Spelling Rules

Spelling Rule

Example Words

The sound spelt as ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g  or j elsewhere in words before e, i and y

badge, edge, bridge,

age, huge, change,

gem, giant, magic, giraffe,

jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust

Flash Cards

Worksheet

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/  sound spelt –le at the end of words

table, apple, bottle, little, middle

The /l/ sound spelt el

camel, tunnel, squirrel,

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

metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

Words ending –il

pencil, fossil, nostril

The /aɪ/ sound spelt –y at the end of words

cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

y worksheet

y worksheet 2

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 …but copying, crying, replying

Exceptions skiing and taxiing.

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

crossword

To double or not to double

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

The /or/ sound spelt as a before l and ll.

all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

The  sound o

other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

The /ee/ sound spelt –ey

key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

The /o/ sound spelt a after w and qu

want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

The /er/ sound spelt or after w

word, work, worm, world, worth

The /or/ sound spelt ar after w

war, warm, towards

The /zu/ sound spelt s

television, treasure,usual

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

enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful,

hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily

Contractions

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

Homophones and near-homophones

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

Common exception words

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’.