3rd grade suffixes worksheets

Third graders read suffixes as meaning clues and start weighing pairs like careful and careless, where both are real words and only the sentence tells you which fits. Spelling shifts appear too: happy drops its y in happily.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.3.4.b.

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The kind of sentences you'll get

Circle the letter of the word with the correct suffix.

  1. That old ladder is not . climbable · climbment · climbness

    Answer: climbable

  2. The road was after the rain. mudful · muddy · mudless
  3. The waterfall drowned out our shouts. thunderous · thunderment · thunderness

Every print pulls a fresh set of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling never gets the same sheet.

What's on each sheet

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

The careful/careless items are the heart of this grade: both are real, so the sentence must be read for its story. When your child picks wrong, don't correct the word; reread the sentence and ask what it's trying to say. Note the spelling changes out loud when they appear, but keep the focus on meaning.

Watch for: -ful and -less are opposites on the same base: hopeful means full of hope, hopeless means without it. A suffix can change a word's job in the sentence: teach is an action, teacher is a person.

Common questions about suffixes

Why are both answer choices sometimes real words?
That's the grade-3 step: careful and careless both exist, so the sentence has to be read for meaning. A child who spilled juice was careless; one holding glass should be careful. Context does the deciding, which is precisely the skill worth practicing.
Why does happy become happily instead of happyly?
Words ending in a consonant plus y trade the y for an i before most suffixes: happy, happily; easy, easily (never before -ing: crying). It's one of the most dependable spelling rules in English, and meeting it inside real words beats memorizing it as a rule alone.

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Aligned to Common Core L.3.4.b. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 137, updated August 2026.

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