4th Grade spelling
4th Grade Plurals Ending in Ies
Plurals that change y to ies: babies, countries, cities, stories, families. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: When a word ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to i and add es: baby becomes babies.
When a word ends in a consonant plus y, the plural is made by changing the y to i and adding es. Baby becomes babies, country becomes countries, story becomes stories. If a vowel comes before the y, the rule does not apply: day becomes days and key becomes keys. That single condition is where most mistakes arise, so the clean list on this page uses only consonant plus y words.
The thirty words include companies, countries, studies, stories, families, activities, cities, communities, policies and agencies. They are everyday school words, found in social studies and science, which is why the plural rule belongs in fourth grade. Students have already learned that most plurals just add s; this is the first systematic exception that changes the base itself, and it prepares them for the same change in verbs such as study and studies, carry and carried.
30 entries. Our solver needed 1.0 wrong guesses on average: 22 easy, 8 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is babies (4 misses), the quickest companies (0).
- companies Easy · 0
- countries Easy · 1
- studies Easy · 1
- stories Easy · 1
- families Easy · 1
- activities Easy · 0
- parties Easy · 1
- cities Medium · 3
- communities Easy · 0
- policies Easy · 1
- bodies Medium · 2
- facilities Easy · 0
- properties Easy · 0
- ladies Medium · 2
- authorities Easy · 1
- agencies Medium · 2
- memories Easy · 1
- supplies Easy · 0
- babies Medium · 4
- injuries Easy · 0
- copies Medium · 4
- industries Easy · 0
- centuries Easy · 0
- duties Medium · 2
- technologies Easy · 0
- categories Easy · 0
- strategies Easy · 0
- allies Medium · 2
- boundaries Easy · 0
- counties Easy · 0
Words worth a closer look
- companiesCompany becomes companies. A long word where the base change is easy to forget.
- studiesAlso a verb: she studies. The same rule works for both noun and verb.
- familiesFamily keeps its three syllables and gains an e in the plural spelling.
- boundariesBoundary becomes boundaries, with two vowels in a row that students sometimes reverse.
- alliesShort but tricky: ally becomes allies. Students sometimes write alleys, which is a different word.
Teaching it
Make the rule a two-step question: what is the letter before the y? If it is a consonant, change and add es. If it is a vowel, add s. Write boy, toy, day and key on one side and baby, city, story and party on the other and let students discover the pattern. Frequent errors are baby written as babys and countries written as countrys, or the opposite mistake of changing the y in a word like boys.
In hangman, play the singular and ask for the plural: show cit_ and have players guess the whole plural. Because ies is in every word, those letters are easy hits. Print the worksheet and have students write the singular beside each plural.
Print a 4th Grade Plurals Ending in Ies 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 TionSpell the /shun/ ending with tion: information, education, position and more. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 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.