The government expect children to know these words before leaving Year 4.

i S p e l l

Children can collect words that they find difficult to spell on the iSpell so that they can practise them.

Adjective - Describing word Adverb - Describes how a verb (doing word) is done and often ends in ‘ly’ e.g The dog walked slowly. Exception - Something that doesn’t fit the rule. Homophone - Words that sounds the same, but are spelt different. Prefix - A group of letters at the beginning of a word, that change the meaning e.g. mis - misunderstand. Mnemonics - A saying, where the first letter of each word spells out a word e.g. Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants, spells because. Noun - Naming word. Root word - Is a basic word with a meaning e.g. play. In the word playfully, play is the root word with a suffix -fully attached. Spelling pattern­ A group of letters that come together to make a particular sound, or letters that are commonly placed next to each other. Suffix - A group of letters at the end of a word, that can change the meaning, tense or classification. Sound - The sound a letter, or group of letters make when you say them. Stressed - The part of the word sounds stronger than the other when you say it. Syllable - Part of a word with a vowel in, that you hear when you clap it out e.g. Unstressed - That part of the word sounds weaker than the other when you say it. Tense - How spelling a word can change whether it is in the: past, present, or future tense e.g. walked is past tense, whereas walking is present tense. Word classification - What type of word it is - verb, adverb, adjective, noun etc.

The English language is complex, which makes learning to spell very tricky. Some words have rules; some words are exceptions to the rule and some words have no rules at all! Here is a little guide to help you assist your child with learning to spell. When your child gets a spelling list from school, which follows a rule, look for it in here and it should explain it and give some examples.

Keep a notebook of words you find difficult to spell. Underline the part of the word that you find most difficult and learn the most difficult part first.

Use a dictionary (not a spell checker) to check spellings, as it will give you the meaning too. Learning the meaning of the word can help you to spell it.

Learn common prefixes and what they mean e.g. the ‘re’ prefix often means to do it again, so the word send becomes the word re-send, which means to send it again.

Learn common suffixes and how they can change a word e.g. ing, ed, tion, cial

LEARN THE RULES! Learn the exceptions, there’s no cheat for this one! Build longer words from root words. sign - signal,

design, signature. See how many words you can come up with from a root word.

Learn word families - when a number of words are related they form a family of words, such as: family, unfamiliar, familiarise.

Break down words into syllables (parts of words that contain vowels) - ed - u - ca - tion - al = 5 syllables.

Make sure that you know all of the phonic sounds. Use mnemonics for words which don’t follow the rules e.g.

for because you can say: Big Elephants Always Understand Small Elephants.

Use rhymes and sayings for words you find tricky e.g. for the word necessary think: one colour and two socks, because it has one s and two c.

Say it the way it sounds as you write it; you can sound a little odd when saying it out loud, but it is a really useful way to remember a spelling. For the word ‘definitely’ think def-fine-ight-lee.

Look for words inside of words. If you are writing the word vegetable think: veg - e - table.

Group words by spelling patterns - if you learn one pattern, you can learn lots of different words that have it. ough is always a tricky one, but if you know it then you can write: thought, though, bought, sought, fought, through, tough, plough and many more!

Look, cover, say, write, check Play spelling games like Scrabble to build confidence - no

cheating mind! The most important thing to

remember is to take your time when writing, pay attention to how you spell and make an effort to correct misspelt words before seeking help from an adult or a dictionary.

stra

wbe

rry

ant

trac

tor

pig

iglo

o nu

rse

mou

se

dog

grap

es

oran

ge

cat

kite

ch

ick

egg

umbr

ella

ro

bot

hear

t ba

lloon

fr

og

off

lolly

ba

ll

cros

s

jigsa

w

van

wizar

d ax

e ye

llow

ze

bra

buzz

qu

een

chic

k

shar

k th

umb

stro

ng

rain

bow

tr

ee

light

go

at

book

bo

ots

star

fo

rk

turn

ip

cow

bo

il ea

r ch

air

pure

pe

pper

Rule Guidance Example Words

Apostrophe for Contraction

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

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

Apostrophe for contraction it’s

You only use an apostrophe for it’s, if it is a contraction for it is or it has.

its it’s

Possessive apostrophe with plurals or names ending in s

An apostrophe for possession is used to show that something belongs to someone. Normally it would look like this - Lucy’s bag. It has an apostrophe and then an s. If the name ends in an s e.g. Lewis, or you are dealing with a plural e.g. boys, then you only need to add the apostrophe and not the extra s. Lewis’ bag (the bag belonging to Lewis). boys’ changing room (the changing that belongs to the boys).

Peter’s, children’s, boy’s, girl’s, Jess’

cray

on

hous

e tie

le

af

boy

girl

blue

sa

w

wha

le

dolp

hin

scre

w

toe

haun

ted

key

cake

tr

apez

e

slide

bo

ne

cube

Rule Guidance Example Words Prefixes: mis - dis - un- re- sub- super- auto- in- il- im-

A prefix is something that fits on the front of a word to change its meaning, but the spelling of the root word often stays the same. Changes the word to a negative or opposite: mis - mis - understand dis - dis - appear un - un - certain re means again. re - re - decorate sub- means ‘under’. sub - sub - heading super- means ‘above’ super - super - star auto- means ‘self’ or ‘own’ auto - auto - biography The prefix in– can mean both ‘not’ and ‘in’/‘into’. Before a root word starting with l, in- becomes il-Before a root word starting with m or p, in- becomes im-. in - in - active il - il - legal im - im - possible

misbehave, mislead, misspell. disappoint, disagree, disobey, disappear unemployed, uncertain redo, refresh, return, reappear, redecorate subdivide, subheading, submarine, submerge supermarket, superman, superstar autobiography, autograph. inactive, incorrect, increase. illegal, illegible. immature, immortal, impossible, impatient, imperfect

Rule Guidance Example Words Words with the /ei/

sound spelt: ei, eigh, ey One sound can have many different spellings.

vein, weight, eight, neighbour, they, obey

Words with the /sh/ sound

The ‘sh’ sound can be spelt a variety of different ways: ch as in chef s as in sure ss as in mission

chef, chalet, machine, brochure, pressure, reassure

Words with the /sh/ sound continued

t before ion as in mention. ci as in special t before ial as in partial ce as in ocean

reaction, reception, social, official, confidential,

Words with the /s/ sound spelt sc

Often when s and c are next to each other, they just make a ‘c’ sound.

science, scene, discipline, fascinate, crescent

ch Some words with a ‘c’ sound, are spelt with a ch.

scheme, chorus, chemist, echo, character

/u/ sound spelt ou

In the following words, the ou makes a ‘u’ sound.

young, touch, double, trouble, country

Homo-phones

Homo means same and phone means sound. Homophone therefore means words that sound the same, but have a different spelling and meaning. Children need to learn the spelling and meaning for each. E.g. great and grate.

accept/except, affect/effect, ball/bawl, berry/bury, brake/break, fair/fare, groan/grown, here/hear, heel/heal/he’ll, knot/not, mail/male, main/mane, meat/meet, medal/meddle missed/mist, peace/piece, plain/plane, rain/rein/reign, scene/seen, weather/whether

Rule Guidance Example Words

sure / ture If the word ends in a ‘sher’ sound, it is often spelt - ture. Exceptions: Watch out for words that end in - cher e.g. teacher, catcher, richer. Children need to learn which words end in which spelling.

measure, treasure, pleasure, enclosure creature, furniture, picture, nature, adventure.

-ous Sometimes the root word is obvious; poison is the root word of poisonous and the usual rules apply for adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters. Sometimes there is no obvious root word. E.g. ‘tremen’ is not a word on its own. –our is changed to –or before –ous is added. A final ‘e’ of the root word must be kept, if the sound of ‘g’ is to be kept.

poisonous, dangerous, mountainous, famous, various tremendous, enormous, jealous humorous, glamorous, vigorous courageous, outrageous

- ous continued

If there is an ‘i’ sound before the –ous ending, it is usually spelt as ‘i’, but a few words have an ‘e’.

serious, obvious, curious hideous, spontaneous, courteous

gue que

Some words that end with the ‘g’ sound have the - gue spelling. Some words that end with the ‘k’ sound have the - que spelling (French in origin).

league, tongue, antique, unique

Rule Guidance Example Words

ir- inter- anti-

means ‘not’. Before a root word starting with ‘r’, in- becomes ir- means ‘between’ or ‘among’ means ‘against’

irregular, irrelevant, irresponsible interact, intercity, international, interrelated (inter + related) antiseptic, anti-clockwise, antisocial

Suffixes: -s -es -ed -ing -er -y

A suffix is something that fits on the end of a word. If you have a short word ending in a consonant, double it, before adding the suffix. E.g. clap becomes clapping. Exception: The letter ‘x’ is never doubled: mixing, mixed, boxer, sixes. If you have a word ending in ‘y’, change it to an ‘i’ before adding the suffix. E.g. copy becomes copied

But NOT when adding - ing or you would get - iing (copiing rather than copying).

If you have a word ending in ‘e’ with a consonant before, drop the ‘e’ before adding the suffix E.g. make becomes making Exception: being.

patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied …but copying, crying, replying hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

Rule Guidance Example Words Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to words of more than one syllable. -ing -en -er -ed

If the last syllable of a word is stressed (has more emphasis on it) when said and ends with a vowel and then a consonant (forget), the final consonant letter is doubled before the suffix is added. E.g. forget become forgetting The consonant letter is not doubled if the syllable is unstressed (weaker or has less emphasis on it when said) The ‘den’ in the word garden is weaker than the ‘gar’, so it is considered unstressed, therefore you don’t double the ‘n’ before adding -ing

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

Suffixes: -ment -ness -ful -less

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) words ending in –y with a consonant before it (merry), 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

Suffix: ly

The suffix –ly is added to an adjective to form an adverb. An adverb describe how a verb (doing word) is done e.g. walked (verb) slowly (adverb) The suffix –ly starts with a consonant letter, so it is added straight on to most root words.

sadly, quickly, slowly, bravely, cautiously, quietly, loudly

Rule Guidance Example Words -ly continued Learn the exceptions:

1) If the root word has more than one syllable and ends in a consonant followed by ‘y’, the ‘y’ is changed to an ‘i’, before adding the - ly. 2) If the root word ends with –le, the –le is changed to –ly. 3) If the root word ends with –ic, -ally is added rather than just –ly, except in the word publicly. 4) The words truly, duly, wholly.

happily, angrily gently, simply, humbly, nobly basically, frantically, dramatically

Suffix: -ation

The suffix –ation is added to verbs (doing words) to form nouns (naming words)

information, adoration, sensation, preparation, admiration

Suffixes: –tion, –sion, –ssion, –cian

Strictly speaking, the suffixes are –ion and –ian. Clues about whether to put ‘t’, ‘s’, ‘ss’ or ‘c’ before these suffixes often come from the last letter or letters of the root word. –tion is the most common spelling. It is used if the root word ends in ‘t’ or ‘te’. –ssion is used if the root word ends in ‘ss’ or –mit. –sion is used if the root word ends in ‘d’ or ‘se’. Exceptions: attend – attention, intend – intention. –cian is used if the root word ends in ‘c’ or ‘cs’.

invention, injection, action, hesitation, completion expression, discussion, confession, permission, admission expansion, extension, comprehension, tension musician, electrician, magician, politician, mathematician