No sign-up · Read aloud · Free
Free spelling quiz for kids
Hear the word, pick the right spelling and earn stars. Ten words from a grade or year set. Premium members can use their own lists.
Pick a set
10 words from 2nd grade, read aloud.
How the spelling quiz works
1. Hear the word
Each word is read aloud. Tap Hear it to replay it, or Slower to hear it slowly.
2. Tap the right spelling
Three or four spellings, one correct. No timer, so your child can take their time.
3. See it turn green
The wrong spellings fade away and the right one grows and turns green. A right pick moves straight on.
4. Missed it? Type it
After a wrong pick the word is read again and spelled out letter by letter, then covered: your child types it from memory.
Why we designed it this way
Showing children wrong spellings on purpose deserves care. Here is what the research says, and what each finding made us do.
Studies with adults found that seeing a misspelled word can make you more likely to misspell it later. (Brown, 1988; Jacoby & Hollingshead, 1990)
So: Wrong spellings fade out as soon as your child taps. The last and biggest thing on screen is always the correct spelling, in green, read aloud again. The results list only correct spellings.
A study of children averaging 10 years old found a clear benefit from seeing correct spellings and no measurable harm from seeing misspellings. How deeply they worked with the word mattered. (Dixon & Kaminska, 2007)
So: When your child picks a wrong spelling, they don't just move on: they look at the right one, it is hidden, and they type it.
Multiple-choice questions help people remember, but more wrong options weakened that benefit and led people to repeat wrong answers later. (Roediger & Marsh, 2005)
So: Never more than three wrong spellings, and a setting for just two, which we suggest for children aged 7 and under.
Feedback after multiple-choice questions raised later correct answers and cut repeats of wrong ones. (Butler & Roediger, 2008)
So: Feedback comes after every single question. There is no mode that saves the answers for the end.
Wrong options that are believable make people actually recall what they know, rather than just recognise the answer. (Little, Bjork, Bjork & Angello, 2012)
So: Wrong spellings are the kind of mistakes children really make (a dropped letter, a swapped pair, the wrong vowel), never random letters and never real words.
1st and 2nd graders spelled better after practising words from memory than after copying them, the next day and five weeks later. (Jones et al., 2016)
So: Typing from memory stays the main event. The quiz is a warm-up, and its results send the missed words to our free spelling test for typing.
The honest summary: the adult studies say misspellings can stick, the study with children is reassuring but small, and the multiple-choice studies say feedback and believable wrong options turn the format from risky into useful. We follow the cautious reading, and design as if the adult risk applied to children too.
Want the details? Read the full research write-up, with every study and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Is this spelling quiz really free?
Yes. Pick a set at the top of this page and press Start. There is no sign-up and nothing to install: you can play 5 quizzes a day without an account. A free account makes it unlimited and adds Spot the Spelling inside SpellCrush, with words at your child's level and their progress saved. The quiz is also one of the spelling games in our games hub.
How does the spelling quiz work?
Your child hears a word, then its definition, and sees three or four spellings of it. Only one is right. They can hear the word again or a sentence with it, and tapping an answer cuts the audio short. A right pick turns green and moves straight on to the next word. After a wrong one, the word is read aloud again, a voice spells it out letter by letter while the word is on screen, and then your child types it: they see it, it is hidden, and they spell it from memory. A quiz from one of our sets is ten words, with no timer.
Can I use my own spelling words?
Yes, with Premium. Signed in with a Premium account, choose More and pick one of your saved word lists to get ten of its words at random, or choose Type a list instead and type or paste up to 20 words. Guests and free accounts can play the grade and year sets. A few very short words, like to or an, can't be turned into a fair question because almost every way of misspelling them is another real word. Those are skipped and the quiz tells you which ones. Our free spelling test also takes your own list, without an account.
What are the stars?
Each ten-word round earns one to three stars: three for getting 9 or 10 right the first time, two for 7 or 8, and one otherwise. The page remembers your best stars for each set and your best streak on this device. There is no timer and nothing to lose, so a round is a chance to beat your own best, not other players.
Are any of the wrong answers real words?
No. Every wrong spelling is checked against a dictionary of more than 270,000 English words, so a wrong option is never a real word or a homophone. For words that sound like other words, such as there and their, the quiz reads a sentence after the word so your child knows which one is meant.
Is a multiple-choice quiz a good way to learn spelling?
It is a good first step, not the whole job. Research on multiple-choice questions finds they help people remember, especially with feedback after every question, which this quiz always gives. But in a study of 1st and 2nd graders, spelling words from memory beat copying them, so the results screen sends the missed words to our free spelling test, where your child types them.
What ages is the spelling quiz for?
There are sets for kindergarten to 5th grade and for UK Years 1 to 6, plus commonly misspelled words and homophones. In Settings you can choose three spellings per word instead of four, which is gentler for children aged 7 and under.
Does it use US or UK spelling?
Both. The UK year sets use British spelling, and in Settings you can switch the spelling and accent between US and UK / Australia, and pick which voice reads the words.
Make the words stick
SpellCrush turns your child's word list into a few minutes of daily practice, with the words read aloud, hints when they're stuck, and the tricky ones coming back until they're mastered. Free to start.