English: Spelling

Common Exception Words

High Frequency words

Statutory Word Lists

ELG EXP: They also write some irregular common words.

ELG EXC: Can spell many irregular high frequency words.

High frequency words (HFW) - the first 100 from Letters and Sounds 

Phase 2 – a an as at if in is it of off on can dad had back and get big him his not got up mum but but the to I no go into

Phase 3 – will that this then them with see for now down look too he she we me be was you they all are my her

Phase 4 – went it’s from children just help said have like so do some come were there little one when out what

High frequency words (HFW) - the first 100 from Letters and Sounds 

Revisit Phase 2/3/4

Phase 5 – don’t old I’m by time house about your day made came make here saw very put oh their people Mr Mrs looked called asked could

Common Exception Words (CEW):

the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our – and/or

Revisit first 100 HFW and Y2 CEW

Y2 CEW

door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind, child, children*, wild, climb, most, only, both, old, cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great, break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past, father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour, move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people, water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas

accident(ally)

actual(ly)

address

answer

appear 

arrive

build

centre

circle

decide

different

difficult

disappear

early

earth

eight/eighth

exercise

experience

experiment

extreme

February

forward (s)

fruit

group

guide

heart

height

history

imagine

increase

important

interest

learn

length

medicine

natural

notice

often

pressure

promise

purpose

quarter

recent

sentence

special

strange

weight

believe

bicycle

breath

breathe

busy/business

calendar

caught

century

certain

complete

consider

continue

describe

enough

famous

favourite

grammar

heard

island

knowledge

library

material

mention

minute

naughty

occasion(ally)

opposite

ordinary

particular

peculiar

perhaps

popular

position

possess(ion)

possible

potatoes

probably

question

regular

reign

remember

separate

straight

strength

suppose

surprise

therefore

though/although

thought

through

various

woman/women

 achieve

appreciate

attached

average

bargain

bruise

category

competition

familiar

foreign

forty

harass

identity

immediate(ly)

interfere

interrupt

curiosity

definite

desperate

determined

develop

dictionary

disastrous

especially

language

leisure

lightning

marvellous

mischievous

muscle

neighbour

occupy

occur

opportunity

persuade

programme

queue

recognise

recommend

rhyme

rhythm

shoulder

sincere(ly)

soldier

stomach

suggest

symbol

system

thorough

variety

vehicle

 accommodate

accompany

according

aggressive

amateur

ancient

apparent

available

awkward

cemetery

committee

communicate

community

conscience

conscious

controversy

convenience

correspond

criticise (critic + ise)

embarrass

environment

equip (-ped, -ment)

exaggerate

excellent 

existence

explanation

frequently

government

guarantee

hindrance

individual

necessary

nuisance

parliament

physical

prejudice

privilege

profession

pronunciation

relevant 

restaurant

sacrifice

secretary

signature

sufficient

temperature

twelfth

vegetable

yacht

Phonics/Spelling rules

ELG EXP: Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds.

ELG EXC: Children can spell phonically regular words of more than one syllable

Know all letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent

Children can segment

to spell:

·          Phase 2 CV words – if am on up

·          Phase 2 CVC words – mat peg tin lock cup

·          Phase 3 CCVC words e.g. chop shed them

·          Phase 3 CVVC words e.g. wait food hurt pair seem foot town pure sight card join dinner road fork near

·          Phase 3 CVCC words e.g.  – song buzz

·          Phase 4 CVCC words e.g. lamp jump best chest sink tenth pond shelf

·          Phase 4 CCVC words e.g.  green plug train grip float spill stop clap

(Letters and sounds)

Words containing each of the 40+ phonemes already taught:

·   words ending ‘ff’, ‘ll’, ‘ss’, ‘zz’ and ‘ck’ (Usually after a short vowel letter in short words) - (off, well, miss, buzz, back)

·   the /ng/ sound spelt n before k (bank, think, honk, sunk)

·   words ending in ‘tch’ (/ch/ sound after a short vowel is usually ‘tch’ - (catch, fetch, kitchen, notch, hutch)

·   new consonant spellings ‘ph’ and ‘wh’ e.g. dolphin, alphabet, which, wheel,

·   words ending in –y e.g. very, happy, funny

·   The /v/ sound at the end of words (have, live, give)

·   Using k for the /k/ sound (Kent, sketch, kit, skin,

·   ea (head, bread, meant, instead, read (past tense)

·   ir (girl, bird, shirt, first, third)

·   ur (turn, hurt, church, burst, Thursday)

·   oo (food, pool, moon, zoo, soon)

·   oo (book, took, foot, wood, good)

·   oa (boat, coat, road, coach, goal)

·   oe (toe, goes)

·   ou (out, about, mouth, around, sound)

·   ow (now, how, brown, down, town)

·   ow (own, blow, snow, grow, show)

·   ue (blue, clue, true, rescue, Tuesday)

·   ew (new, few, grew, flew, drew, threw)

·   ie (lie, tie, pie, cried, tried, dried)

·   ie (chief, field, thief)

·   igh (high, night, light, bright, right)

·   or (for, short, born, horse, morning)

·   ore (more, score, before, wore, shore)

·   aw (saw, draw, yawn, crawl)

·   au (author, August, dinosaur, astronaut)

·   air (air, fair, pair, hair, chair)

·   ear (dear, hear, beard, near, year)

·   ear (bear, pear, wear)

·   are (bare, dare, care, share, scared)

·  segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly

learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which one or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling:

·    The /dʒ/ sound spelt as ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g elsewhere in words before e, i and y - badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge, age, huge, change, charge, bulge, village, gem, giant, magic, giraffe, energy jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust)

·    The /s/ sound spelt c before e, i and y - race, ice, cell, city, fancy

·    The /n/ sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words - knock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw

·    The /r/ sound spelt wr at the beginning of words - write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap

·    The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –le at the end of words - table, apple, bottle, little, middle

·    The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –el at the end of words - camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel

·    The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –al at the end of words - metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

·    The /aɪ/ sound spelt –y at the end of words - cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

·    Words ending –il  pencil, fossil, nostril

·    The /ɔ:/ sound spelt a before l and ll - all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

·    The /ɔ:/ sound spelt ar after w - word, work, worm, world, worth

·    The /ʌ/ sound spelt o - other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

·    The /i:/ sound spelt –ey - key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

·    The /ɒ/ sound spelt a after w and qu - want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

·    The /ɜ:/ sound spelt or after w - war, warm, towards

·    The /ʒ/ sound spelt s - television, treasure, usual

·    Words ending in –tion- station, fiction, motion, national, section

Spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1):

·   Words with the /ʃ/ sound spelt ch (mostly French in origin) chef, chalet, machine, brochure

·   Words with the /eɪ/ sound spelt ei, eigh, or ey (vein, weigh, eight, neighbour, they, obey)

·   Words with the /k/ sound spelt ch (Greek in origin) (scheme, chorus, chemist, echo, character)

·   The /Ù/ sound spelt ‘ou’ (young, touch)

·   The /ɪ/ sound spelt y elsewhere than at the end of words (myth, gym, Egypt, pyramid, mystery)

·   Words ending with the /g/ sound spelt –gue and the /k/ sound spelt –que (French in origin) (league, tongue, antique, unique)

·   Words with the /k/ sound spelt ch (mostly French in origin) (echo, scheme, chorus, chemist)

-        

spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1):

·    Words with the /s/ sound spelt sc (Latin in origin) - science, scene, discipline, fascinate, crescent

·    Words with endings sounding like /ʒə/  ( measure, treasure, pleasure, enclosure) or /tʃə (creature, furniture, picture, nature, adventure)

·   Words with ‘silent’ letters (i.e. letters whose presence cannot be predicted from the pronunciation of the word) doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight

·   Words with the /i:/ sound spelt ei after c (deceive, conceive, receive, perceive, ceiling)

·   Words containing the letter-string ough - ought, bought, thought, nought, brought, fought, rough, tough, enough, cough, though, although, dough, through, thorough, borough, plough, bough

Prefixes/suffixes/word endings

·    Using the spelling rule for adding –s or –es as the plural marker for nouns and the third person singular marker for verbs for example, dog, dogs; wish, wishes], including the effects of these suffixes on the meaning of the noun

·    Using the prefix un– and how it changes the meaning of verbs and adjectives [negation, for example, unkind, or undoing: untie the boat]

·    Adding the endings –ing, –ed and –er to verbs where no change is needed to the root word - hunting, hunted, hunter, buzzing, buzzed, buzzer, jumping, jumped, jumper Adding –er and –est to adjectives where no change is needed to the root word - grander, grandest, fresher, freshest, quicker, quickest

Add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly:

·   The suffixes –ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly

·   Formation of nouns using suffixes such as –ness, –er and by compounding [for example, whiteboard, superman]

·   Formation of adjectives using suffixes such as –ful, –less

·   Use of the suffixes –er, –est in adjectives and the use of –ly in Standard English to turn adjectives into adverbs

·   Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y - flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries

·   Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it - copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied, copying, crying, replying

·   Adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it - hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

·   Adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter - patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny

Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (English Appendix 1):

·    dis–: disappoint, disagree, disobey

·    mis–: misbehave, mislead, misspell (mis + spell)

·    re–: redo, refresh, return, reappear, redecorate

·    sub– subdivide, subheading, submarine, submerge

·    super–: supermarket, superman, superstar

·    auto–: autobiography, autograph

·    The suffix –ly: sadly, completely, usually (usual + ly), finally (final + ly), comically (comical + ly)

·    If the root word ends in –y with a consonant letter before it, the y is changed to i, but only if the root word has more than one syllable (happily, angrily)

Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (English Appendix 1)

·    in–: inactive, incorrect, illegal, illegible

·    il -: illegal, illegible

·    im-: immature, immortal, impossible, impatient, imperfect

·    ir-: irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible

·    anti–: antiseptic, anti-clockwise, antisocial

·    inter–: interact, intercity, international, interrelated (inter + related)

·    Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words of more than one syllable

·    (forgetting, forgotten, beginning, beginner, prefer, preferred gardening, gardener, limiting, limited, limitation)

·    –ation: information, adoration, sensation, preparation, admiration

·    –ous: poisonous, dangerous, mountainous, famous, various

·    tremendous, enormous, jealous, humorous, glamorous, vigorous, courageous, outrageous, serious, obvious, curious hideous, spontaneous, courteous

·    Endings which sound like /ʒən/ (-sion) - division, invasion, confusion, decision, collision, television

o  Endings which sound like spelt /ʃən/:

·    –tion - invention, injection, action, hesitation, completion

·    –sion - expression, discussion, confession, permission, admission

·    –ssion - expansion, extension, comprehension, tension

·    –cian - musician, electrician, magician, politician, mathematician

v  RECAP: If the root word ends in –y with a consonant letter before it, the y is changed to i, but only if the root word has more than one syllable (happily, angrily)

v  If the root word ends with –le, the –le is changed to –ly.( gently, simply, humbly, nobly)

v  If the root word ends with –ic, –ally is added rather than just –ly, except in the word publicly. (basically, frantically, dramatically)

Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand the guidance for adding them:

·    Verb prefixes [for example, dis–, de–, mis–, over– and re–]

·    Converting nouns or adjectives into verbs using suffixes [for example, –ate; –ise; –ify]

·    Words ending in –able and –ible/–ably and –ibly- adorable/adorably (adoration), applicable/applicably (application), considerable/considerably (consideration), tolerable/tolerably (toleration) , changeable, noticeable, forcible, legible, dependable, comfortable, understandable, reasonable, enjoyable, reliable, possible/possibly, horrible/horribly, terrible/terribly, visible/visibly, incredible/incredibly, sensible/sensibly

Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand the guidance for adding them:

·   Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words ending in –fer (referring, referred, referral, preferring, preferred, transferring, transferred, reference, referee, preference, transference )

use knowledge of morphology and etymology in spelling and understand that the spelling of some words needs to be learnt specifically, as listed in English Appendix 1:

·   Endings which sound like /ʃəs/ spelt –cious or –tious (vicious, precious, conscious, delicious, malicious, suspicious, ambitious, cautious, fictitious, infectious, nutritious)

·   Endings which sound like /ʃəl/ (tial and cial) (official, special, artificial, partial, confidential, essential)

·   Words ending in –ant, –ance/–ancy, –ent, –ence/–ency - observant, observance, (observation), expectant (expectation), hesitant, hesitancy (hesitation), tolerant, tolerance (toleration), substance (substantial), innocent, innocence, decent, decency, frequent, frequency, confident, confidence (confidential), assistant, assistance, obedient, obedience, independent, independence

Other spelling

·    Division of words into syllables (pocket, rabbit, carrot, thunder, sunset)

·    Compound words e.g. football, laptop, playground

·    Days of the week

·    Naming the letters of the alphabet in order

·    Using letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound

·    Write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs and common exception words taught so far.

·   Write from memory simple sentences dictated by the teacher that include words using the GPCs, common exception words and punctuation taught so far

·    Use of the forms a or an according to whether the next word begins with a consonant or a vowel [for example, a rock, an open box]

·    Word families based on common words, showing how words are related in form and meaning [for example, solve, solution, solver, dissolve, insoluble]

·    Use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary

·    Write from memory simple sentences, dictated by the teacher, that include words and punctuation taught so far

·   Standard English forms for verb inflections instead of local spoken forms [for example, we were instead of we was, or I did instead of I done]

·   Use the first two or three letters of a word to check its spelling in a dictionary

·   Write from memory simple sentences, dictated by the teacher, that include words and punctuation taught so far

·    Use dictionaries to check the spelling and meaning of words

·    Use the first three or four letters of a word to check spelling, meaning or both of these in a dictionary

·    Use a thesaurus.

·    The difference between vocabulary typical of informal speech and vocabulary appropriate for formal speech and writing [for example, find out – discover; ask for – request; go in – enter]

·    How words are related by meaning as synonyms and antonyms [for example, big, large, little].

·    Use dictionaries to check the spelling and meaning of words

·    Use the first three or four letters of a word to check spelling, meaning or both of these in a dictionary

·    Use a thesaurus.

Punctuation related spelling

·   Learning to spell more words with contracted forms - contractions (e.g. can + not = can’t)

·   Learning the possessive apostrophe (singular) [for example, the girl’s book]

·   Place the possessive apostrophe accurately in words with regular plurals [for example, girls’, boys’] and in words with irregular plurals [for example, children’s]

·    Use of the hyphen (co-ordinate, re-enter, co-operate, co-own)

Homophones/near homophones

Homophones and near-homophones:

see/sea, be/bee blue/ blew, hear/here, whole/hole, one/won, no/know, night/knight, to/too/two, by/buy/bye, their/there/they’re/were/where/we’re, quiet/quite, sun/son, are/hour/our, witch/which, knew/new, write/right

brake/break, grate/great, eight/ate, weight/wait, son/sun, here/hear, knot/not, meat/meet, heel/heal/he’ll, plain/plane, grown/groan, rain/rein/reign

peace/piece, main/mane, fair/fare, scene/seen, male/mail, bawl/ball, whether/weather, who’s/whether, missed/mist, medal/meddle, team/teem

heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, guessed/guest, steal/steel, who’s/whose

advice/advise, device/devise, licence/license, practice/practise, prophecy/prophesy, precede/proceed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, wary/weary