Year 5 & 6 Spellings
|
accommodate accompany according achieve aggressive amateur ancient apparent appreciate attached available average awkward bargain bruise category cemetery committee communicate community |
competition conscience* conscious* controversy convenience correspond criticise (critic + ise) curiosity definite desperate determined develop dictionary disastrous embarrass environment equip (–ped, –ment) especially exaggerate excellent |
existence explanation familiar foreign forty frequently government guarantee harass hindrance identity immediate(ly) individual interfere interrupt language leisure lightning marvellous mischievous |
muscle necessary neighbour nuisance occupy occur opportunity parliament persuade physical prejudice privilege profession programme pronunciation queue recognise recommend relevant restaurant |
rhyme rhythm sacrifice secretary shoulder signature sincere(ly) soldier stomach sufficient suggest symbol system temperature thorough twelfth variety vegetable vehicle yacht |
Statutory requirements |
|
Rules and guidance (non‑statutory) |
Example words (non‑statutory) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Endings which sound like /ʃəs/ spelt –cious or –tious |
|
Not many common words end like this. If the root word ends in –ce, the /ʃ/ sound is usually spelt as c – e.g. vice – vicious,grace – gracious, space – spacious, malice – malicious. Exception: anxious. |
vicious, precious, conscious, delicious, malicious, suspicious ambitious, cautious, fictitious, infectious, nutritious |
|
Endings which sound like /ʃəl/ |
|
–cial is common after a vowel letter and –tial after a consonant letter, but there are some exceptions. Exceptions: initial, financial, commercial, provincial (the spelling of the last three is clearly related to finance, commerce andprovince). |
official, special, artificial, partial, confidential, essential |
|
Words ending in –ant, |
|
Use –ant and –ance/–ancy if there is a related word with a /æ/ or /eɪ/ sound in the right position; –ation endings are often a clue. Use –ent and –ence/–ency after soft c (/s/ sound), soft g (/dʒ/ sound) and qu, or if there is a related word with a clear /ɛ/ sound in the right position. There are many words, however, where the above guidance does not help. These words just have to be learnt. |
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 |
Statutory requirements |
|
Rules and guidance (non‑statutory) |
Example words (non‑statutory) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Words ending in –able and Words ending in –ably and |
|
The –able/–ably endings are far more common than the –ible/–ibly endings. As with –ant and –ance/–ancy, the –ableending is used if there is a related word ending in –ation. If the –able ending is added to a word ending in –ce or –ge, the e after the c or gmust be kept as those letters would otherwise have their ‘hard’ sounds (as incap and gap) before the a of the –ableending. The –able ending is usually but not always used if a complete root word can be heard before it, even if there is no related word ending in –ation. The first five examples opposite are obvious; in reliable, the complete word rely is heard, but the ychanges to i in accordance with the rule. The –ible ending is common if a complete root word can’t be heard before it but it also sometimes occurs when a complete word can be heard (e.g. sensible). |
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 |
|
Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words ending in –fer |
|
The r is doubled if the –fer is still stressed when the ending is added. The r is not doubled if the –fer is no longer stressed. |
referring, referred, referral, preferring, preferred, transferring, transferred reference, referee, preference, transference |
|
Use of the hyphen |
|
Hyphens can be used to join a prefix to a root word, especially if the prefix ends in a vowel letter and the root word also begins with one. |
co-ordinate, re-enter, |
Statutory requirements |
|
Rules and guidance (non‑statutory) |
Example words (non‑statutory) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Words with the /i:/ sound spelt ei after c |
|
The ‘i before e except after c’ rule applies to words where the sound spelt by ei is /i:/. Exceptions: protein, caffeine, seize (andeither and neither if pronounced with an initial /i:/ sound). |
deceive, conceive, receive, perceive, ceiling |
|
Words containing the letter-string ough |
|
ough is one of the trickiest spellings in English – it can be used to spell a number of different sounds. |
ought, bought, thought, nought, brought, fought rough, tough, enough cough though, although, dough through thorough, borough plough, bough |
|
Words with ‘silent’ letters (i.e. letters whose presence cannot be predicted from the pronunciation of the word) |
|
Some letters which are no longer sounded used to be sounded hundreds of years ago: e.g. in knight, there was a /k/ sound before the /n/, and the gh used to represent the sound that ‘ch’ now represents in the Scottish word loch. |
doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight |
Statutory requirements |
|
Rules and guidance (non‑statutory) |
Example words (non‑statutory) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Homophones and other words that are often confused |
|
In the pairs of words opposite, nouns end–ce and verbs end –se. Advice and adviseprovide a useful clue as the word advise(verb) is pronounced with a /z/ sound – which could not be spelt c.
More examples: aisle: a gangway between seats (in a church, train, plane). aloud: out loud. affect: usually a verb (e.g. The weather may affect our plans). altar: a table-like piece of furniture in a church. ascent: the act of ascending (going up). bridal: to do with a bride at a wedding. cereal: made from grain (e.g. breakfast cereal). compliment: to make nice remarks about someone (verb) or the remark that is made (noun). |
advice/advise device/devise licence/license practice/practise prophecy/prophesy
farther: further guessed: past tense of the verbguess heard: past tense of the verbhear led: past tense of the verb lead morning: before noon past: noun or adjective referring to a previous time (e.g. In the past) or preposition or adverb showing place (e.g. he walked past me) precede: go in front of or before |
Statutory requirements |
|
Rules and guidance (non‑statutory) |
Example words (non‑statutory) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Homophones and other words that are often confused (continued) |
|
descent: the act of descending (going down). desert: as a noun – a barren place (stress on first syllable); as a verb – to abandon (stress on second syllable) draft: noun – a first attempt at writing something; verb – to make the first attempt; also, to draw in someone (e.g. to draft in extra help) |
principal: adjective – most important (e.g. principal ballerina) noun – important person (e.g. principal of a college) profit: money that is made in selling things stationary: not moving steal: take something that does not belong to you wary: cautious who’s: contraction of who is orwho has |