Spelling

Statutory requirements

Rules and guidance (non-statutory)

Example words (non-statutory)

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

The letter j is never used for the /dʒ/ sound at the end of English words. At the end of a word, the /dʒ/ sound

is spelt –dge straight after the /æ/,

/ɛ/, /ɪ/, /ɒ/, /ʌ/ and /ʊ/ sounds (sometimes called ‘short’ vowels).

After all other sounds, whether vowels or consonants, the /dʒ/ sound is spelt as –ge at the end of a word.

In other positions in words, the /dʒ/ sound is often (but not always) spelt as g before e, i, and y. The /dʒ/ sound is always spelt as j before a, o and u.

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

The ‘k’ and ‘g’ at the beginning of these words was sounded hundreds of years ago.

knock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw

The /r/ sound spelt wr at the beginning of

words

This spelling probably also reflects an old pronunciation.

write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –le at the end of words

The –le spelling is the most common spelling for this sound at the end of words.

table, apple, bottle, little, middle

Statutory requirements

Rules and guidance (non-statutory)

Example words (non-statutory)

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –el at the end of words

The –el spelling is much less common than –le.

The –el spelling is used after m, n, r, s, v, w and more often than not after s.

camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel

The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –al at the end of words

Not many nouns end in –al, but many adjectives do.

metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

Words ending –il

There are not many of these words.

pencil, fossil, nostril

The /aɪ/ sound spelt

–y at the end of words

This is by far the most common spelling for this sound at the end of words.

cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in

–y

The y is changed to i before –es is added.

flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries

Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it

The y is changed to i before –ed, –er and –est are added, but not before – ing as this would result in ii. The only ordinary words with ii are skiing and taxiing.

copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied

…but copying, crying, replying

Adding the endings – ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it

The –e at the end of the root word is dropped before –ing, –ed, –er,

–est, –y or any other suffix beginning with a vowel letter is added.

Exception: being.

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

The last consonant letter of the root word is doubled to keep the /æ/, /ɛ/,

/ɪ/, /ɒ/ and /ʌ/ sound (i.e. to keep the

vowel ‘short’).

Exception: The letter ‘x’ is never doubled: mixing, mixed, boxer, sixes.

patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny

The /ɔ:/ sound spelt a before l and ll

The /ɔ:/ sound (‘or’) is usually spelt as a before l and ll.

all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

The /ʌ/ sound spelt o

other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

Statutory requirements

Rules and guidance (non-statutory)

Example words (non-statutory)

The /i:/ sound spelt

–ey

The plural of these words is formed by the addition of –s (donkeys, monkeys, etc.).

key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

The /ɒ/ sound spelt a after w and qu

a is the most common spelling for the /ɒ/ (‘hot’) sound after w and qu.

want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

The /ɜ:/ sound spelt or after w

There are not many of these words.

word, work, worm, world, worth

The /ɔ:/ sound spelt ar after w

There are not many of these words.

war, warm, towards

The /ʒ/ sound spelt s

television, treasure, usual

The suffixes –ment,

–ness, –ful , –less and –ly

If a suffix starts with a consonant letter, it is added straight on to most root words without any change to the last letter of those words.

Exceptions:

1. argument
2. root words ending in –y with a consonant before it but only if the root word has more than one syllable.

enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly

merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily

Contractions

In contractions, the apostrophe shows where a letter or letters would be if the words were written in full (e.g. can’t – cannot).

It’s means it is (e.g. It’s raining) or sometimes it has (e.g. It’s been raining), but it’s is never used for the possessive.

can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll

The possessive apostrophe (singular nouns)

Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s

Words ending in –tion

station, fiction, motion, national, section

Statutory requirements

Rules and guidance (non-statutory)

Example words (non-statutory)

Homophones and near-homophones

It is important to know the difference in meaning between homophones.

there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, bare/bear, one/won, sun/son, to/too/two, be/bee, blue/blew, night/knight

Common exception words

Some words are exceptions in some accents but not in others – e.g. past, last, fast, path and bath are not exceptions in accents where the a in these words is pronounced /æ/, as in cat.

Great, break and steak are the only common words where the /eɪ/ sound is spelt ea.

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 – and/or others according to programme used.

Note: ‘children’ is not an exception to what has been taught so far but is included because of its relationship with ‘child’.