The Final y Spelling Rule
The Final y Spelling Rule
Check out the song! The The Final y Spelling Rule
Keep the y when adding an ending if the word ends in a vowel, then a y (delay-delayed), or if the ending begins with an i (copy-copying). Change the y to i when adding an ending if the word ends in a consonant, then a y (pretty-prettiest).
Exceptions to the rule: daily, dryly, dryness, paid, said, shyly, shyness, slyly, slyness
Hickory Dickory “y” Song
(to the tune of “Hickory Dickory Dock”)
If a root ends in a vowel,
Hickory, dickory dock,
And after that a y.
The mouse ran up the clock.
Just keep the y—and then said I,
The clock struck one—the mouse ran down,
“Add on the suffix to end.”
Hickory dickory dock.
But if a consonant then
Hickory, dickory dock,
A y should end a word,
The mouse ran up the clock.
Just change the y into an i
The clock struck two—the mouse ran down,
Except if the suffix has i.
Hickory dickory dock.
Find spelling rules with memorable raps and songs on CD, with a comprehensive whole-class diagnostic spelling assessment, enabling 4th–12th grade teachers to differentiate instruction with 35 remedial and 32 advanced spelling-vocabulary worksheets, spelling word lists/tests, Greek and Latin affixes/roots, syllable practice, and spelling-vocabulary games, and more in Mark’s book, Teaching Spelling and Vocabulary. Also check out Differentiated Spelling Instruction, the complementary fourth through eighth grade (Levels A-E) standards-based spelling series, designed to integrate instruction in spelling, structural analysis, and vocabulary. Each level has 32 weekly spelling pattern lessons and all the resources needed to differentiate spelling instruction: spelling pattern word lists with spelling sort worksheets, formative and summative assessments with recording matrices, review games, memory songs with MP3 links, supplementary word lists, and more.
