Try covering the last four letters on a whiteboard and asking students to supply them before anyone guesses, then print the worksheet for a Friday check.
Print a 4th Grade Words Ending in Tion worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 4th Grade Words Ending in SionWords ending in sion: decision, television, vision, session and mansion-type sounds. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 4th Grade Words With the Prefix PreWords with the prefix pre: preview, prehistoric, prefix, precaution and more. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.
- 4th Grade Words With the Prefix MisWords with the prefix mis: mistake, misplaced, misuse, mistrust, misread. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 4th Grade Words Ending in MentWords ending in ment: government, development, agreement, equipment and more. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 4th Grade Words Ending in Able and IbleWords ending in able and ible: comfortable, reliable, possible, visible. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 4th Grade Words Ending in OusWords ending in ous: dangerous, famous, nervous, delicious, generous. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.