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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
a
1 ‘a’ is the indefinite article and usually has the unstressed short vowel
sound (-uh-) as in ‘a book’, ‘a person’
abroad (uhbrord)
abrord, abrowd
1 syllabify the word for spelling (ab - road) and (a - broad)
2 teach prefix ‘ab’, meaning ‘from’
3 look for the ‘road’ in ‘abroad’, ‘Get on the road and go abroad’
absolutely
absouletley, absousletly, absoustly, absulutly, abosultly, aboutaly, aboustly,
absolutly, absultly
1 syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (ab-so-lute-ly)
2 identify the basewords ‘solve’ and ‘solution’ from the Latin ‘absolutus’
3 teach prefix ‘ab’, meaning ‘from’
4 teach ‘so-lute’ with long vowel (O) in open syllables: ‘so’, ‘to’, ‘no’ and
‘go’
5 teach the long vowel pattern (- VCe) denoted by silent ‘e’ in (-lute)
6 simply ADD final stable syllable ‘-ly’
actually
actully
1 identify the base word ‘actual’
2 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (act - u - al)
3 simply ADD final stable syllable ‘-ly’
addict
adict
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ad - dict)
2 after a short vowel sound in a two syllabled word there must be two
consonants to preserve the short vowel pattern (- VCCV -) and hold the
vowel in
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3 teach the suffix rule DOUBLE ‘a - d - dict’ to preserve the short vowel
pattern, e.g. addict, rabbit, puppet
adventure
adventurus, eventruse, evetchers
1 identify the baseword ‘venture’ with the prefix ‘ad-’, meaning ‘from’
2 syllabify for spelling (ad - vent - ure)
3 note the long vowel sound and pattern (- VCe) denoted by silent ‘e’ in
(-ure)
4 teach the DROP rule when attaching suffixes to words with silent ‘e’
endings, e.g. ‘ad - vent - ur - ous’
5 the suffix ‘-ous’ is an adjectival ending, e.g. adventurous, nervous, jealous
6 the suffix ‘-us’ is a noun ending, e.g. circus, virus, bonus, and is also an
ending for Latin words, e.g. minimus, calculus, Ranunculus, narcissus
aeroplane, plane, aerobus – but airplane (not airoplane), aircraft, airbus,
airport
1 this is a compound word made from ‘aero’ and ‘plane’
2 ‘aero’ is a Greek word meaning ‘air’; we now use it as a prefix
3 other words using the prefix are: aerobatics, aerobics, aeronaut
4 we can convert the compound word ‘aeroplane’ to English words ‘air’
‘plane’, e.g. airplane, airbus, airport
again
agen, agn, agian
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (a - gain)
2 note the long vowel sound and pattern in the second syllable (- VVC)
3 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ as in (- ai -) again, rain, train,
main
4 (uh - gen) is what we hear in running speech
5 ‘agian’ is a result of ‘spelling by eye’ and from the over exercise of ‘look
and say’
allowed
alowed, aloud, alaud
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (all - ow)
2 teach the DOUBLING rule that after a short vowel sound in two
syllabled words we need to have two consonants so we double ‘l’, e.g.
‘al - l - ow’, swallow, follow, marrow, mellow, tomorrow, yellow
3 the word comes from the Latin words ‘ad - locare’ and ‘ad - laudare’. In
English we ‘assimilate’ ad - low to make it easier to pronounce
4 ‘to allow’ or permit is the basic verb to which we ADD the past tense
ending ‘-ed’, e.g. allow - ed, passed, picked
© 2017 Diane Montgomery
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always (and already etc.)
alway, allway, allways, allwas, allways, allwaz, allwase
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (all - way - s)
2 note that it is a compound word made up from ‘all’ and ‘ways’
3 teach the ‘all, well, full, till rule’ that when these words are added to
others to make a compound word, they must drop one ‘l’, e.g. all + ways
= al - ways, also, alright, already, altogether, almost, welcome, helpful,
until
also
aslo
1 overemphasis in a ‘look and say’ approach in reading can cause this
misspelling
2 teach clear articulation and syllabification for spelling (al - so); the feel of
the sequence of the consonants in the mouth gives the concrete clue
3 note that it is a compound word made up from ‘all’ and ‘so’
4 teach the ‘all, well, full, till rule’ that when these words are added to
others to make a compound word they must drop one ‘l’, e.g. all + ways
= al - ways, also, alright, already, altogether, almost, welcome, helpful,
until
amount
ammount, amout, amant (dialect), amo
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling ‘a - mount’
2 teach the ‘ou’ sound as a diphthong – a double vowel sound (ah-oo’)
3 the ‘ou’ diphthong is used in the middle of words and the ‘ow’ diphthong
at the end of words, e.g. a - mount, fount, grout, pout; how, now, brown,
cow
4 check the articulation of the ‘-nt’ end blend to capture nasal ‘n’ before ‘t’
– hold nose and try to say some ‘-nt’ words: amount, tent, sent
5 very few words beginning with ‘am’ double the ‘m’; they are usually
specialist scientific words, e.g. ammonia, ammeter Ammonite and
ammunition
amusement
amusment
1 identify the baseword ‘muse’; see note 5 above in ‘amount’
2 the long vowel ( U ) in ‘-use’ is denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
as in use, muse, fuse
3 teach the ADD suffixing rule – after a vowel just add consonant suffix:
-ment, amuse - ment, advertisement
© 2017 Diane Montgomery
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angel
agel
1 the misspelling ‘agel’ indicates difficulties in detecting nasal ‘n’ before ‘g’
and ‘d’ and ‘t’
2 hold nose and try to say words such as ‘sing’, ‘send’, ‘sent’, ‘in’
3 cue articulate and syllabify for spelling (an - gel)
4 the stable final syllable ending ‘-el’ is used to keep the ‘g’ and ‘c’ soft in
words, e.g. ang - el, cancel, parcel
animal
anamal, aminal, animall
1 syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (an - i - mal)
2 the doubling rule does not apply at the end of multisyllabled words even
after the short vowel
3 the stable final syllable ending ‘-al’ is used for adjectives and nouns, e.g.
total, petal, medal, pedal, regal, metal
4 and when there is a whole word before it, e.g. musical, electrical
centrifugal
annoyed
anoyed, annoying, anoy, anoyying, eynoy
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (an - noy)
2 after a short vowel sound we must have two consonants to hold the
vowel in so here we must DOUBLE the next consonant: a - n - noy,
annual, annexe
another
a nother, anothere, a never, anover
1 teach that this is a compound word made from ‘an’ and ‘other’
2 ‘nother’ is not an English word
3 teach (- th -) sound for dialect (- v -)
4 ‘-er’ is a most commonly used final stable syllable for the unstressed (-ur)
sound at the end of words as in other, mother, teacher, learner, baker
5 ‘-ere’ says (-ear) as in ‘here’ and has the long vowel sound and pattern
(- VCe)
any
eney, eny, anthing, ainything, enything, aney
1 use cue articulation for spelling and say ‘any’ as with an Irish dialect
2 syllabify for spelling (an - y)
3 the ‘-y’ at the end of words is used for the sound (- ee) as in an-y, mummy,
baby, puppy, daddy
4 ‘taxi’ is an exception and is an abbreviation of ‘taximeter’
© 2017 Diane Montgomery
The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 5
approximately
aproxamatly, approxamatly, approximatle
1 identify the baseword ‘proximate’
2 articulate it clearly for spelling (prox - i - mate)
3 the prefix ‘ad-’ is attached to proximate to make ‘adproximate’ and by
assimilation becomes ap - proximate
4 we must DOUBLE the consonant after a short vowel sound in a
multisyllabled word: a - p - proximate, apple, apply, application
5 note the long vowel (A) sound in the final stable syllable ‘-ate’, denoted
by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
6 after silent ‘e’ endings we can simply ADD consonant suffixes such as
‘-ly’, e.g. approximate - ly, disconsolately, lately, purely, safely
aquarium
acqweriam
1 identify the baseword ‘aquatic’ from the Latin word ‘aqua’ for water
2 ‘q’ is always followed by ‘u’ in English words: ‘qu’ as in quake, queue,
quick
3 the sound of ‘qu’ is (kw) in words – quick, quite, quake
4 the sound of ‘quar’ in aquarium is (- kwere -)
5 the final stable syllable is ‘-ium’, a Latin ending for singular items; the
Latin plural is aquaria, or we can use the English plural ‘- s’ ending
aquariums
area
earea
1 when vowels are followed by consonant ‘r’ they change their sounds
(ar - e - a)
2 the initial syllable also has the long vowel sound because of the following
‘- e -’, e.g. are - a, pare, tare, fare, ware, mare
3 you might cue or misarticulate it with the long vowel ( A ) to remind
you, as in (A - rea)
4 or you can link it to another space word, e.g. arena
argument
arguement
1 identify baseword ‘argue’
2 teach suffix rule DROP when words end in silent ‘e’, e.g. ‘argu - ment’
armour
armer, armor, armur, ama
1 syllabify for spelling (arm - our)
2 use meaning to aid spelling, e.g. ‘we protect ‘our’ ‘arms’ in armour plated
3 the US spelling is ‘armor’ and links with ‘armorial’ in heraldry
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arrived
arived, arivd
1 identify the baseword ‘arrive’
2 after the short vowel ‘a’ we must double the next consonant in two
syllabled words to preserve the short vowel pattern ( VCCV -)
3 the word derives from the Latin ‘ad’, meaning ‘to’ and ‘ripa’ meaning
‘shore’; ‘adripa’ over time is assimilated and ‘arriva’ arrives
4 when adding past tense endings to verbs ending in silent ‘e’ we must
DROP silent ‘e’ and attach ‘-ed’, e.g. arriv - ed
ask, asking
arsk, asing, aks
1 pronounce the word as with a Northern dialect with short vowel (a) for
spelling
2 teach end blend ‘-sk’ as a whole joined writing unit in: a - sk, task, mask
3 simply ADD suffix ‘-ing’ to this blend – asking, masking
attention
attenshion, atention, attenshun, attentoin
1 identify the baseword ‘attend’ and syllabify for spelling (at - tend)
2 teach DOUBLING rule, that after a short vowel we need two consonants
to hold in the vowel so here we must double ‘at - t - end’
3 teach final stable syllable ‘-tion’ is the most common spelling of the
(-shun) sound, e.g. distraction, vacation, dictation, insulation, ambition,
elation
4 note that ‘attend - tion’ has been assimilated to ‘attention’, contend to
contention
auntie, aunty
arnty, anty, arntie, anuty, antie
1 this is the one word beginning with ‘au’ that is not pronounced ‘aw’ as
in Autumn, August, automatic
2 use cue articulation for spelling, e.g. ‘awn - ty’
3 note that the final (ee) sound in English words is represented by final ‘-y’,
e.g. aunty, mummy, baby
4 the diminutive form is to ADD ‘-ie’ to some words, e.g. aunt - ie, nannie
autumn
atome, autum
1 syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (au - tumn)
2 teach the vowel digraph ‘au’ is pronounced as (aw - or) in autumn,
August, augur, augment
3 we mainly use ‘au’ at the beginning of words for (aw) sounds
4 check that short vowel (-u-) sound can be identified in the second syllable
‘um’
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5 use family of words to aid correct spelling, e.g. au - tumn, autum - nal
(from Latin autumnus)
aviary
avary
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (a - vi - ar - y)
2 note the long vowel sound in the first syllable – it is called an open syllable
as in: a - viary, ba - con, o - pen, there is no consonant to close off the
vowel.
baby
babby, babey
1 identify the base word ‘babe’
2 note the long vowel sound in the syllable denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe)
3 teach the DROP rule for silent ‘e’ when adding final ‘y’ to make the (ee)
sound: bab - y, mummy, daddy
4 note the dialect word ‘babby’ with the short vowel sound
back
bake
1 pronounce ‘back’ precisely with the short vowel ‘a’ sound (ba - ck)
2 pronounce ‘bake’ with long vowel sound denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe) to feel and hear the differences between the two words
3 some London dialects pronounce the two words similarly
badges
bages
1 overarticulate the word for spelling (bad - ges)
2 link it to other ‘-dge’ words, such as bad - gers, hedges, ledges, lodges,
bridge
3 we need to have two consonants after the short vowel sound in the first
syllable to preserve the short vowel pattern (- VCCV -); here we use ‘d’
as in ‘bad - ge’
4 if we were to double consonant ‘g’ it would not give us the (- dge) sound
(bagge)
5 if we pronounce the misspelling it gives us (bages) with the long vowel
( A ) sound denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
6 when ‘e’ or ‘i’ follow ‘g’ in words they makes ‘g’ say its ‘soft sound’, e.g.
bad - ges, badger, bridging, hedging
badminton
bamington
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (bad - min - ton)
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baggy
bagey
1 teach base word ‘bag’ with short vowel sound and hard sound of (g)
2 teach DOUBLING rule when adding final suffix ‘-y’: bag - g - y
3 we pronounce (bagey) with the long vowel sound and soft ‘g’ softened
by ‘e’ for comparison
barbecue
barbque
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (bar - be - cue)
2 this spelling is confused with signs indicating Bar - B - Q
barks
barkes
1 identify the base word ‘bark’
2 when vowels are followed by consonant ‘r’ they often change their sounds
(-ar) as in bar - k, dark, mark, lark
3 add plural ‘s’ as in barks, dogs, cats, pigs, rats and cows
barnacles
barnickals
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (barn - a - cl)
2 we use final stable syllable ‘-cle’ in words of three or more syllables:
barnacle, chronicle, cubicle
3 ‘-cle’ is a noun ending: cycle, vehicle, uncle
4 endings ‘cal’ and ‘al’ are reserved for adjectival endings: musical, electrical,
central, local
base, basically
bace, basicly, basikly, bascilly
1 identify the base word ‘base’
2 note the long vowel ( A ) sound denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
in ‘base’
3 the ‘s’ between two vowels usually has the ( Z ) sound and some people
do pronounce the word like this (baze - bazic)
4 teach that open syllables have the long vowel sound: ba - sic, ba - con,
o - pen
5 we cannot add ‘ly’ directly to ‘basic’ but we can add it to ‘basical’ to get
basical - ly, musically, practically, heretically
basket, basketball
basetball, bastet
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the baseword for spelling (bas - ket)
2 a Northern dialect with the short vowel ‘a’ sound helps the spelling
(bas - ket) and (bask - et)
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 9
3 ‘basketball’ is a compound word made from ‘basket’ and ‘ball’
4 at the beginnings and in the middles of words we use ‘k’ before ‘e’, ‘i’
and ‘y’ to make the (- K -) sound, e.g. basket, keeper, baker, king, market,
sky
basking
bascing
1 teach base word ‘bask’, as in the sunshine, basking shark and ask
2 articulate with short vowel sound as in Northern dialects for spelling
(b - ask)
3 syllabify for spelling (bas - king) or (bask -ing)
4 we use ‘k’ after a consonant in one syllabled words: bask, task, flask, rusk,
bank, desk, milk, pink, folk,
5 to avoid use of ‘c’, teach ‘c’ rules, e.g. ‘c’ has no sound of its own. It has
the (s) or soft sound when followed by ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’: cell, city, cycle,
decide
6 It has the ‘k’ or hard sound before ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’ or everywhere else –
cat, coat, cup, clean, crisp, decay, decoy, decade
Bassoon
busoon
1 the origin of the word is in ‘base’ and ‘bass’
2 syllabify for spelling (bass - oon)
beam
bem
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings clearly (beem) with the long
vowel sound and (bem) with the short vowel sound.
2 Ask if the pupil can identify the long then the short vowel ‘e’ sound
3 ‘ee’ is the most frequently occurring option for the long vowel sound (E)
4 ‘ea’ is the next most frequent option cue articulate it to remind you
(be - am)
5 ‘ea’ is usually found in most words connected with food: meat, feast, tea,
bean, cream, yeast
6 many words spelled with ‘ea’ have ‘ee’ homophones, e.g. meat, meet;
bean, been; tea, tee; seam, seem, read, reed; peal, peel
beaten
betten
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings clearly with long vowel
and then short vowel sounds (beat - en) and (bet - ten)
2 ask pupil to identify the base word ‘beat’ with the long vowel pattern
(CVVC)
3 show pupil the homophones ‘beet’ and ‘beat’; ask for meanings
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4 suggest memory aids – ‘keep all the ‘e’s in the red beet’; ‘leave ‘ea’ in
beat, seat and heat’
5 to ‘beat’ is to batter, and has an ‘a’ in it. We beat the carpets, we use the
hand to beat a ball
beautiful
butiful, beatifue, beauitfull, beautifull, beatifel
1 identify the baseword ‘beauty’; it comes from the French word ‘beau’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (beaut - i - ful)
3 teach the CHANGE suffixing rule – when we add the suffix ‘-ful’ we
must change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ in ‘beaut - i - ful’
4 teach the ‘all, well, full, till rule’ that when we add these to another word
to make a compound word they lose one ‘l’, e.g. beauty + full = beautiful,
awful, helpful, welcome, also, although, until
because
becuse, beacuse, beacause, becuase, becaurse, becase, bercause, becaus
1 identify the base word and prefix (be - cause)
2 use vowel digraph ‘au’ for (aw/or) sounds at the beginning and in the
middle of words – August, autumn, because, clause, pause
3 we use ‘-aw’ at the end of words: law, saw, paw
bed
be
1 articulate carefully for spelling, especially the stop consonant ‘d’ (b - ed)
2 teach the short vowel sound and closed syllable pattern (CVC)
3 ask the pupil to feel the articulatory sequence of the word ‘bed’. In ‘b’
the lips start closed and then at ‘d’ the lips are open, stay open and the
tongue strikes the backs of the teeth
4 clench both fists with thumbs up straight and put the knuckles together.
This will show the places of the ascenders in ‘b’ and ‘d’ like in a bed
been
bean, bin
1 from the verb ‘to be’, the past participle ‘been’
2 it is often pronounced (bin) in running speech but in spelling retains
some of its origins: be, been
3 ‘bean’ is a vegetable and a noun, many food words use the ‘- ea -’ vowel
digraph
before
befor
1 this is a compound word made from ‘be’ and ‘fore’
2 the meaning of ‘fore’ is to be in front of: ‘let it come to the fore’, forehead,
foreland, forebears, forelock
© 2017 Diane Montgomery
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3 ‘for’ is a preposition meaning ‘in place of’, because or in respect of: ‘this
was for the bill’
begged
beged
1 identify the baseword ‘beg’ from the verb ‘to beg’
2 note the short vowel ( e ) sound and the closed syllable pattern (CVC)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule that when attaching vowel suffixes ‘-ed and
‘-ing’ after a short vowel we must have two consonants so here we double
the final consonant: beg - g - ed, beg - g - ing, beggar, sagged, tugged,
rigged, bugged
begin
begain, begining, beggining
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (be - gin)
2 the past tense is ‘be - gan’; note the first syllable is open so (E) has the
long sound
3 teach the DOUBLING rule that after the short vowel sound in the closed
syllable when adding suffixes we must have two consonants so here we
double final ‘n’, e.g. begin - n - ing, running, panning, sunning
behind
behide
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (be - hind)
2 note any difficulties with end blend ‘-nd’
3 hold nose and try to say behind, kind, hind, rind and (n)
4 the ‘n’ nasalifies the preceding vowel and is often missed by developing
spellers especially in words such as went (wet), bend (bed), behind
(behide)
being, be
bieyn, bieying, bieing, bei
1 identify the baseword ‘be’ and the verb ‘to be’
2 ‘be’ is an open syllable (CV - ) and so the ‘e’ has the long vowel sound,
or it says its own name, as in: he, me, to, go, so
3 teach the ADD suffixing rule, that after the long vowel sound we simply
add the suffix ‘ing’: be - ing, see - ing, go - ing
believe
belive
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (be - lieve) and (be - lief)
2 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to point out the
differences (be - leev) and (be - live)
3 we put ‘i’ before ‘e’ (except after ‘c’) when the sound is (- ee -), e.g.
belief, chief, grief, brief; piece, niece; field, shield, yield
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4 invent three sentences that incorporate these words to aid memory, e.g.
‘my belief is that the chief is in grief’
5 record other words that have the ‘ie’ pattern, e.g. wield, priest
belle
bell
1 the correct and incorrect spellings are homophones so use the meaning
to separate them: a bell is an instrument that makes a ringing sound
2 ‘bell’ follows the ‘l - f - s’ rule by doubling ‘l’ to keep in the short vowel
sound: bell, full, till, mill, sell, well
3 a ‘belle’ is a beautiful woman. It comes from French: ‘She is the belle of
the ball.’ Remember ‘she’ and ‘belle’ must have an ‘e’ at the end
best
bes, beast
1 articulate clearly for spelling (b - est) not (bes)
2 teach the articulatory feel and sound of the end blend ‘-st’ and as a joined
writing unit in best, rest, west
3 note the short vowel ‘e’ sound and the closed syllable pattern (- VCC) in
best, lest, west, vest, crest
biggest, bigger
bigest, biger
1 identify the baseword ‘big’
2 teach the DOUBLING rule, that after a short vowel sound in a closed
syllable (CVC) we need two consonants before attaching suffixes so we
double the final ‘g’: big - g - er, big - g - est
bike, biking
big, bikeing
1 articulate clearly for spelling especially the end sound (b- ike) with long
vowel I
2 teach silent ‘e’ rule and pattern: silent ‘e’ at the end of a closed syllable
makes the vowel say its own name (the long vowel or sustained sound)
(b - ike) (- VCe)
3 find five more words with the same pattern – hike, like, strike, shrike,
trike
4 teach the DROP rule for adding the vowel suffix ‘-ing’ to words ending
in silent ‘e’, e.g. bike, biking; hike, hiking; like, liking
birthday
birtday, boithday, berthday, brithday
1 this is a compound word made from ‘birth’ and ‘day’
2 articulate clearly to feel the (th) consonant digraph in (bir - th)
(b - irth)
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 13
3 the word ‘berth’ means a bed or place usually on a boat so we need to
spell our birthdays differently; try ‘the day I was born’
4 the word ‘birth’ probably come from the Old Norse ‘byrthr’ so easily
became ‘birth’ in English
biscuit
bisquiet, biscet
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (bis - cuit) (bis - kit)
2 the word comes from the French ‘biscuit’
3 it originally meant ‘twice cooked’ – the prefix ‘bi-’ means two
4 ‘c’ has no sound of its own; to make it say its hard sound (k) we have to
add a silent ‘u’ as in ‘bis - cu - it’; you can also cue articulate it ‘bis - cu
- it’
5 ‘c’ takes the hard sound after ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’. ‘U’ is the best for the
purpose here
biting
biteing
1 identify the base word ‘bite’
2 note the long vowel sound and pattern (- VCe) denoted by the silent ‘e’
in bite, white, lute, note, mate
3 teach the DROP rule: when suffixing silent ‘e’ words, we must drop ‘e’
before attaching a vowel suffix, e.g. bit - ing, noting, whiting
bits
bist
1 identify the baseword ‘bit’
2 articulate clearly for spelling (b - it) and note the short vowel closed
syllable pattern (CVC)
3 plural ending ‘-s’ can simply be ADDED, as in ‘bit-s’
4 find some other similar CVC words and give their plurals: pots, pans,
boys, dogs
blonde
blond, bond
1 articulate clearly for spelling (bl - o - nde), check initial blend (bl-) and
short vowel ( - o - )
2 say other words beginning with ‘bl-’, e.g. bleed, block, bling, blunt,
black
3 say other words with the same end blend sound, e.g. end, bend, find,
fond, fund
4 why does ‘blonde’ hair have an ‘e’ when it has no purpose? It comes from
the French and is the feminine form, e.g. ‘blond’ is masculine and
‘blonde’ is feminine
5 to remind you it is different say the word with a French accent
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blown
blowen
1 identify the baseword ‘blow’
2 after the consonant and the long vowel sound (ow) use ADD suffixing
rule
3 simply add the suffixes, e.g. blow - ing, blow - ed, blow - n, blow - s.
blurred
blured
1 identify the baseword ‘blur’ and the closed syllable pattern (CCVC)
2 teach the DOUBLING rule that after the short vowel sound in a two
syllabled word we must have two consonants to keep the short vowel
pattern so we double consonant ‘r’ (- VCCV -): blur - r - ed, blurring;
occur, occurring, occurred
boarded
boaded boarded
1 identify the baseword ‘board’ and its meanings such as a ‘plank of wood’
and to go ‘on board’ a ship or a boat
2 board and boat both have the vowel digraph ‘oa’ in them; when a vowel
is followed by consonant ‘r’ it changes the usual sound it makes, e.g.
‘oar’ and ‘oa’
3 look for the ‘oars’ on board the boats
4 check the articulation captures the final blend ‘-rd’
5 find five more words with the end blend ‘-rd’: sword, ford, word, bard,
nerd
bodies
bobys, bodys
1 identify the base word ‘body’
2 clench the two fists with the thumbs up straight and put the knuckles
together to form ‘bod’ or ‘b d’, showing where the ascenders should be
3 articulate (b - od), feeling the difference in the mouth for ‘b’ and ‘d’
4 ask the pupil to describe the feel of these consonants in the mouth, e.g.
‘b’ starts with lips closed
5 teach the CHANGE rule for suffixing plurals – after ‘y’ we must change
‘y’ to ‘i’ and add the plural ‘es’: bod - i - es, babies, nannies
Bolognese
bolognase
1 this is an Italian word and keeps the Italian spelling, a sauce made in
Bologna
2 cue articulate for spelling ‘bol - og - nes - e’
3 remember it is often nicknamed ‘spag bog’
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 15
bomb
bome, bomer
1 identify the baseword ‘bomb’
2 remember the silent ‘b’ by linking it to its family ‘bomb’, bombardment,
bombing, bombers, bombardier
book
booke
1 teach the syllable pattern (CV VC) does not need silent ‘e’ to hold in the
vowels
2 teach the long and short sounds of (oo), e.g. in a) look, cook, book, soot,
foot and b) fool, moon, soon, boon
Border Collie, border
booda colli, broder
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (bor - der coll - ie)
2 a type of dog from the Borders of (England) or margins between
countries
3 Collie – no English words end in (i) – we add an ‘e’ to make Collie; even
taxi is a shortened form of taximeter and cauli is short for cauliflower
bored
board, boreing, bord, board
1 identify the baseword which is the verb ‘to bore’, meaning a) tedious or
tiresome or b) to drill a hole in something
2 when any vowel is followed by consonant ‘r’ it often changes its sound;
here it says (-or) as in bore, ore, tore, more, fore
3 bored and board are homophones; they have the same sound but different
meanings and spellings. Remember ‘on board boats there will be oars’
4 teach the DROP rule for attaching a vowel suffix after a silent ‘e’ ending,
e.g. bor - ing, bor - ed
5 keep the ‘e’ before a consonant suffix: bore - dom
born
borne
1 born comes from the verb ‘to bear’ or ‘to be born’ as babies are
2 ‘borne’ is the past tense of the verb ‘to bear’ and its second meaning ‘to
carry’ – ‘the ship was borne away on the tide’
both
bothe
1 Although (b - o - th) is pronounced with the long vowel sound you will
have to learn to say it for spelling with a short vowel sound (both)
2 link it with Goth, bother, and bothy to remind you
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16 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
bought
bough, borght
1 ‘ought’ in this unusual word is pronounced (- ort); it is the past tense of
the verb ‘to buy’
2 there are four others in this ‘family’, e.g. ought, brought, thought,
fought
3 try to make up a sentence that includes all this group, e.g. I thought he
ought to
4 learn to write the ‘ought’ graphemes as a joined writing unit
bouncy
boncey
1 identify the baseword ‘bounce’
2 say it slowly and overarticulate to notice it has the diphthong ‘ou’
sounding (ahoo) in it
3 the ‘ou’ diphthong is used at the beginning and in the middle of words,
e.g. out, ounce, bounce, round, ground, found
4 after silent ‘e’ at the end of words we must DROP ‘e’ and simply add final
‘-y’ bounc - y, flouncy; this is because final ‘y’ already makes the long
( E ) sound at the end of words, e.g. mummy, daddy, baby, sunny
bowler
boler, boling
1 identify the base word ‘bowl’ as in to bowl in cricket
2 ‘-ow’ is a digraph that makes the long vowel sound of ( O ) usually at the
end of words as in snow, low, blow, follow, tomorrow
3 use the word ‘bowler’ to cue the correct spelling, e.g. (bow - ler)
4 teach the ADD rule for attaching vowel suffixes after a consonant: bowl
- er, bowl - ing, bowl - s
bracelet
braslet
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (brace - let)
2 look for the (- ace) in ‘brace’ (br - ace)
3 note the long vowel sound in the first syllable denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern (- VCe)
4 say the misspelling (bras - let) to show the difference and the value of
proofreading
break
brake
1 ‘break’ and ‘brake’ are homophones – words having the same sound but
different meanings and different spellings
2 ‘break’ generally means to sever or divide; keep the ‘e’ in sever and in
break
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 17
3 perhaps we once pronounced it (breek) as it comes from Old English
‘brecon’
4 note other words with the same ‘ea’ digraph but they follow the ‘two
vowel rule’
5 ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and usually
says its own name’, e.g. weak, leak, seat, meat, read, lead
breakfast
beackdast
1 this is a compound word from the meaning to ‘break’ your ‘fast’, e.g.
after a night’s sleep and a long period without food you have something
to eat
2 after vowel digraphs such as ‘ea’, always use ‘-k’ alone, not ‘-ck’, e.g. leak,
cook, freak, meek, seek, book
bred, breeding
berot, breading
1 the word ‘breed’ contains the long vowel ( ee ) sound and pattern
(- VVC)
2 ‘bred’ has the short vowel sound and pattern (- VC)
3 learn to blend the initial sound ‘br-’ without the intrusive schwa (uh)
sound
4 ‘ee’ is the most frequently used sound of ( E ) in words and is therefore
first choice; ‘ea’ is more often found in words related to food as in bread,
meat
5 teach the different articulatory feel and pattern of final stop consonants
‘d’ (voiced) and ‘t’ (unvoiced)
bridesmaids
bridesmaides
1 this is a compound word made from ‘bride’ and ‘maid’
2 ‘maid’ already has the long vowel pattern (- VVC), as in laid, raid, bead,
read, load, road, so we do not need silent ‘e’ in maides
3 maid and maids is the shortened version of maiden and maidens
4 ‘-en’ is an Old English ending and often makes a plural itself, e.g.
brothers, brethren, child, children
bridge
brigde
1 after a short vowel sound we need to put ‘d’ before ‘-ge’ in words to hold
in the vowel (brid - ge)
2 overarticulate these words to detect the ‘d’ in them: badge, cadge, ledge,
hedge, wedge, midge, ridge, fridge, dodge, lodger, fudge, judge, nudge
3 the ‘e’ makes the ‘g’ say its soft sound
4 the misspelling ‘brigde’ says ‘brig - dee’
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18 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
brilliant
brilleant, brilliantt
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (brill - i - ant)
2 teach the l - f - s rule: we must double the l - f - and s after a short vowel
in a single syllabled word, e.g. brill, tall, fall, mill, all, full
3 to remember to put ‘i’ not ‘e’ think of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Twas BRILLIG
and the slithey toves did gyre and gimbal in the wabe’
4 ‘-ant’ does not need an extra ‘t’, it already has enough consonants
( - VCC) to hold in the vowel; remember the spelling of the insect ‘ant’
bring, bringing
brin, brining
1 identify the base word ‘bring’ and articulate clearly for spelling
2 teach the end blend (-ng): hold nose and try to say it
3 find other single syllabled words ending with ‘-ng’, e.g. sing, long, hang,
lung
4 teach the ADD rule for attaching vowel suffixes after the short vowel
closed syllable pattern (- VCC), e.g. bring - ing, sing - ing, long - ing,
hang - ing
bright
brigt
1 learn the ending ‘-ight’ (-ite) as a joined writing unit
2 learn this friendship group – bright, night, light, fight, might, sight,
right, tight
3 say ‘bright’ as it was pronounced in Scots: ‘it was a braw bricht moonlicht
nicht the nicht’
Britain
britan
1 Names of countries always take the capital letter to begin their names
2 syllabify and overarticulate the name to support the spelling: ‘Brit - ain’,
Brit - ish
broccoli
brocoly
1 broccoli is an Italian word and follows the Italian spelling with double
‘cc’, making the sound (- k -)
2 notice also the ‘i’ at the end of a word sounding (- ee) is not used in
English words
brochure
broshure
1 brochure is the French word for a pamphlet
2 in French the (- sh -) sound is represented by ( - ch - ), e.g. brochure, chef
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 19
3 cue articulate by saying (bro - chure), e.g. vowels in open syllables have
the long vowel sound, e.g. bro - chure, o - pen, ba - con
brother
brouther, broter, brouther, broather
1 say the word clearly and note that the vowel sound is (uh) or the short
vowel sound of ‘u’
2 link it to its relative ‘mother’
3 syllabify for spelling ‘bro - ther’; note we often use the short form ‘bro-’
4 note the articulatory feel and pattern of the consonant digraph ‘- th -’
5 hold the sound of (- th -) and note the vibration or voicing of this ‘hard’
sound
brought
broght, brougt
1 the ending ‘-ought’ in this word says (-ort)
2 there are four others in this ‘family’, e.g. ought, bought, thought, fought
3 learn them as a group and try to make up a sentence that includes all of
them, e.g. ‘I thought he ought to…’
4 practise writing the ‘-ought’ as a fully joined writing unit
brown
brow, browen, browne, brow
1 ‘ow’ is one of four diphthongs in English. A diphthong is where two
vowels blend together and neither vowel keeps its own sound
2 here ‘ow’ makes the sound (ah - oo) as in ‘how now brown cow’
3 check the clear articulation of the end blend (-wn) in brown and frown
bubbles
bubles
1 note the short vowel ‘u’ sound and the short vowel closed syllable pattern
(CVC -) in the first syllable ‘bub’
2 teach the DOUBLING rule that after a short vowel sound in a closed
syllable we must double the final consonant before attaching final stable
syllable ‘-le’, as in ‘bub - b - le’ (VC - C - le)
3 simply add the plural ‘s’ after ‘-le’ in ‘bubble - s’: nettles, wiggles, settles,
muddles
budgie
buggy
1 say the full name for spelling (bud - ger - i - gar) and its short form
(bud - gie)
2 after the short vowel sound in the first syllable we need to ADD ‘d’
before ‘ge’ endings
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20 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
3 overarticulate to feel the ‘-dge’ ending in wedge, hedge, ledge, badge,
fudge, budge
4 the final ‘e’ in these words is needed to make ‘g’ use its soft sound
5 ‘buggy’ is the name of a small vehicle usually with two wheels and has the
hard ‘g’ sound: fuggy, muggy, doggie. The ‘ie’ ending is a special
diminutive form for little
built
biult, bilt, buiet
1 in this word ‘build’ and ‘built’ the ‘u’ is silent, and in guilt and guild
2 articulate the end blends carefully for spelling (-lt) and (-ld); note the feel
on teeth and tongue
3 find five more words with these blends: built, spelt, wilt, guild, guilt,
gilder
bullies
bullys
1 in some dialects the word ‘bull’ is said with a definite short vowel ‘u’
sound; cue articulate this to remind you
2 teach the CHANGE rule when adding plural suffixes after ‘y’, e.g. we
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add plural ‘es’ as in bull - i - es, gullies, fillies, babies
bureau
burreau
1 say the correct and incorrect versions – bure-au is the long vowel pattern
with silent ‘e’. Bureau is a word borrowed directly from the French
2 Burr-eau is the short vowel pattern spelling in which we double the
consonant and is not a correct word. We spell it ‘burrow’
bury, buries, buried
burrie, berdy, burries
1 identify the base word ‘bury’, meaning to hide in the ground
2 when a vowel is followed by consonant ‘r’ it usually changes its sound as
here in ‘bury’ (beri)
3 teach the CHANGE rule for attaching vowel suffixes and plural: ‘- es’ we
must change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding them, e.g. bur - i - es, bur - i - ed
4 if we spell it as ‘burries’ it rhymes with ‘hurries’
5 The double -rr indicates that the preceding vowel is short
bust
busst
1 teach the end blend ‘-st’ in bust, last, mast, wrist, fist, whist, most
2 after the short vowel ‘u’ two consonants are enough to hold in the vowel
(- VCC)
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 21
but
bot, bait
1 teach the short vowel sound of ‘u’ in the closed syllable pattern (CVC)
2 find some other words with the same sound, e.g. nut, mud, gut, rut, hut
3 even ‘put’ should be cue articulated with a Northern dialect to belong in
this group
buy
by
1 ‘to buy’ means to purchase for money, whereas
2 ‘by’ is a preposition meaning ‘near to’
3 we need a ‘u’ in ‘buy’ like purchase to separate it from ‘by’ the preposition
and its homophone meaning
cabaret
cabyret
1 this is a French word pronounced as in France (cab - ar - ey)
2 syllabify and cue articulate in English for spelling (cab - a - ret)
cage
cadge
1 note the long vowel ( A ) sound and pattern (- VCe)
2 the long vowel sound is denoted by the (- VCe) structure; the silent ‘e’
tells us this medial vowel must say its own name
3 the final silent ‘e’ also softens the ‘g’
4 ‘cadge’ says (cad - ge) with the short sound (a) as in bad - ge, ridge,
wedge, fudge, midge, nudge
called
could
1 the sound of (a) when followed by ‘l’ or ‘ll’ is (orl) as in alright, also,
always, all, tall, fall, mall, call, pall, ball
2 after ‘-ll’ we simply ADD vowel suffixes ‘- ed’ and ‘- ing’, e.g. call - ed,
call – ing; apalled, appalling; fall, falling
calms
carms
1 ‘alm’ is now pronounced (-arm) but cue articulate for spelling with the
‘l’ (cal - m)
2 we probably used to pronounce it with the ( l ) in earlier centuries
3 in some areas of Scotland ‘salmon’ is pronounced with the ‘l’ as
(sal - mon)
4 ‘balm’ is a word with a similar structure and is related to the word ‘balsam’
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22 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
5 ‘alms’ and the ‘almoner’ who used to distribute them and later was a
medical social worker in a hospital is pronounced with the ‘l’ by some
Welsh people as ‘al - mon - er’
6 an ‘almanac’ is a register of the days and we all pronounce it with the ‘l’
as al - man - ac’ (orl - man - ack)
7 there are not many words in this group – calm, alms, balm, palm, holm
(oak). Try to make them all fit into one sentence
came
cam
1 notice the long vowel sound (a) in came denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe)
2 to denote the long vowel spelling we must add silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in
‘came’, as in tame, lame, name, fame, dame, same
cannonball
canenbal
1 note the short vowel sound of ‘a’ in the first syllable in ‘cannon’
2 to preserve the short sound we must have two consonants so we
DOUBLE ‘n’ as in ‘can - n - on’
3 the short vowel pattern is (- CVVC -)
4 teach the l - f - s rule – after l, f, and s we must DOUBLE the ‘l’ in a
single syllable with a short vowel sound, e.g. ball, well, bill, sell, full; off,
tiff, stiff; ass, boss, mess and also in the compound word cannon - ball
5 learn the exceptions separately and put them into sentences – if, yes, bus,
gas
can’t
cant
1 ‘can’t’ is the shortened form in running speech of ‘cannot’
2 the apostrophe followed by ‘t’ in can’t indicates there is a letter or letters
missing
capacitor
capasiter
1 use the family of words to help with this, spelling capacity, capacious,
capacitor
2 articulate clearly for spelling (cap - a - cit - y) (cap - a - cit - or)
3 when ‘c’ is followed by ‘e’, ’i’ and ‘y’ it uses its soft sound and ‘s’ in this
position between two vowels usually has the ( z ) sound
4 ‘or’ is a Latin suffix meaning ‘the one who’ or ‘that which’
5 when the root of a word ends in -ct, -it, -ess and -ate use the ending ‘-or’,
e.g. act – actor, edit – editor, possess – possessor, dictate – dictator
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 23
cappuccino
cappichino
1 this is an Italian word for a type of coffee and the Italian spelling and
pronunciation is preserved
2 ‘cc’ is pronounced ‘ch’ in Italian before the vowel ‘i’
3 Italian is spelt much more phonetically than English: ‘cap - a - cci - no’
captain
captin, captian
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling as in (cap - tain)
2 note the long vowel pattern in the second syllable (CVVC) and try ‘our
captain is a pain’
3 teach the two vowel rule ‘when two vowels go walking and the first one
does the talking and usually says its own name’ as in ‘- ai -’ in cap - tain,
vain, main, gain, lain
caravan
carvan, cavvan
1 syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (car - a - van)
2 it is based upon a Persian word ‘karwan’ for a group of people travelling
together, particularly through the desert
cardboard
cardboard
1 this is a compound word made up from ‘card’ and ‘board’ and is a wood
derived product
2 a ‘board’ is a plank of wood, or we go ‘on board’ a boat
3 an ‘oar’ is made of wood and there is an ‘oar’ in ‘board’
4 to distinguish board from its homophone ‘bored’ remember to link
‘board’ to planks and boats that both have ‘a’ in their spellings
careful, care
carefull, car
1 this is a compound word made from ‘vare’ and ‘full’
2 teach the ‘all well full till rule’; these drop an ‘l’ when added to another
word because they are no longer one-syllabled words, e.g. careful, until,
helpful, welcome
3 pronounce ‘car’ and then ‘care’ so that you can hear and feel the different
position of the mouth
4 when a vowel is followed by ‘r’ it regularly changes its sound, e.g. the
short vowel ‘a’ changes to (ar) as in (car)
5 when the syllable structure is (- VCe) with silent ‘e’ then the vowel sound
is lengthened to (air) as in care, fare, hare, mare
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24 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
carrying, carried
carring, carred
1 identify the base word ‘carry’
2 ‘y’ can act either as a vowel or a consonant; at the end of words it makes
the (E) sound as in carr - y, baby, mummy, nanny
3 teach the ADD rule when ‘y’ acts as a consonant and you can hear its (i)
sound simply add suffix ‘-ing’ as in ‘carr - y - ing’, marrying, parrying,
worrying
4 teach the CHANGE rule when adding suffixes with ‘e’ such as ‘-ed’ or
‘-es’; we must change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and attach these suffixes: carr - i - es and
carr - i - ed, hurries, hurried
castles
casels
1 pronounce the word with a short vowel ‘a’ sound for spelling as in a
Northern dialect ‘cast’
2 teach end blend ‘-st’ and its articulatory feel in castle, cast, last, mast, vast
3 to support the ‘-st’ spelling in castle remember the other member of the
family ‘castellation’
4 the final stable syllable ‘-stle’ is part of the base word and the ‘t’ is silent,
e.g. whistle, castle, wrestle, thistle
5 the ending ‘-le’ is our first choice for the (- l) sound at the end of words
catch, catching
cach, cacthing
1 identify base word ‘catch’
2 articulate clearly for spelling (ca - tch) and (cat - ch)
3 we use ‘-tch’ after a short vowel to protect it and keep the short vowel
pattern (- VCC), e.g. witch, catch, match, kitchen, satchel, patch, pitch,
fetch
4 the consonant digraph ‘-ch’ has one sound and so only counts as one
consonant so we do need the ‘t’ in ‘catch’
5 use ‘ch’ everywhere else: chin, chop, teach, reach, lunch, check
6 collect a list of common exceptions, e.g. rich, which, much, such and
make into a sentence
categories
catagoiries
1 identify the base word ‘category’
2 articulate correctly for spelling (cat - e - gor - y)
3 teach the CHANGE rule that we must change the ‘y’ ending to ‘i’ before
attaching plural ‘-es’, e.g. cat - e - gor - i - es
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 25
cats
cates
1 teach the short vowel sound and closed syllable structure (CVC) in ‘cat’
2 the structure (V - Ce) denotes the long vowel sound (A) as in (cates) and
‘cakes’
3 simply ADD the plural suffix ‘s’ to cat, e.g. cats, dogs, pigs, cows, huts
cause
corse, caws
1 use ‘au’ for the (or) sound at the beginning and in the middle of certain
words, e.g. autumn, August, haunt, caught, auk
2 the word ‘cause’ comes from the Latin ‘causa’ and the Romans would
have pronounced it in full (cow - sa) or even (ca - oo - sa)
caught
cought, cort
1 use ‘au’ for the (-or-) sound at the beginning and in the middle of certain
words, e.g. autumn, August, auk, haunt, caught, cause
2 there are only nine words with the ‘-aught’ (ort) sound and spelling
a) aught and naught mainly used in historical writings;
b) caught, taught, fraught, naughty, haughty, slaughter, daughter
3 learn the seven in group b) by inventing a sentence that includes them all
cavalier, cavalry
caviler, calvalry
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (cav - al - ry) and (cav - al - ier)
2 to spell the ending ‘-ier’ meaning ‘one who is’, note the one or ‘i’ comes
next
3 remember the word ‘cavaliero’ to support the spelling and ‘caballus’, the
Latin for a horse
ceiling
cieling
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (c - eil - ing)
2 teach ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and
usually says it own name’ as in ‘ceil - ing’
3 two vowels are needed to make the long vowel pattern (- VVC) and the
sound of (- ee -)
4 it is probably from the French for sky ‘ciel’ (see - ell) changed to ‘ei’ for
English pronunciation and spelling
centre
center
1 ‘center’ is the US spelling after their spelling reform
2 ‘centre’ comes from the Latin word ‘centrum’
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26 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
3 link the spelling to the family of words centre, central, centrality, centralise
chance
cance
1 teach the consonant digraph ‘ch -’ and its (ch) sound
2 use ‘ch’ at the beginnings of words and as first choice in other places, e.g.
teach, choice, rich, much, such, poach, chat, cheat, lunch, perch
3 ‘c’ has no sound of its own – it either says (- s -) or (- k -), never (- ch -)
character, characters
charcter, cariters
1 articulate clearly for spelling (char - act - er)
2 words derived from the Greek language use ‘-ch-’ to denote the (k)
sound
3 English has a few such words of Greek origin, e.g. character, chaos,
chasm, Christ, charisma, Christmas
4 most of the Greek words are scientific or technical, e.g. archive, stomach,
ache, chemical, chloride, school, orchestra, choir
cheating
cheeting
1 identify the baseword ‘cheat’ and note the long vowel pattern (- VVC)
2 ‘ea’ is the second most common choice for the long vowel (ee) sound
3 ‘a cheat is not a cheetah’ may help to remind you of the ‘ea’ spelling
4 ‘cheap’ and ‘cheat’ are the only two words beginning with (ch -) that are
followed by ‘ea’ (cheap also has a homophone ‘cheep’)
check
ckack
1 teach the consonant digraph (-ch-) using an articulatory – phonic and
joined writing strategy
2 teach the short vowel (e) sound and how to identify it in other words
3 teach the short vowel closed syllable structure (C - V - CC)
cheeky
cheecky
1 teach the ‘k’ rules. Always use ‘k’ after a vowel digraph, e.g. cheek, leak,
teak, book, took, look, week, weak, meek, seek
2 use ‘k’ after a consonant, e.g. tank, rank, park, desk, risk, link, milk, bulk
3 use ‘k’ after a long vowel sound in a one syllabled word, e.g. make, lake,
Peke, like, poke, puke
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 27
cheers, cheerful
chears, cheerers, cheerfuly
1 ‘ ee’ is the most frequent choice for the long vowel sound (- ee -) in the
middle of words
2 there are only a few words with this structure: ch - eek, cheep, cheer,
cheese, cheetah
3 simply add ‘s’ to spell ‘cheer - s’
4 teach the ‘all, well full, till rule’ that when these four words are added to
another word they lose one ‘l’, e.g. cheer + full = cheerful, hopeful,
welcome, also alright, until
5 you have to add the final stable adverbial, ending ‘-ly’ as in cheer - ful - ly,
thoughtfully, gratefully, slowly quickly
chef
cheff
1 this is a French word meaning chief and ‘ch’ is pronounced as (sh -)
2 it also retains its French spelling and we do not use double ‘ff’ to close
the vowel
chickens
chikens
1 we use ‘-ck’ after a short vowel sound in a one syllabled word, e.g. chick.
thick, pick, pack, black, block, tick, lick, luck, duck
2 thickens, blackens, chickens are also common forms for some of these
words, the ‘-en’ is an Old English ending
children
chilldren
1 in dialect and earlier English the word was childer (chil - der) and now
‘children’
2 after the short vowel sound only two consonants are needed to hold in
the vowel so there is no need to use ‘-ll’ when we have the blend ‘-ld’
3 the base word was originally ‘childe’ and ‘chylde’ with silent ‘e’ denoting
the long vowel form
4 these forms have been dropped in favour of the modern spelling ‘child’
but the way we pronounce it indicates its history
chips
cipps
1 teach the consonant digraph and its sound (ch -)
2 teach the closed syllable pattern with the short vowel sound (- VC), e.g.
chip, chop, chap
3 simply ADD plural ‘s’ to these words: chips, chops, chaps
4 we only double in two syllabled words, e.g. chip - p - ing, chip - p - ed
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28 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
chocolates
chocalates, chocolat
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling for spelling (choc - o - late)
2 teach the long vowel in the closed syllable structure for ‘-late’, e.g. silent
‘e’ denotes the long vowel sound in a syllable (- VCe) – late, mate, pate,
rate, fate
choir
quier
1 cue articulate for spelling (cho - ir)
2 its origin comes from the Greek word ‘choros’
3 words derived from the Greek language use ‘ch-’ to denote the (k) sound
4 use ‘chorus’ to help spell ‘choir’
5 most of the Greek words are scientific or technical, e.g. archive, stomach
ache, chemical, chloride, school, orchestra, choir
choose
chose
1 articulate clearly for spelling both the correct and incorrect spellings
(ch -oo-se) and (ch - o - se)
2 teach the long and short vowel sounds of (- oo -), e.g. choose, food, tool,
pool, and look, took, rook
3 teach the short and long vowel patterns for (- o -), e.g. bob, rib, sob, cup
(CVC) and robe, stale, pile, mole (CVCe)
Christmas
Chistmas, Chrismas
1 identify the base word ‘Christ’ in this compound word ‘Christ - mass’
2 check the meaning – Christ’s mass to aid spelling
3 check for the clear articulation of the digraph blend ‘ch-r’
4 the word Christ is a given name and comes from the Greek ‘christos’,
meaning anointed
5 link to its family of words – christen, christening, Christendom,
Christianity
claw
clorw
1 ‘aw’ at the end of a word makes the (-or) sound, e.g. paw, claw, saw, jaw,
straw
2 ‘claw’ comes from an Old English word ‘clawu’
3 use ‘aw’ at the ends of words before single ‘-l’ or ‘-n’, e. g, trawl, drawl,
crawl, brawl and dawn, fawn, lawn, pawn
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 29
clearer
clerer
1 identify the baseword ‘clear’
2 pronounce the correct and incorrect versions clearly to hear and feel the
differences in the short and long vowels (clear - er) and (cler - er)
3 find the word ‘ear’ in the spelling of ‘clear’ to support spelling
climbing
climing, climed
1 identify the baseword ‘climb’
2 use the meaning to help with this word – to ascend using hands and feet
3 a family word is ‘clamber’ to remind there is a ‘b’ in ‘climb’, climbing,
climbed
4 you could cue articulate (clim - bing)
close
colse
1 teach the initial blend ‘cl-’ and its graphemes in joined writing
2 deconstruct the syllable for spelling (cl - ose)
3 note the long vowel (O) sound and pattern denoted by silent ‘e’
(- VCe)
4 warn against using intrusive schwa in sounding graphemes as in ‘co’
(cuh-)
clothes, clothes
cloths, colths, colthes, clouthes
1 teach the initial blend ‘cl-’ and the graphemes in joined writing
2 identify the long vowel (O) sound in ‘clothes’
3 teach the voiced and unvoiced sounds of the digraph (- th -)
4 teach the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) – a consonant
digraph counts as one sound and one consonant
clown
clome
1 teach ‘-ow’ acting as either a vowel digraph as in ‘low’ ‘tow’ and ‘mow’;
and as a diphthong (ah - oo) as in ‘clown’, ‘town’ and ‘gown’ and ‘how
now brown cow’
2 ‘-ow’ is also used at the end of a word for the diphthong when the
(ah - oo) sound is followed by ‘l’, ‘n’ or ‘-er’, e.g. howl, prowl, owl;
crown, frown brown; flower, tower, shower; and towel
coach
choch
1 we use ‘oa’ in the beginning and middle of one-syllabled words: oak,
oats; boat, coat, moat, coal, road, coast
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30 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
2 ‘oa’ is the second choice and pattern (VVC) after (- VCe) for the long
vowel sound
3 we use the hard sound of (c-) at the beginning of words before ‘a’, ‘o’
and ‘u’, e.g. cat, cot, cut; catch, coach, cutch
4 remember that ‘coach’ needs an ‘oa’ sound as much as it needs a ‘road’
to go on
coal
call
1 articulate clearly for spelling to indicate the long vowel sound (O)
denoted by the vowel digraph ‘- oa -’
2 ‘oa’ is the second choice ( VVC) after the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) for
the long vowel sound
3 in the misspelling ‘call’ the vowel ‘a’ followed by ‘-ll’ makes the (-orl)
sound
coasters
costers
1 identify the long vowel sound in the base word ‘coast’
2 we use ‘oa’ in the beginning and middle of one-syllabled words for the
long (O) sound: oak, oats; boat, coat, moat, coal, road, coast, oast, roast
3 the misspelling has a different sound (cost - er) and the short vowel
pattern (- VCCer)
Cocker Spaniel
cockaspaniel
1 The names of animals and people need capital letters to begin – Cocker
Spaniel
2 articulate correctly for spelling and syllabify (Cock - er)
3 the final stable syllable ending ‘-er’ means ‘that which’ or ‘the one who’,
as in teacher, learner, folder
4 the Cocker is a small type of spaniel used in pheasant and woodcock
shooting
5 two separate words show this as a spaniel type
cockerel
cockrul
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (cock - er - el)
2 it is a young male or ‘cock’ bird
3 the final stable syllable ending ‘-er’ means ‘that which’
4 the final stable syllable ending ‘-el’ is used if the letter before the ‘-el’ has
no ‘stick’ or ‘tail’: cocker - el, camel, travel, towel
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 31
cockpit
cotpit
1 check clear articulation and syllabify for spelling (cock - pit)
2 note it is a compound word made from ‘cock’ and ‘pit’
3 originally a small pit in which game cocks fought, now a small enclosed
area on a yacht or the driving seat in a racing car
4 teach the articulatory differences in sound and feel between final (-t) and
(-ck)
5 we use ‘-ck’ at the end of one-syllabled words with short vowel sounds
for the final (-k) sound, as in cock, pack, peck, tick, block, duck
collar
coalla
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spelling to show the value of
proofreading e.g. (coll - ar) and (co - all - a)
2 we use ‘-ar’ at the ends of words after ‘-ll’, e.g. collar, cellar, dollar, pillar
3 we also use ‘-ar’ at the end of words and before one consonant, e.g. bar,
car, tar, far, star; barn, farm, cart, market, lark, bark
college
collage
1 articulate both the correct and the incorrect spelling so that you can hear
and feel the differences (coll - age) and (coll - ege)
2 use meaning to remind you of the spelling – ‘collage’ has a long (-arge)
sound and is used in ‘art’ work
3 (coll - ege) has an unstressed second syllable (-ege) so use the family of
words to remind you of the correct spelling, e.g. collegiate, collegial
Coke
cocke
1 identify the long vowel (O) sound in ‘coke’
2 note the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in the word
‘coke’
3 find ten more words with this pattern using the five vowels, e.g. bake,
make, sake, take, dene, like, pike, etc.
colours, colourful
coules, coulerful, corour, colerd, coulour, coulours, coloers, coulor, couler
1 identify the base word ‘colour’ and syllabify for spelling (col - our)
2 the short vowel sound in the first syllable is a scribal ‘o’; in this word it
has the short vowel (- uh -) sound or ‘schwa’ sound
3 the ‘-our’ ending is unusual and only found in a small group of words
4 try to make a sentence that includes the most common of this group, e.g.
our, colour, armour, glamour, favour, labour, odour, ardour, clamour
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32 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
5 simply add the consonant and vowel suffixes to the baseword, e.g.
colours, colourful, colouring
6 the US spelling reform wrongly changed the spelling to ‘color’ when
‘culer’ or culler’ would have been more accurate
combination
combonation
1 identify the base word ‘combine’
2 note the long vowel ending of the second syllable denoted by the silent
‘e’ pattern (- VCe) in (com - bine)
3 teach the DROP rule for when we attach a suffix to words with silent ‘e’
endings, e.g. com - bin - ation, communicate - communication
4 the final stable syllable ‘-tion’ is the most common form of the (-shun)
sound at the end of words, e.g. combination, nation, lotion, elation, ration
5 we also use ‘-tion’ if the baseword ends in the (t) sound, spelt ‘-t’ or ‘-te’,
as in dictate – dictation, vacate – vacation
6 also use ‘-tion’ immediately after a short vowel or a long vowel sound,
e.g. ambition, contrition, ignition and nation, lotion, completion
commentators
comentators
1 identify the base word ‘comment’
2 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound: we must
double the consonant to preserve the short vowel pattern (- VCCV -):
com - m - ent
3 syllabify for spelling (com - m ent - a - tors)
common
comon
1 identify the short vowel sound in the first syllable in (com - mon)
2 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound to preserve the
short vowel pattern in two-syllabled words (- VCCV -): com - m - on,
gammon, error
companion
compainion
1 syllabify for spelling (com - pan - ion)
2 articulate the incorrect spelling to show the difference, e.g. (com - pain
- ion)
compared
comparded
1 identify the base word ‘compare’
2 articulate the correct and incorrect versions to show and feel the
differences, e.g. (com - pare - d) and (com - pard - ed)
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 33
competition
compatition, compations, compotition, compatitions
1 identify the base word ‘compete’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (com - pet - it - or) and (com pet - i - tion)
3 ‘-tion’ is the most common form of the sound (shun) at the end of words
4 use ‘-tion’ after words that end in ‘t’ or ‘te’, e.g. ‘act – action, compete
– competition, dictate – dictation, vacate – vacation
completely
completel
1 identify the base word ‘complete’
2 the final stable syllable for the sound (lee) is ‘-ly’
3 note the silent ‘e’ denoting the long vowel sound in ‘-plete’ (- VCe)
4 after a vowel ending simply ADD ‘-ly’, e.g. completely, sincerely, fortunately
computer
compter
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (com - pu - ter)
2 say the misspelled word and the correctly spelled word to hear and feel
the differences, e.g. (com - pu - ter) and (comp - ter)
comfiest
comfyest
1 identify the base word ‘comfy’
2 teach the CHANGE rule for adding suffixes after final ‘-y’, e.g. comf - i est
comfiest, racy – racier, pretty – prettiest
conference
conferonse
1 identify the base word ‘confer’
2 teach the final stable endings ‘-ence’ and ‘-ance’
3 articulate the misspelling and the correct spelling to hear and feel the
differences, e.g. (con - fer - ence) and (con - fer - onse)
4 we use ‘-ence’ after a base word containing ‘e’ and ‘i’, e.g. conference,
inference, audience, difference, experience, confidence
5 we use ‘-ance’ after basewords containing ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’, e.g. balance,
valance, performance
confessions
confesions
1 identify the base word ‘confess’
2 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule that after a short vowel sound ‘l - f - and - s’ need
to be doubled to hold in the vowel, e.g. full, well, till, off, boff, scoff, tiff,
puss, mess, fuss
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34 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
3 after a consonant ending simply add ‘-ions’, e.g. confessions, possessions,
regressions, obsessions, rebellions, buffers, scoffing
4 there are a few exceptions to learn as groups, e.g. if; nil, pal; yes, gas, this,
thus, bus
confident
confedant
1 identify the base word ‘confide’
2 use the family to help with this spelling, e.g. confide, confidence,
confident, confidential
3 we use the final stable syllable ending ‘-ence’ after a baseword containing
‘i’ or ‘e’, e.g. confid - ence, audience, difference, experience
4 we also use it after the Latin root ‘fer’ meaning to carry, e.g. refer - ence,
difference, conference
connection
conection
1 identify the base word ‘connect’
2 teach the DOUBLING rule after a short vowel sound in a closed syllable
in two-syllable words, e.g. ‘con - n - ect’ ( - V CCV -) as in pattern,
happen, cotton, matter, litter, potter, manner, runner, summer
conservatory
consereveatree
1 identify the base word ‘conserve’ and its family conservation, conservatory,
conservative
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (con - serv - a - tor - y)
3 the ‘-ory’ ending is used after words ending in (-t) or (-s) sounds, e.g.
conservatory, factory, placatory, sensory, compulsory
consul
consl
1 teach the basic syllable structure in English words, e.g. (CVC)
2 ask pupil to overarticulate the word to detect the two-syllable beats
(con - sul)
3 identify the family of words, e.g. consul, consult, consultation, consulate
contest
contes
1 articulate clearly for spelling to detect the end blend (-st) and teach it as
a joined writing unit
2 syllabify the word for spelling (con - test)
3 find the ‘-st’ blend in five more words, e.g. last, mast, pest, list, wrist,
waist, lost, rust
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 35
contraption
contrapion
1 syllabify for spelling (con - trap - tion)
2 teach final stable syllable ‘-tion’ is the most common spelling of the
‘-shun’ sound at the end of words
3 we use ‘-tion’ after a short vowel sound in the base word, e.g. contraption,
exception, addition, ignition, condition, ambition, reception
copying
coping
1 identify the base word ‘copy’
2 articulate the correct and the incorrectly spelled words, e.g. (cop - y - ing)
and (co - ping) to hear and feel the differences
3 to preserve the meaning of the original word ‘copy’ do not change ‘y’ to ‘i’
4 treat ‘-y’ in copy as a consonant and simple add suffix ‘-ing’
corner
coner
1 articulate the correctly spelled and the misspelled words, e.g. (corn - er)
and (co - ner) to hear and feel the differences
2 teach the end blend ‘-rn’ and hold the nose and try to say it to feel the
nasal ending
3 identify other words with the end blend ‘-rn’, e.g. barn, born, burn,
corn, quorn, morn, fern, turn
Cornwall, Cornish
conwall, conish
1 articulate the correctly spelled and the misspelled words, e.g. (Corn - wall
and Corn - ish) and (con - wall and con - ish)
2 because these are names of counties and people they begin with capital
letters
3 teach the end blend ‘-rn’; hold the nose and try to say it to feel the nasal
ending
4 identify other words with the end blend ‘-rn’, e.g. barn, born, burn,
corn, quorn, morn, fern, turn
corridor
chorder
1 articulate and syllabify the word correctly for spelling (corr - i - dor)
2 check the meaning of the word ‘a passage way’ from the Latin meaning
‘to run’ and remember the Spanish word ‘Corrida’ for the running of the
bulls
3 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound, e.g. ‘cor - r - i
- dor’
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36 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
cosy
cosey, coasy
1 the baseword ‘cose’ with the long vowel (O) sound means to make
comfortable
2 when adding suffix ‘-y’ teach DROP rule for silent ‘e’, e.g. cose – cosy,
pose – posy, rose – rosy, noise – noisy
3 there are always some exceptions, e.g. the diminutive name ‘Rosie’ can
be spelt both ways ‘Rosy’, as can nose, nosy and nosey as in ‘Nosey
Parker’
cotton
cotten
1 you will have to cue articulate this word for spelling (cot - ton or cott
- on)
2 remember it is a soft fabric like wool and wool also has two ‘O’s in it
could
coud
1 ‘could’ is the past tense of the verb ‘can’
2 it comes from Middle English ‘coude’, meaning was able; perhaps we
pronounced it (cow - de) as a vowel digraph
3 the ‘l’ has been inserted to link it with past tenses ‘should’ and ‘would’
that do have reasons to use ‘l’ from shall and will
4 learn these three past tenses as a spelling group – could, should and
would
couldn’t
could’nt, coudent, couldent
1 this is a shortened version of ‘could not’, making a compound word
‘couldn’t’
2 to show which letter is missing we put in a comma ‘not’ ‘n’t’ to indicate
how the word sounds in running speech
could have
could of
1 this is a common grammatical error; the words correctly are ‘could have’
2 we can shorten this to could’ve to indicate the missing letters but not
write ‘could of’
countryside
contryside
1 identify the words that make up this compound word: ‘country’ and
‘side’
2 pronounce the misspelling as it is spelled, e.g. (con - try - side)
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 37
3 pronounce the correct spelling as it is in common use (cun - try or kun
- try)
4 remember to put the ‘o’ in country like ‘county’ as it is open, rural
ground
course
corse, cource, coure
1 the word means ‘a run’ or path in which anything moves, e.g. a golf
course, a training course
2 it comes from the Latin ‘cursus’; remember the cursor on your computer
screen to get the ‘u’ in
3 the French word is ‘cours’ ‘courant’; perhaps the Normans introduced us
to it so now we spell it ‘course’
4 the ending ‘-se’ is used in words after vowel digraphs ou, oo and ea, e.g.
course, rouse, mouse, louse, loose, goose, grease, lease
5 an exception to this general rule is the word ‘peace’
cousin
casin, cosins, cousion, cousines, couisin, cousing, couson, couisons, cosoin,
cuson, couserns, cosiners, coicens, cousens
1 a cousin is kin, a kinsman or kinswoman, children of your aunt or uncle;
use kin to remind you of the ending ‘-in’
2 the vowel digraph ‘ou’ has the short vowel (- u -) sound; the second
vowel does the talking this time. We probably once pronounced it as
(cow - sin)
3 the second sound of ‘s’ is (z) in cousin as we rarely use ‘z’ in the middle
of words
4 ‘s’ takes its second sound in words when it is between a vowel digraph
and a vowel, e.g. cousin, reason, pleasant, peasant, pheasant, measure,
pleasure, leisure
covered
coverd
1 identify the base word ‘cover’
2 add past tense ending which is ‘-ed’ after ‘-er’, e.g. papered, capered,
levered soldiered
crash
clash
1 a common error for Japanese speakers and for some children with
articulation difficulties
2 give training in the different articulatory feel and the sound of these two
initial blends (cr- and cl-): crash, creche, cricket, crock, crutch; clash,
clench, close, cling, clung
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38 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
crawlies
crawles
1 identify the base word ‘crawl’ in creepy crawlies
2 identify a singular ‘creepy crawly’
3 to add the plural suffix ‘-es’ teach the CHANGE rule, e.g. crawl, crawl - i
- es, change ‘y’ to ‘i’
crewed
cred
1 identify the base word ‘crew’
2 the (-ew) sound is used at the end of one-syllabled words for the (U)
sound, e.g. crew, dew, flew, grew, new, pew
3 simply add the past tense ‘-ed’ ending: crewed
crickets, cricket
crikets, criket
1 teach the ‘-ck’ rule that -ck is used in the middle of multisyllabled words
for the (k) sound, e.g. cricket, packet, locket, pocket, trickle, tackle
2 ‘k’ on its own never follows a short vowel sound except in non-English
words, e.g. kayak
crisis
crises
1 crisis is from the Greek word krisis and is singular
2 the plural form is ‘crises’, pronounced (kri - sees)
crunchie, crunchy
chrunchey
1 identify the base word ‘crunch’
2 simply add the adjective suffix ‘y’ to give ‘crunchy’
3 ‘Crunchie’ is the manufacturer’s diminutive name for a sweet bar
4 the second sound of ‘c’ is (k) and this is used before ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’, ‘l’ and,
e.g. cap, cape, cat, cot, cling, clap, crisp, crunch, crack, cry
5 the consonant digraph at the beginning would give the sound (ch - runch
- y)
cuckoo
cuoko
1 this is the name of a brown bird that lays its eggs in other birds’ nests
2 cue articulate this word for spelling (cuck - oo) so that ‘cuck’ has the
short vowel sound
3 to denote the long vowel sound at the end of this word use double ‘oo’
4 the name ‘Cuckoo’ is an imitation of the sound the bird makes
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 39
cuddly
cubdley
1 identify the base word ‘cuddle’
2 note the short vowel in the first syllable and teach the DOUBLING rule,
e.g. ‘cud - d - le’
3 the final stable syllable (-le) is the most common form of the (-l) ending
and so simply add ‘cud - d - le’ or ‘-ly’ for the adverb ‘cud - d - ly’
4 articulate the misspelling (cub - dley)
5 teach the position of the ascenders in ‘b’ and ‘d’ using the closed fists
with knuckles together and thumbs erect as a reminder
cupboard
cubord
1 identify the base words in this compound word ‘cup’ and ‘board’,
although in running speech we say (cubord)
2 a ‘board’ is a plank of wood; use the spelling of plank to remind you that
board has an ‘a’ in it
3 note that the word ‘oar’ can be found in ‘board’: on board a ship
curiously
cureously
1 identify the base word ‘curious’
2 ‘-ous’ is an adjectival ending, e.g. curious, precious, previous, nervous,
dangerous
3 use ‘curio’ and ‘curiosity’ to help you remember the ‘i’ in curious
cute
cut
1 pronounce the correct and incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
difference, e.g. (cut) and (coot) with short and long vowel sounds
2 teach the long vowel sound in single syllables denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern, e.g. (- VCe) ‘cute’
dancing, dance
danceing, danc
1 identify the base word ‘dance’
2 teach the DROP rule when adding a suffix to words ending with a silent
‘e’, e.g. dance – danc - ing, write – writ - ing, pave – pav - ing, pause –
paus - ing
dangerous
danous
1 identify the base word ‘danger’
2 cue articulate and syllabify for spelling (dan - ger)
3 find the word ‘anger’ in ‘danger’
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40 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
4 simply ADD the final stable adjectival ending ‘-ous’; an adjective is a
describing word, e.g. It was dangerous
dazzling
dazziling
1 identify the base word ‘dazzle’
2 after the short vowel ‘-le’ is the most common ending for the sound (-l),
e.g. little, bottle nettle, supple, ripple, cattle, fickle, tickle, riddle, battle
3 when adding the suffix ‘-ing’ after the silent ‘e’ simply DROP the ‘e’ and
add the ‘-ing’
design
desighn
1 find the word ‘sign’ in design
2 use the word family of sign to support the spelling, e.g. sign, signature,
signet ring, signal
decent
desent
1 an ‘s’ between two vowels usually has the (- z -) sound, e.g. basil, resent,
reserve
2 between two vowels use the soft sound of ‘c’ to make the sound ( - s -)
e.g. decent, recent, receive, deceive
3 use the soft sound of ‘c’ before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’, e.g. cell, celery, city, circle
and cycle
4 the word comes from the Latin word ‘decens’
decision, decided, decides
desishon, deiced, desided, decids
1 identify the baseword ‘decide’
2 use the soft sound of ‘c’ before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’, e.g. de - cide, re - cite, re
- cycle
3 the soft sound of ‘c’ is used for the (s) sound between two vowels
4 when adding past tense and plural suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-es’ DROP the
silent ‘e’ in decide and simply attach ‘-ed’ or ‘-es’, e.g. decided, decides
5 the silent ‘e’ is needed at the end of the word ‘decide’ to denote the long
vowel sound of (I), e.g. decide, recite, ignite
6 there is only one spelling for the (-zhun) sound at the end of words and
that is ‘-sion’, e.g. decision, television, explosion, conclusion, erosion
definitely
definetly, definately, definut, definatly
1 identify the base word ‘define’
2 note the silent ‘e’ is used to denote the long vowel sound in ‘fine’ and
‘define’
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 41
3 find the word ‘finite’ in definite
4 cue articulate for spelling (de - fI - nite)
5 teach the ADD rule after silent ‘e’ for adding adverbial ‘-ly’ after -ate, -ive
and –ite, e.g. definitely, delicately, conservatively
dilapidated
deapolated
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (di - lap - i - date - d)
2 identify the base word ‘dilapidate’ – lapidus is Latin for stone
3 articulate the misspelling to show the differences to be found when
proofreading, e.g. (de - a - po - late - d)
demanded
demandid
1 identify the base word ‘demand’
2 note that the past tense suffix is always ‘-ed’ never ‘-id’
3 cue articulate for spelling (de - man - ded)
4 use a Northern accent to support the spelling of the short vowel (- a -)
sound in demand
5 note the past tense ending ‘-ed’ is unaccented (demand ‘d’)
described, description
descibed, descrption
1 identify the base word ‘describe’
2 articulate clearly for spelling (de - scribe)
3 teach the ‘- scr -’ consonant trigraph
4 include the other related trigraphs for articulation practice, e.g. ‘spr-’ and
‘str-’
5 articulate and syllabify the word description for spelling (de - scrip - tion)
6 find the word ‘script’ in description – a script is a piece of writing
7 ‘-tion’ is the most common spelling of the (-shun) sound
8 use ‘-tion’ after a short vowel sound, e.g. description, reception,
condition, ambition, rendition
desperately
desperatly
1 identify the base word ‘desperate’
2 after the ‘-ate’ ending simply ADD adverbial suffix ‘-ly’, e.g. desperately,
delicately
destroy, destroying, destruction
destroi, destroing, destrugtion
1 English words do not end in ‘-oi’; for the (-oy) sound use ‘-oy’, e.g. boy,
toy, cloy, Roy, decoy, destroy
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42 The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary
2 When adding vowel suffix ‘-ing’ after ‘y’ the ‘y’ acts as a consonant and
you simply ADD ‘-ing’, e.g. destroying, decoying, toying
3 articulate the word ‘destruction’ for spelling, e.g. (de - struc - tion) and
the misspelling (de - strug - tion) to hear and feel the difference
4 teach the articulatory feel and graphemes for the consonant blend ‘-ct’
and identify some more words with this blend, e.g. act, actions, ructions,
auction, pact, Pict, fact
detailed
deatualed
1 this misspelling is produced by a child who has been taught the intrusive
‘schwa’ or (uh) sound accompanies phonic sounds, e.g. deuh - tuh - aled
is bad phonics
2 syllabify for spelling (de - tail - ed)
3 teach the long vowel sound in open syllables, e.g. ‘de - tail’ (dee -tail),
ba - con, go, no, o - pen
4 find the ‘tail’ word in ‘detail’
5 look up the word ‘detail’ in the dictionary to support the idea of a small
part being related
detours
detors
1 think of the word ‘tour’ when we go on a tour or a trip to see something
and take a winding route to it
2 link ‘routes’ and ‘tours’ – both have the long vowel sound of (oo) for
‘ou’
3 in East Anglia we often pronounce ‘routes’ as ‘rowts’ and perhaps once
we pronounced ‘tour’ as (towr) with a Midlands type of accent
diamond
dimond
1 use overarticulation to correct this spelling (di - a - mond)
2 use family words to support this spelling, e.g. ‘diamonte’ (di - a - mon - te)
didn’t
diddn’t, dint, didnt, din’t, did’t, dident
1 ‘didn’t is the shortened version that we use in reported speech or running
speech for (did not)
2 we simply put the two words together and use the apostrophe to denote
the missing letter – didn’t
died, dying
diad, dieing
1 identify the base word ‘die’
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2 distinguish it from the homophone ‘dye’ and check the meanings of both
words
3 after the ‘-ie’ it is only necessary to add ‘d’ to make the past tense ‘died’
4 to add the suffix ‘-ing’ to ‘die’ teach the CHANGE rule, change ‘ie’ to
‘y’ and add ‘ing’, e.g. dying
5 to make the past tense of ‘dye’ also just add ‘d’, e.g. dyed
6 also just add suffix ‘-ing’ to dye, e.g. ‘dyeing’ and this preserves its original
meaning
different, differently, difference
diffrent, differ, differen’t, diffent, defferently
1 identify the base word ‘differ’
2 after the short vowel in the first syllable we must double the consonant
dif - f - er
3 articulate and syllabify the base word and affixes clearly, e.g. (differ - ent),
(differ - ence), (differ - ent - ly)
4 simply add the endings ‘-ent’ and ‘-ence’ to the base word, e.g. different,
difference, differently
digging
diging
1 identify the base word ‘dig’
2 after the short vowel sound in a closed syllable we must DOUBLE the
final consonant before adding the vowel suffix ‘-ing’, e.g. ‘dig - g - ing’,
hopping, running, sitting, patting, wetting
dinghy
dighny
1 cue articulate and syllabify for spelling (ding - hy)
2 articulate the misspelled word to show the difference and the value of
proofreading (dig - h - ny)
3 it is a Hindi word for a small rowing boat to remind you of the silent ‘h’
dinner
diner
1 articulate and syllabify both the correct and the incorrect spellings to
show the differences (di - ner) and (din - ner)
2 teach the LONG vowel and SHORT vowel patterns, e.g. (- VCer) and
(- VCCer)
3 after the short vowel sound the consonant must be DOUBLED: ‘din - n
- er’
dinosaurs
dinersors
1 overarticulate this compound word for spelling (dino - saurs)
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2 both words come from the Greek ‘deinos’ meaning terrible and ‘sauros’
a lizard
disappeared
disapered
1 identify the base word ‘appear’
2 after the initial short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the consonant
‘a - p - pear’
3 find the fruit word ‘pear’ in appear
4 simply add the affixes to ‘appear’, e.g. the prefix ‘dis-’ disappear, and the
past tense suffix ‘-ed’ disappeared
disappointed
disapointid, disapointed
1 identify the base word ‘appoint’
2 after the initial short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the consonant
‘a - p - point’
3 simply add the prefix ‘dis-’ and the past tense suffix ‘-ed’: disappointed
4 there is no past tense suffix spelled ‘-id’
disintegrate
dintergrate
1 identify the base words ‘integrate’, ‘integral’ and ‘integer’ to guide the
spelling of the schwa or unstressed (uh) sound
2 syllabify and articulate for spelling (dis - int - e - grate)
distance
distens
1 use the family of words to support spelling, e.g. ‘distant’, ‘distance’
2 syllabify for spelling: ‘dis - tance’
3 when the base word contains ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’ then use the ending ‘-ance’
not ‘-ence’ e.g. distant – distance
division
devision, devion
1 identify the base word ‘divide’
2 teach that the prefix ‘di-’ means two and ‘divide’ means to separate into
parts
3 the sound (-zhun) at the end of a word is always represented by ‘-sion’,
e.g. division, precision, elision, revision
divorced
devorced
1 the word ‘divorce’ means to separate or divide, especially as a legal
separation of a marriage
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 45
2 ‘di-’ means double, two, twice; use this to help you remember the (i) in
‘divorce’ and ‘divide’
3 use cue articulation to help remember the ‘i’, e.g. (dI - vorced)
do, don’t, doing, does, doesn’t,
doe, doen’t, dont, doon’t, dowing, dosn’t, dosent, doece, dose’t, donsn’t
1 this is the verb ‘to do’
2 ‘do’ is an open syllable and so has the long vowel (oo) sound
3 if we add an ‘e’ or a ‘w’ the vowel has a different sound and changes the
word’s meaning, e.g. doe and toe; dhow, row and cow (diphthong); row
and mow (vowel digraph)
4 check the knowledge of the verb ‘to do’, e.g. I do, you do, s/he does, we
do, they do; I did, you did etc., it was done, we are doing. (I dun it) is an
incorrect or immature form for the past tense
5 when adding a suffix after the long vowel sound we simply ADD, e.g. ‘do
- ing’, do - es
6 ‘don’t is the shortened version in running and reported speech for ‘do
not’. The apostrophe indicates the missing letter; see also ‘does not’
– ‘doesn’t’
doctor
docter
1 the ‘-or’ in doctor is unaccented and gives the sound (-er)
2 the ‘-or’ is a Latin suffix meaning ‘the one who’ or ‘that which’
3 it is used at the end of a word when the root ends in -ct, -it, -ate, or -ess,
e.g. doctor, actor, tractor, editor, indicator, possessor
4 a small number of common nouns also ending in ‘-or’ will need to be
learned as a group, e.g. anchor, sailor, tailor; error, terror, mirror; author,
governor; major, minor
5 use overarticulation to support the spelling (doct - or) (act - or)
dog’s
dogs
1 we use the apostrophe ’s when we describe something as ‘belonging to’,
e.g. the dog’s bone, it is short for ‘the dog, his bone’
2 ‘dogs’ with the apostrophe appearing after the ‘s’ changes the meaning
to more than one dog – ‘dogs’ – plural
dolphin
dolfin, dophins, dolpins
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (dol - phin)
2 this is the name of a sea creature related to the whale and resembling the
porpoise; use the ‘p’ in porpoise and ‘h’ in whale to remind you of the
‘ph’ sound for (f) in dolphin
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3 scientific words deriving from the Greek language use ‘ph’ for the (- f -)
sound, e.g. delphic, delphinium, sulphur, camphor, physics, photograph,
telephone, alphabet
down
don
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
difference, e.g. (don) has the short vowel sound and structure (CVC)
whereas ‘down’ has the double vowel sound (ah - oo), making it a
diphthong
2 teach the diphthong ‘-ow’ and its sound in cow, now, row, down, town,
owl
3 remember ‘how now brown cow’, ‘growl down town’
4 at other times ‘-ow’ is used as a vowel digraph, e.g. mow, row, tow, flow,
grow, throw
drag
drage
1 teach the short vowel sound denotes a typical syllable structure (CVC) in
dog and (CCVC) as in drag. Generate some more words with the CCVC
or (- VC) structure, e.g. trap, drip, prop, trunk (CCVCC)
2 the silent ‘e’ in drage would make the vowel say its name or give the long
vowel sound (drAge); this would also change its meaning
drastic
durastic
1 this misspelling indicates poor phonics teaching with the intrusive schwa
sound as in ‘duh’, ‘ruh’, ‘tuh’
2 teach the initial blend (dr-) and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
3 search texts for other examples of ‘dr-’ and similar blends, e.g. br-, tr- , prdrawer, drawers
draw, draws
1 teach the meaning of the homophones ‘draw’ and ‘drawer’ as in art and
as in a chest of drawers
2 to draw also means to pull out or drag along and the person who does
this is called a drawer, as is the drawer that is pulled out
dripping
driping
1 identify the baseword ‘drip’
2 note the short vowel sound and closed syllable structure (- VC)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule for adding suffixes after the short vowel
sound, e.g. ‘drip - p - ing’, running, hopping, sitting, cutting
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 47
drive
dive
1 teach initial consonant blend ‘dr-’ and its graphemes as joined writing
units
2 practise clear articulation and feel of ‘dr-’ in the mouth
3 identify and generate other words with the ‘dr-’ blend, e.g. drive, drink,
drip, drat, drake, drop
4 teach other similar consonant blends, e.g. ‘tr-’, ‘pr-’, ‘cr-’, ‘fr-’, ‘cr-’
dropped
droped
1 identify the base word ‘drop’
2 note the short vowel sound and closed syllable structure (- VC)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule for adding suffixes after the short vowel
sound, e.g. ‘drop - p - ing’, running, hopping, sitting, cutting, dripping
drowned
dround
1 identify the baseword ‘drown’ and past tense suffix ‘-ed’
2 we use ‘-ow’ for this (ow) or (ah-oo) diphthong sound at the end of
words and when they end in ‘-l’, ‘-n’ and ‘-er’, e.g. how, now, brown
cow; drown, town, crown, owl, howl, prowl; flower, power, shower,
tower
3 save ‘-ou’ for the beginnings and middles of words, e.g. out, clout, rout,
ground, found, loud, house, mouse
ducked
bucked
1 by a reading/spelling age of about 7–8 years this reversal problem should
have been overcome. In Year 7s it indicates earlier problems of a dyslexic
nature
2 check alphabet knowledge to M to ensure that pupil knows ‘B’ comes
before ‘D’
3 check or teach the spelling of the word ‘bed’ if necessary
4 teach the ‘two fists’ reminder strategy for the word ‘bed’, e.g. clench
both fists and put knuckles together with thumbs upright. When you
look at them you can imagine a bed and the spelling of ‘bed’ with the
ascenders in the correct places
5 reinforce the correct spelling of ‘bed’ by teaching this syllable as a
completely joined writing unit
6 practise articulating the words ‘duck’ and ‘buck’ to feel the articulatory
differences and sounds of ‘d-’ and ‘b-’
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due
dew
1 these two words are homophones: ‘due’ and ‘dew’
2 for the (-ew) sound we use ‘-ew’ at the end of one syllabled words, e.g.
dew, crew, flew, yew, pew, new
3 we use ‘-ue’ at the end of words with more than one syllable, e.g. avenue,
rescue, tissue, continue, revenue
4 but you will need to learn the exceptions as a group by making up a
sentence or two that contains them: due, cue, clue, blue, glue, hue, rue,
sue, true
5 some of these exceptions are because there is already a homophone using
the ‘-ew’ spelling, e.g. dew, clew, blew, hew, sew, and trew is an old
spelling form of true
dumplings
dumplins
1 syllabify and articulate clearly and correctly for spelling (dump - lings)
2 ‘dumplins’ is a dialect form
each
eat
1 check for clear articulation of ‘-t’ and ‘-ch’ in these two words: ‘each’ and
‘eat’
2 generate words with the ‘-eat’ structure: eat, meat, neat, teat, heat,
wheat, seat
3 teach the ‘-ch’ digraph and the graphemes as a joined writing unit
4 identify words with the ‘-ch’ digraph ending after the long vowel sound,
e.g. each, peach, reach, teach
eagles
egals
1 although ‘egret’ is spelt simply as it sounds, ‘eagles’ are different birds
2 the vowel digraph ‘ea’ is used for the long vowel sound – teach the two
vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking
and usually says its own name’
3 the most common spelling of the (-ul) ending is the final stable syllable
‘-le’ as in eagle, beagle, nettle, bottle, little, bubble, rabble, puddle
4 the second syllable in (eag - les) is unstressed; in (e - gals) it is stressed
ears
eares
1 the long vowel denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) is not necessary in ‘ears’
2 the long vowel sound (E) is already produced by the vowel digraph
‘- ea -’ in ‘ears’, and pears, tears
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The Spelling Detective’s Dictionary 49
easier, easy
easyer, esay
1 identify the baseword ‘easy’ and ‘ease’
2 the long vowel sound (E) is produced by the vowel digraph ‘ea’ – teach
the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does the
talking and usually says its own name’
3 teach the CHANGE rule when words end in ‘-y’ and you must change
‘-y’ to ‘-i’ if you want to attach a suffix, e.g. ‘eas - i - er’, ‘eas - i - est’,
‘eas - ed’
eldest
eldist
1 use the family of words to correct this spelling: ‘old’, ‘older’, ‘elder’,
‘eldest’
2 the ‘-est’ ending is used to form superlative adjectives, e.g. eldest,
smallest, greatest, tiniest, biggest, daftest
3 the ‘-ist’ ending is used for nouns for ‘one who is skilled in’ or ‘one who
believes in’, e.g. dentist, pacifist, racist, sexist
elegantly
elagantly
1 identify the baseword ‘elegant’
2 note the unstressed schwa (uh) sound of the middle syllable
3 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (el - e - gant)
emerging
energing
1 check the articulation and knowledge of the ‘m’ and ‘n’ sounds here
2 say both misspelled and correctly spelled words to hear and feel the
articulatory differences between ‘m’ and ‘n’ in the baseword ‘merge’
encourages
encorages
1 identify the base word ‘courage’
2 use the meaning to help you, e.g. ‘pluck up your courage’ to remind you
of the ‘- ou -’ in courage
3 you might pronounce it as the French do (coo - raj)
encyclopaedias
encyclopidias
1 this is a Greek derived word meaning the ‘circle of human knowledge’
2 deconstruct the word into its main parts ‘en - cyclo - paed - ias’
3 note the unusual ‘ae’ spelling for the sound (E); sometimes these letters
are joined together
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4 think of the word ‘pedagogy’ for teaching and ‘pedagogue’ a teacher, to
remind you to put ‘ae’ instead of ‘i’
5 the misspelled word on proofreading would have a different sound, e.g.
(encyclo - pid - i -as) short vowel (i) not long vowel (E) sound
ending
endny
1 identify the baseword ‘end’ and suffix ‘-ing’
2 articulate clearly for spelling (end - ing)
3 write and articulate the suffix ‘-ing’ separately from the base word
4 practise writing the ‘-ing’ suffix as a whole writing unit in joined-up form
5 practise adding ‘-ing’ to a number of basewords – ending, running,
climbing, seeing, hoping, racing
energetic, energy
enjectic, engery, enrgy
1 identify the base word ‘energy’
2 syllabify and articulate the word clearly for spelling (en - er - gy) and
(en - er - get -ic)
3 ‘g’ is used before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ in words to make its soft sound – energy,
gin, gym
4 we use ‘j’ everywhere else, e.g. jam, jazz, jig, job, jug and always for the
stable final syllable ‘-ject’ – inject, project, subject, object
engine
engin
1 in words of more than one syllable as in eng - ine, endings beginning
with (i) often have the short vowel sound despite the silent ‘e’ at the end
of the word – engine, famine, discipline
2 to help you remember the silent ‘e’ cue articulate the word, e.g. (en - gIne)
(quin – Ine), in some earlier English dialects these (-Ine) versions are
popular
3 see also (-ice), (-ite) and (-ive), e.g. office, justice, service, practice; the ‘e’
is needed to keep the ‘c’ soft here
4 favourite, definite, opposite, granite – cue articulate to support these
spellings (favour - Ite) and active, captive, massive, passive
English, England
engerlish, Engen
1 articulate these words correctly without intrusive syllables, e.g. (Eng - lish)
and (Eng - land) – land of the Angles
2 Overarticulate and syllabify this word for spelling (Eng - land) (Eng - lish).
Note the short vowel (e) sound when overarticulating
3 the word comes from the Old English ‘englisc’ and ‘Angles’; use the East
Anglians to remind you
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4 check the articulation and knowledge of the ‘- gl -’ blend and its
graphemes, e.g. gland, glitter, glint, glut
enemies
enemys
1 identify the baseword ‘enemy’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (en - em - y)
3 teach the CHANGE rule when adding a suffix such as plural ‘- es’ here,
e.g. change (y) to ‘i’ and add ‘es’ enem - i - es, mysteries, salaries,
mortuaries, dynasties
enhance
enharse
1 teach the correct pronunciation of this word and syllabify (en - hance)
2 practise feeling and hearing the difference between the two endings
(-hance) and (-harse)
3 -ance is a noun suffix meaning a state or act of, e.g. romance, elegance
4 use ‘-ance’ at the end of words to keep ‘c’ and ‘g’ soft, e.g. signific - ance,
eleg - ance
5 use ‘-ance’ when the base word contains ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’, e.g. balance,
performance, abundance
enjoy
injoy
1 articulate this word correctly and syllabify for spelling (en - joy)
2 compare the difference between the two spellings to show the value of
proofreading, e.g. (en - joy) and (in - joy)
enormous
enourmose
1 syllabify and articulate the word clearly for spelling (E - norm - ous)
2 the word comes from Latin ‘e’ meaning out of and ‘norma’ rule
3 use the word ‘normal’ to remind you of the eNORMous part
4 articulate the two different spellings to hear and feel the differences, e.g.
(e - norm - ous) and (en - our - mOse)
5 ‘us’ is a noun ending as in crocus, locus, bonus, circus, virus
6 ‘ous’ is an adjectival ending as in enormous, dangerous, nervous, generous
entrance
entrace
1 articulate this word carefully for spelling (en - trance)
2 check the clear articulation and ability to spell the blend (- nc -) as in
‘-ance’ ‘-ence’, ‘-ince’, ‘-once’ and ‘-unce’
3 generate sets of words with these endings, e.g. dance, enhance, lance,
prance; eminence, prominence; wince, mince; once, ponce; dunce
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escaping, escape, escaped
esaping, ecape, escept
1 identify the base word ‘escape’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (es - cape)
3 note the word ‘cape’ in escape for an undercover disguise
4 when adding a suffix such as ‘-ed’, ‘-es’ or ‘-ing’ teach the DROP rule –
we drop the silent ‘e’ and then attach the suffix, e.g. escaping, escapes,
escaped
especially
especialy, espesly, escippy
1 identify the baseword ‘special’ and the family ‘specy’, ‘species’ and
‘specify’
2 the soft sound of ‘c’ is used when followed by the vowels ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’,
e.g. species, specy
3 when adding a suffix such as ‘-ly’, ‘-ise’ or ‘-ist’ to especial simply ADD
e.g. especially, specialise, specialist
4 the (-shul) sound at the end of words is spelled ‘-cial’, ‘-tial’ or ‘-sial’
depending on the base word or root specy – special, controversy –
controversial, potent – potential
Essex
exssex, Eassx
1 this is the name of a place; names start with capital letters – Essex
2 After the short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the next consonant –
Es - s - ex
3 say the misspelled words to note the differences when proofreading, e.g.
(ex - s - sex) ( ea - s - sex). The vowel digraph ‘ea’ makes the long vowel
sound
even
evan
1 after the long vowel sound in the first syllable the vowel in the second
syllable is unstressed (E - ven)
2 identify the word ‘eve’ in even and evening to help remember the
unstressed vowel is ‘e’
3 note the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ in ‘eve’, e.g. (VCe)
events, eventually
evens, eventurely
1 identify the base word ‘event’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (e - vent) ( e - vent - u - al)
3 check the clear articulation and knowledge of the graphemes for the end
blend ‘-nt’
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4 generate some more words containing the end blend ‘-nt’, e.g. bent,
sent, lent, dent, meant
every
evey, evrey, eavery
1 identify the word ‘very’ in every
2 the letter ‘v’ is never doubled in English words even after a short vowel
sound except in ‘navvy’ from ‘navigator’ to distinguish it from the ‘navy’
3 articulate the word for spelling (ev - er - y)
4 simply ADD the final ‘y’
exactly
exsacly
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ex - act - ly)
2 note the word ‘act’ inside ‘exactly’
3 ‘ex-’ is a prefix meaning ‘out of’, e.g. export, except, exact
4 articulate the end blend ‘-ct’ clearly for spelling and teach the graphemes
as a joined writing unit
5 find some other words with the ‘-ct’ ending, e.g. act, expect, pact,
inspect, detract
exceedingly
exedingly
1 identify the baseword ‘exceed’
2 syllabify for spelling (ex - ceed) ( ex - ceed - ing - ly)
3 note the double vowel or digraph ‘- ee -’ for the long vowel sound in
‘-ceed’
4 note the word is made up of the prefix ‘ex-’, meaning ‘out of’ or ‘beyond’
and ‘ceed’ from the Latin word ‘cedere’ to go. Find some more ‘-ceed’
words, e.g. exceed, proceed, succeed
excellent
excelent, exerllent
1 identify the base word ‘excel’ – final ‘l’ is not doubled in two-syllabled
words
2 note the prefix ‘ex-’, meaning out of, beyond, up and ‘-cel-’ from the
Latin base word ‘celsus’ meaning high
3 after the short vowel sound in excel teach the DOUBLING rule – we
need to double the final ‘-l’ before adding a suffix, e.g. excel - l - ent,
excelling, compel – compelling, repel – repelling, dispel – dispelling
except
exept
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (ex - cept)
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2 note the word is made up of the prefix ‘ex-’, meaning ‘out of’ or ‘from’
and from the Latin word ‘capere’ meaning ‘to take’
3 you might try to think of ‘mushrooms’ or ‘ceps’ when you spell this word
excite, exciting
exite, exited, exictying, exiteing
1 identify the baseword ‘excite’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling ‘ex - cite’
3 note the prefix ‘ex-’ and ‘-cite’ from the Latin word ‘ciere’, meaning to
set in motion or activate
4 use the meaning ‘activate’ to remind you of the ‘c’ in ‘excite’
5 ‘cite’ is also a word on its own as is ‘citation’ – look up their meanings
exercising, exercises
exersining, exserzize, exerczing, exersise
1 identify the base word ‘exercise’
2 syllabify the word for spelling (ex - er - cise)
3 use the syllable ‘-ise’ for the sound (-ize) when it is part of the base word,
e.g. exercise, advise, revise
4 think of the irksome exercises you have to do with great precision in
school books to remember the soft sound of ‘c’ in exercise; the ‘i’ makes
‘c’ give its soft sound
5 try to think of a funny way to remember the ending is ‘-cise’ and not
‘-size’
6 ‘-ize’ is only used after a base word and means ‘to make’, e.g. magnetize,
dramatize, popularize; even so, we often can still spell them magnetise,
dramatise
exhibition
exabition
1 identify the base word ‘exhibit’
2 syllabify and overarticulate the word for spelling (ex - hib - i - tion)
3 remember we Hold exhibitions; think also of the words ‘inhibit’ and
‘inhabit’
exclaimed
exclaimd
1 identify the baseword ‘claim’ in exclaim and exclaimed
2 when making the past tense we ADD ‘-ed’ to a consonant ending, e.g.
exclaim, exclaimed; strain, strained; seem, seemed
3 we DROP silent ‘e’ and add ‘ed’ when there is a vowel ending, e.g. tame,
tamed; name, named; time, timed
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expect
exspet
1 articulate this word clearly and syllabify for spelling (ex - pect)
2 check the articulation of and teach the end blend ‘-ct’ and its graphemes
as a joined writing unit
3 identify other words with the end blend ‘-ct’, e.g. respect, insect, act,
react, pact, spectacles, spectator, inspect
4 note the prefix ‘ex-’ and its meaning ‘out of’, ‘beyond’ and ‘-pect’ from
the original Latin word ‘spectare’, meaning to look
5 somewhere along the way we lost the ‘s’ from spectare; it was expelled
probably because ‘x’ gives us enough of the ‘s’ sound
expensive
expencive
1 identify the basewords ‘spend’ and ‘expense’
2 ‘-ense’ is not a suffix, it is part of the base word, e.g. expense, dense,
tense, nonsense, suspense
3 there are a few exceptions to this general practice, e.g. fence, hence,
pence, that you could try to bind together in a sentence!
4 ‘-ence’ is a noun suffix meaning ‘state’ or ‘act of’ and is usually added
after a baseword, e.g. subsistence, persistence, occurrence, correspondence
expiring
expiren
1 identify the baseword ‘expire’
2 syllabify and articulate clearly for spelling (ex - pire)
3 note and teach the spelling of the suffix ‘-ing’; practise it as a whole
spelling unit in joined writing
4 after the long vowel sound denoted by silent ‘e’ teach the DROP rule,
e.g. ‘ex - pir - ing’
5 practise this with other similar words, e.g. tire, tiring; fire, firing, tame,
taming
exploring
expoling
1 identify the baseword ‘explore’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ex - plore)
3 identify and teach the consonant blend ‘pl-’; use joined writing for these
graphemes
4 generate other words with the initial ‘pl-’ blend, e.g. play, plane, plenary,
plot, plump, plural
5 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings to show the
value of proofreading (ex - plor - ing) (ex - po - ling)
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6 after the long vowel sound and pattern denoted by the silent ‘e’ in -plore
(- VCe) teach the DROP rule for adding a vowel suffix such as ‘-ing’, e.g.
exploring, exploding
explosion
exploshun
1 identify the base word ‘explode’
2 syllabify and articulate the word explosion correctly (ex - plo - zhun)
3 there is only one spelling of the (-zhun) sound at the end of words and
that is ‘- sion’, e.g. explosion, confusion, conclusion, erosion, vision,
television, provision
extremely
extreamilly, extremly
1 identify the base word ‘extreme’
2 use the family of words to support the spelling, e.g. extreme, extremity,
extremely
3 when adding the final stable syllable ‘-ly’ after a vowel we simply ADD
the suffix, e.g. extreme – extremely; rare – rarely, time – timely
face
fase
1 when you hear the ‘s’ sound between two vowels it is usually represented
by the soft sound of ‘c’, e.g. face, race, mace, lace, lice, nice, entice, rice,
pace, puce
2 compare it with words in which ‘s’ is used and you can hear and feel that
the ‘s’ has the (z) sound, e.g. use, muse, lose, ruse, fuse
fairly
farly
1 identify the baseword ‘fair’
2 syllabify and articulate the correct and incorrect spelling to show the
value of proofreading, e.g. (fair - ly) (far – ly)
3 note the ‘air’ word in fair; fairs are held in the open air
families
famileys
1 identify the baseword ‘family’
2 when adding the plural suffix ‘-es’ teach the CHANGE rule; we must
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘-es’, e.g. ‘famil - i - es’, fairies, nannies,
babies
famous
famos
1 identify the baseword ‘fame’
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2 articulate correctly and syllabify for spelling (fam - ous)
3 ‘-us’ is a noun ending, e.g. circus, crocus, bonus, focus, virus
4 ‘-ous’ is an adjectival ending with the sound (-us), e.g. famous, nervous,
generous, dangerous, cantankerous
fancies
fancys
1 identify the baseword ‘fancy’
2 when adding the plural suffix ‘-es’ teach the CHANGE rule; we must
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘-es’, e.g. ‘fanc - i - es’, fairies, families,
babies
fantastically
fantasticly
1 identify the base words ‘fantastic’ and ‘fantastical’
2 syllabify for spelling (fan - tas - tic) (fan - tas - tic - al)
3 ‘- al’ is an adjectival ending e.g. fantastical, musical, logical, nautical,
tropical
4 simply ADD the final stable syllable ‘-ly’ to ‘fantastical -ly’, logically,
typically, musically, tropically, nautically
farmer
famer
1 identify the base word ‘farm’
2 find the word ‘arm’ in ‘farm’ ‘harm’ and ‘alarm’
3 teach the end blend ‘-rm’ and its graphemes as a joined writing unit and
look for them in other words – worm, term, norm, alarm
fathers
feathers, farther
1 one way of remembering this odd spelling is to use cue articulation
(fa -ther) with the short vowel (- a -) sound as in an Irish dialect or with
the long (A) sound as in a Scottish one
2 perhaps we said it like this in earlier centuries
favourite
favourate, favorite, fatert, faviourte, favrit, faviroute, faveourite, favot, favorit,
favrot, favoite, favoerite, faviourite, faviourt, foivowrite, favrite, favorte, favearite,
favourtie, faverite, favoute, faveaurite, favirout, favirite, frevaite, favrote
1 identify the base word ‘favour’
2 syllabify for spelling, noting the long vowel and open first syllable
(fa - vour)
3 find the word ‘our’ in ‘favour’ and remember ‘our favourite is –’
4 the unaccented (-er) sound is only found at the end of a few words, learn
them as a group favour, colour, labour, armour, odour, demeanour, ardour
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5 try to make a sentence that includes as many of the first five as possible
6 in words of more than one syllable the suffix ‘-ite’ has the short vowel
sound despite the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe), e.g. favourite, definite,
opposite, granite
7 remember the ‘-ite’ spelling by cue articulation pronouncing it as the
long vowel ending: (favour - ite), (de - finite), (oppo - site), (gran - ite)
feather
fether
1 ‘- ea -’ is less frequently used in the middle of syllables to represent the
short vowel (- e -) sound than ‘- e -’ on its own
2 teach the two vowel or vowel digraph rule: when two vowels go walking
the first one does the talking and usually says its own name’ in ‘feather’
and ‘leather’
3 feathers are used on the end of arrows; let the arrows remind you of the
‘- a -’
feed
fed
1 articulate these two spellings to hear and feel the differences: (f - ee - d),
(f - ed)
2 teach the short vowel pattern in the closed syllable (CVC): fed, hop, run,
pit, sat
3 teach the long vowel sound in words made by (-ee-): seed, reed, weed,
feet, feel
4 ‘- ee -’ is the most common spelling of the long vowel ‘ee’ sound
feed
feet
1 articulate both spellings carefully to note and feel the differences between
final consonants ‘-d’ and ‘-t’
2 find new word pairs with these two endings, e.g. weed, wheat; beet,
bead; lead, leet; mead, meet; seed, seat
feel, felt, feels
feelt, fells, feeled, fel
1 identify the baseword ‘feel’ and teach the short vowel pattern in the
closed syllable (- VC) (- VCC)
2 articulate both correct and incorrect spellings to note the differences and
show the value of proofreading: (f - elt), (feel - t), (f - ells)
3 check knowledge of the tenses: I feel, you feel, he feels; I felt, you felt etc.
4 articulate the end blend (-lt) and teach its graphemes as a joined writing
unit
5 find other words that end with this blend: felt, melt, belt, Celt, pelt
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field
feild, feil
1 ‘- ie-’ is the third choice for the long vowel (E) sound
2 it is a piece of open ground usually surrounded by a fence or hedge or the
surface of a shield in heraldry; use piece and shield to help remind you of
‘- ie -’
3 use Middle English to help you, as in ‘Fie you naughty boy/girl, spell
field correctly’
4 articulate clearly and teach the graphemes as a joined writing unit for the
end blend ‘-ld’
5 find other words with this end blend, e.g. bald, weld, meld, build, guild,
mould
ferry
ferri
1 no English words end in ‘i’; we use ‘y’ at the end of words for the final
(ee) sound
2 the only exception is ‘taxi’ and this word is a shortened version of
taximeter
3 generate some words with the ‘y’ ending, e.g. ferry, Mary, wary, Terry,
merry, handy, sandy, moody, daddy
fifth
fith
1 overarticulate this word for spelling (fif - th)
2 it is the number 5 (five) with ‘-th’ added to show its place, e.g. fifth, sixth
seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, etc.
3 it would be hard to say fourth, fiveth, sixeth so we have shortened it to
fifth; the medial ‘f’ reminds us of the meaning and spelling of the original
word ‘five’
fight, fights
fite, fiyes
1 ‘-igh’ is our second most frequent choice for the (- I -) sound in words
2 you could learn to say the family of ‘-ight’ words with a heavy Scottish
accent to remember them: ‘it is a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht to ficht’,
e.g. bright, moonlight, night, fight and might, sight, tight
figuring
figering
1 identify the baseword ‘figure’
2 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings showing the
value of proofreading (fig - ure) (fi - ger is like ti -ger)
3 learn these ‘-ure’ words as a group and cue articulate the endings for
spelling –figure, leisure, measure, injure, pressure, treasure, seizure
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finally
finaly, finle, finely, finnaly
1 identify the base word ‘final’
2 syllabify and overarticulate for spelling (fi - nal) to get the ‘-nal’ ending
3 note the long vowel in the open syllable ‘fi-’
4 to add a suffix to ‘final’ simply ADD ‘-ly’ to give ‘finally’, finals
fished
fineshed
1 identify the baseword ‘finish’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (fin - ish); note the two short
vowels (- i -), one in each syllable
3 simply ADD the past tense suffix ‘-ed’ to verbs ending in consonant
digraph ‘-sh’ e.g. finished, fished, washed, pushed, rushed, reached,
stretched, fetched
first
frist
1 articulate both the correct and incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
differences, e.g. (fir - st) and (fr - ist)
2 look for the ‘fir’ in ‘first’ and the ‘fist’ in ‘frist’
flew
flue
1 these two words are homophones with different meanings and functions
2 ‘flew’ is a verb and is the past tense of ‘to fly’
3 ‘flue’ is a noun and a small chimney or pipe for conveying hot air
4 ‘flu’ and ‘flue’ are also shortened forms of the word ‘influenza’
5 the ‘-ew’ ending is used at the end of one-syllabled words, e.g. flew, dew,
blew, clew, crew, brew, hew. grew, sew
6 the ‘-ue’ ending is used at the end of multisyllabled words, e.g. continue,
rescue, tissue, avenue, retinue, revenue, accrue
7 the exceptions to the ‘-ew’ ending of one-syllabled words are usually
homophones, e.g. flue, due, blue, clue, glue, hue, sue
8 other exceptions need to be learned as a group: ‘glue, true, cue, rue’. Try
to make a sentence including these four ‘-ue’ words
films
flims
1 overarticulate this word for spelling (fil - ms)
2 in East Anglia we often say (fillum)
3 articulate the misspelling to hear and feel the difference, e.g. (flim -s)
4 teach the initial blend ‘fl-’ and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
5 find some more words with the ‘fl-’ blend, e.g. fly, flit, flat, flop, flick,
flitter
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flammable
flamebley
1 identify the baseword ‘flame’
2 note the long vowel pattern (- VC e) with silent ‘e’
3 to create the word ‘flammable’ the short vowel pattern requires the
DOUBLING of the final consonant after the vowel ‘flam - m - able’ to
keep the short vowel pattern (- VCCV -)
Florida
flodia, foldia, florder
1 Americans like to spell things more phonetically than we do so spell this
name as they say it in the US (Flor - i - da); see the next word also
2 Names start with capital letters
florist
floris, forist
1 Flora was the Latin goddess of flowers
2 a flora is a book containing the list of all the vegetable species
3 a ‘florist’ is one who sells flowers; ‘- ist’ is a Greek suffix which forms
nouns
4 ‘-ist’ endings mean ‘one skilled in’, e.g. dentist, machinist, typist or ‘one
who believes in’, e.g. pacifist, racist, sexist
5 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (flor - ist)
6 check that initial blend ‘fl-’ and final blend ‘-st’ are being articulated
properly
7 teach the ‘fl-’ and ‘-st’ blends if necessary, e.g. flick, flit , flat, flop; fist,
fasr, first, must, mist, mast
flowers
flores
1 cue articulate the word for spelling (flow - er)
2 note the correct sound is the diphthong ‘-ow’ or ‘-ahoo’ sound
3 We use ‘-ow’ at the end of a word and when the (ow) sound is followed
by a single ‘-l’, ‘-n’ or ‘-er’, e.g. ‘how, now, brown, cow’ and howl,
prowl, owl; crown, town, brown; flower, tower, shower
flies
flys
1 identify the baseword ‘fly’
2 when adding the plural suffix ‘-es’ teach the CHANGE rule – we must
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘-es’, e.g. fly – fl - i - es, spy – spies, try
– tries
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follow, follows
folow, folows
1 teach the short vowel pattern in closed syllables (CVC) + (CVC)
2 when a short vowel is heard in the first syllable of a two-syllabled word it
must be followed by more than one consonant to make the pattern
(- VCCV -), e.g. follow, hollow, yellow, marrow, pillow, rabbit ‘rabbit
words’
3 two different consonants will do as well, e.g. master, faster, blister,
backer, bucket, ticket, napkin
foot, footie
foet, footy
1 teach the long and short sounds of the double (- oo -) vowel
2 identify other words with the short vowel (- oo -) sound in them, e.g.
soot, good, look, book, hook, took, nook, crook, brook
3 identify words with the long vowel (OO) sound in them, e.g. fool, tool,
food, mood, snood, groove
4 only a few words are spelled with the ‘- oe -’ but make the long vowel
(O) sound – foe, toe, roe
5 the word spelled ‘footy’ has an obscure origin and it means ‘mean’,
therefore we use ‘footie’ for its homophone
6 we often use the ending ‘-ie’ instead of ‘y’ for friendly things and
diminutives especially in names: footie, cutie, Mollie, Annie, Lizzie,
Jamie
footballer
football
1 football is a compound word made up of ‘foot’ and ‘ball’
2 syllabify the words, spelling (foot - ball) and (foot - ball - er)
3 when we are referring to ‘one who’ plays football we add ‘-er’ to the
word, e.g. footballer; other words like this are teacher, fisher, painter,
learner
for, fore, four
fore, four
1 these are three homophones all spelled differently
2 ‘for’ is a preposition meaning ‘on account of’ or ‘because’
3 ‘fore’ is an adjective meaning ‘in front’, e.g. to the fore
4 fore and for are also used as prefixes, e.g. fore – as in foremast, forecastle,
forebear, forelock, forehead, forefinger and is the most frequently used
5 fore is also a cry of warning OFTEN heard in golf ‘Fore!’
6 for- is used much less frequently, e.g. forbid, forsake, forgo, forbear
7 ‘four’ is the number 4 next above three; use the fact that it is a number
to remind you of the U in the number four
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forehead
forhead
1 see the homophones for, fore and four above
2 the forehead is the front part of the head above the eyes and brow
3 use the spelling of ‘before’ to remind you that ‘fore’ as a prefix is most
often spelled ‘fore’ when it means ‘in front of’
forestry
foreisty
1 identify the baseword ‘forest’ in forestry
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (for - est) (for - est - ry)
3 find the word ‘rest’ in forest
4 the endings ‘-ery’ and ‘-ry’ in words refer to occupations, e.g. nursery,
bakery, pottery; forestry, ministry
5 simply add the ‘-ry’ ending to forest and then it means the art of planting,
tending and managing forests
6 be sure that you articulate the triple blend in forestry; practise with similar
blends, e.g. stripe, string, streak, vestry, destroy
forgetting, forget
forgeting, foget
1 identify the baseword ‘forget’ in forgetting
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (for - get)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule and pattern if you want to add the suffix ‘-ing’
after the short vowel sound in the final accented syllable (- CVVC -) (for
- get - t - ing) resetting and after unaccented syllables – targeting, pargeting
forward
fowrd
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (for - ward)
2 try to say the misspelled word and show the value of proofreading
(fow - rd)
3 the prefix ‘for-’ means ‘in front of’ in this word ‘forward’
4 teach that the letter W before vowel ‘- a -’ changes its sound to (- or -);
remember these ‘war words’: war, warm, walk, ward, wall, war (‘was’ is
nearly the same group)
found
founed, thoud
1 we use ‘- ou -’ for the (- ow -) or (- ahoo -) sound at the beginning or in
the middle of words, as in out, rout, flout, about, found, ground, mound,
sound, round, aloud, house
2 when forming the past tense of ‘find’ we do not need to add the suffix
‘-ed’ as babies do in ‘finded’ or ‘founed’ we can simply retain the ‘-d’ that
is already there
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3 teach the clear articulation and different feel in the mouth of (- f -) and
(- th -) and their different graphemes in roof, hoof, both, bath, foot, fix,
thick, thin
foxes
foxs
1 the baseword is ‘fox’
2 when making this into a plural we must add the suffix ‘-es’: foxes
3 when words end in a hissing sound we must add the plural ‘-es’, e.g.
foxes, boxes, churches, larches, buses, fishes
frames
fremes
1 articulate the long vowel versions of (A) and (E) and feel the different
positions of the open mouth
2 note the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘-e’ (- VCe)
3 the long vowel ‘-eCe’ pattern is rarely used, e.g. cede, rede
4 the long vowel pattern ‘- VCe’ is common, e.g. frame, tame. lane, name,
fine, time, line, wine, rune, dune, lone, phone
fraternal
frunental
1 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings (frat - ern - al)
(fru - nent - al) showing the importance of proofreading
2 study the first syllable and teach the short vowel in a closed syllable patterns
(- VC) (- VCC), e.g. hop, run, sit; lamp, pick, rest; black, spend, respond
friendly, friends, friend, friendship
frindly, freindly, freindlt, frends, freinds, freinds’, freend, frend, freind, fried,
friendshid, frind, freinds
1 cue articulate to correct this spelling as in (fry - end) – ‘Friends don’t fry
my ends, they are kind to me’
2 use the meaning to help you, e.g. an ‘intimate acquaintance’
3 check that the end blend ‘-nd’ is clearly articulated and felt and the
graphemes taught as a joined writing unit
4 generate some other words with the same end blend, e.g. hand, band;
send, blend, mend; wind; pond
5 when adding a suffix to the word ‘friend’ simply ADD plural ‘-s’: friends;
stable; final syllable ‘-ly’ friendly and Old English suffix ‘-ship’ meaning
status or skill, e.g. friendship, lordship, seamanship
full
fall
1 teach the short vowel forms of ‘- a -’ and ‘- u -’; focus especially on the
different position of the articulators, e.g. more open mouth in ‘- a -’
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2 note the more closed mouth making a half long vowel gorilla noise in ‘- u -’
(full) and (pull) and the short vowel sound in but, hut, gull, mull, hull
funniest, funny
funnest, funy, furnny, funnies, funey
1 identify the baseword ‘fun’
2 note the short vowel sound in the closed syllable pattern (- VC)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule applies after the short vowel sound in a
closed syllable when adding a suffix such as ‘-y’, e.g. fun - n - y, runny,
penny, sunny
4 the suffix ‘-est’ is a superlative meaning the most
5 make sure this ending is clearly articulated to feel the end blend ‘-st’
6 when adding ‘-est’ to funny, teach the CHANGE rule – we must change
‘-y’ to ‘-i -’ then attach the suffix, e.g. funn - i - est
furniture
furnisher
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (furn - i - ture)
2 note the different sound and feel in the mouth of ‘-ture’ and ‘-sher’
furniture, mature, capture; polisher, fisher
3 the ending ‘-er’ is added to words to indicate ‘one who’, as in polisher,
fisher and furnisher – one who furnishes a room or a house
4 furniture is the group name of the moveable objects used in furnishing a
house
5 the long vowel sound in ‘-ure’ tells you to use the silent ‘-e’ pattern
(- VCe) in furniture, measure, leisure, pleasure, treasure
furry
furey
1 identify the baseword ‘fur’
2 only a few words end in ‘-ur’, e.g. fur, cur, spur
3 use the Scottish pronunciation to remind you that the ‘- u -’ in fur is
short and say (fur) and (furry)
4 use the word family to support the spelling, e.g. furrier, furred
5 teach the DOUBLING rule for suffixing after a short vowel in a closed
syllable ‘fur - r - y’ – hurry, berry, merry, polly
gadgets
gagets
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (gad - gets)
2 ‘- ge -’ in words always sounds (- j -) because the ‘- g -’ is softened by
the ‘e’
3 the sound (- j -) is also spelled ‘-dge’ after a short vowel sound at the end
of words, e.g. badge, cadge, edge, hedge, bridge, ridge, dodge, lodge,
judge, fudge
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4 if there is another consonant after the short vowel sound then we only
add ‘-ge’, e.g. hinge, singe, plunge, surge, purge, barge
galaxy
gaicsy
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (gal - ax - y)
2 check the articulatory feel of the ‘- l -’ sound and how the tip of the
tongue touches the upper front teeth
3 note the words ‘gal’ and ‘lax’ in galaxy and galaxies
4 ‘galactical’ means pertaining to galaxies
Gameboy
gamboy
1 this is a compound word made from ‘game’ and ‘boy’
2 note the long vowel sound of ‘- a -’ (- A -) in the word ‘game’
3 teach the long vowel pattern (- VCe) in a closed syllable is denoted by
silent ‘- e’ as in game, name, lame; time, fine, mime; home, lone, tone,
bone, dune, rune
4 the names of things start with a capital letter – Gameboy
gangs
gaings
1 note the short vowel sound in this word ‘gang’ and in hang, tang, bang,
vang
2 ‘- ai -’ will make the long vowel sound for ‘when two vowels go walking the
first one does the talking and usually says its own name’ as in gain and gaing
garage
garrge
1 overarticulate and syllabify this word for spelling (ga - rage)
2 note that there are two syllables in ‘garage’ and each syllable must contain
a vowel
gardening, garden
garding, galdon
1 identify the baseword ‘garden’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (gar - den)
3 Do you have a den in a friend’s garden?
4 when suffixing garden teach the ADD rule, e.g. garden-s, garden - ing,
gardener
gears
gise
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
differences (gear - s) (g - Ise)
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2 note the ‘ears’ in gears
3 in Essex you can almost hear the separate vowels in (ge - ar) and (e - ar)
general
genaral
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (gen - er - ral)
2 use the family of related words to support the spelling: general, genera,
generate, generation
geography
geogrephy
1 the word geography means the science of the surface of the earth and its
inhabitants
2 the word derives from the Greek language ‘geo-’ earth and ‘graphos’
writing
3 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ge - o - graph - y)
4 note the word ‘graph’ in geography
German
geman
1 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings (ger - man)
(gE - man), showing the importance of proofreading
2 use a capital letter for the names of peoples of the world, e.g. German,
Spanish
getting, get, getting
got, geting
1 identify the baseword ‘get’, the verb ‘to get’ and past tense ‘got’
2 note the short vowel sound in the single closed syllable pattern (- VC) in
‘get’
3 teach the DOUBLING rule when attaching suffix ‘-ing’: ‘get - t - ing’,
running , sitting, hopping
ghost
goast
1 find the word ‘host’ in ‘ghost’
2 note the unusual long vowel sound in the word ‘ghost’ and some others,
e.g. host, most and post; try to include them in a sentence to remember
them
3 the typical sound is the short vowel sound (- VCC) in this syllable pattern
as in ‘lost’
4 the word ‘ghost’ comes from the Old English ‘gast’ and is similar in
origin to the German word ‘geist’
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5 the silent ‘-h-’ derives from the first printer Caxton’s Flemish habit of
adding an ‘- h -’ after ‘g’. Caxton set up his printing press in Westminster
in 1477.
giggling
giggiling
1 identify the baseword ‘giggle’
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable (gig-)
3 reach the DOUBLING rule for adding ending ‘-le’ after the short vowel
sound, e.g. ‘gig - g - le’, apple, bubble, supple, kettle
4 ‘-le’ is the most common spelling for the (-ul) sound at the end of words
5 when attaching suffix ‘-ing’ after ‘-le’ DROP silent ‘-e’ and add ‘-ing’,
e.g. giggling, jiggle – jiggling; muddle – muddling; ripple – rippling,
bubble – bubbling
ginormous
ginormas
1 this word is derived from ‘enormous’ and ‘gigantic’
2 syllabify for spelling (gi - norm - ous)
3 the ‘-ous’ is an adjectival ending, as in enormous, nervous, generous,
dangerous, indicating ‘a state of’
4 ‘-as’ is not a legal ending in English words; it is used to make plurals after
foreign words ending in ‘-a’, e.g. giacondas, cobras, agendas
gift
gived
1 articulate clearly for spelling (gi - ft)
2 articulate the correct and incorrect spelling to note the articulatory feel
and sound differences between (-ft) and (-ved): the ‘- f -’ is unvoiced and
the ‘- v -’ is voiced
3 teach the end blend ‘-ft’ and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
4 find some more words with this final blend ‘-ft’: daft, raft; left, deft; sift,
lift; loft, soft
5 a ‘gift’ is a present and gived is an Old English form of the verb ‘to give’
and its modern past tense ‘gave’
giraffe
gurath
1 the ‘g-’ is only softened by being followed by ‘-e-’, ‘-i-’ and ‘-y-’
2 articulate correctly and syllabify for spelling (gi - raffe)
3 articulate the misspelled word (gu - rath) with ‘gu-’ as in gun
4 practise the differences in the articulatory feel of (- ff -) and (- th -)
5 giraffe comes from an Arab name for the animal ‘zarafah’
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glasses
glassis
1 identify the baseword ‘glass’
2 ADD the plural suffix ‘-es’ to glass - es, passes – there is no plural ending ‘-is’
goalie
goale, goley
1 identify the base word ‘goal’
2 Single ‘-e’ at the end of words is always silent
3 when we hear the (- ee) sound at the end of a word it is nearly always
represented by ‘-y’ or just sometimes by the diminutive form ‘-ie’ in goal
- ie, Rosie
4 goal keeper is the full title but ‘goalie’ is the diminutive or the colloquial
form
goes
goses, go’s, gose, goe’s, gonna, gona, gana
1 identify the baseword ‘go’ and the verb ‘to go’
2 check knowledge of the declension of the verb I go, you go, s/he goes,
we go, they go; present participle ‘going’, past tense ‘went’ and past
participle ‘gone’
3 to keep the vowel long as in the open syllable ‘go’ we need to add an ‘-e’
before adding plural ‘-s’, e.g. foes, toes, goes, roes
4 the spelling ‘gos’ would give the short vowel sound and the word (goz)
5 an apostrophe is only used when a letter is deliberately left out or when
something belongs to the word, e.g. here’s (here is) and the ‘children’s
books’ meaning the books belonging to the children
6 ‘gonna’ is an American colloquialism meaning ‘going to’ not used in
formal writing only in reported speech
7 the short vowel sound in ‘gonna’ requires the DOUBLING of the
consonant at the end of the first syllable to preserve the short vowel
pattern (- VCCV -), e.g. ‘gon - n - a’
gory
goory
1 identify the baseword ‘gore’ meaning clotted blood or filth
2 note the word ‘ore’ in gore
3 to add suffix ‘-y’ you must DROP silent ‘-e’ and attach final ‘- y -’: gor - y
4 the double (oo) in the misspelling ‘goory’ would have the long vowel
sound, think of ‘goo’
gorgeous
gorosis
1 syllabify the word for spelling (gorge - ous)
2 note the word ‘or’ in gorge
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3 when adding the adjectival ending ‘-ous’ we must retain the ‘- e -’ to
keep the ‘- g -’ soft, e.g. gorge - ous
4 the word comes from the Old French ‘gaugias’ meaning gaudy
grabbed
grabed
1 identify the baseword ‘grab’; note the short vowel pattern in the closed
syllable (- VC)
2 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound in ‘grab’ when
attaching a suffix such as ‘-ed’ (grab - b - ed)
grandma
granma
1 remember that this word in full is ‘grandmother’ – a compound word
from ‘grand’ and ‘mother’
2 the shortened version of this is ‘grandma’ even though in running speech
we might say ‘granma’
graphics
grahics, grapics
1 identify the baseword ‘graph’ in ‘graphics’
2 the consonant digraph ‘- ph’ (- f -) should be taught; a consonant digraph
is when two consonants are used together and make one sound and
neither of them retains its own sound. There are six consonant digraphs
in English: ch, ph, ch, wh, th (voiced and unvoiced)
3 ‘ph’ is not a regular spelling for the (f) sound but is the first choice in
words connected with medicine and science especially in words derived
from the Greek language, e.g. phobias, camphor, lymph; physics, graphs,
graphics, telegraph, telephone, photograph; alphabet, phrase, nymph
gratefully
gratefuly
1 identify the baseword ‘grateful’
2 note that it is a compound word built from ‘grate’ (from the Latin word
gratis) and ‘full’
3 teach the ‘all, well, full and till rule’ – that when these are added to
another word they drop an ‘-l’, e.g. all - ways, always; grate - full, grateful;
help - full, helpful; full - fill, fulfil; well - come, welcome; un - till, until
great, greatest,
grate, grat, greatist
1 ‘great’ is an Old English word meaning big or large
2 probably the word was pronounced in O. E. as (greet) with the long
vowel sound; ‘ea’ is the second most frequent choice after ‘ee’ for the ‘ee’
sound
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3 try to remember the ‘ea’ spelling in ‘great’ by linking it with ‘great big
eats at parties’ or make up your own ‘funny’
4 ‘grate’ is a homophone: a) a noun or name of a barred construction
holding a fire, or b) a verb ‘to grate’ meaning to rub away or grind
5 ‘-est’ at the end of words forms adjectives; it is a superlative ending
meaning the most – greatest, biggest, smallest, finest
6 ‘ -ist’ at the end of words is a Greek suffix that forms nouns; it means ‘one
skilled in’ or ‘one who believes in’, e.g. dentist, typist, florist; pacifist,
suffragist, anarchist
grey
geray, gray
1 teach the initial blend ‘gr-’ without the intrusive schwa (- uh -) sound
2 teach ‘gr-’ as two joined graphemes and find other words with the blend,
e.g. grind, grand, grey, green, gruel, growl, grow, Greek, grub, grudge
3 ‘grey’ is the English spelling and ‘gray’ is the US spelling
4 there are only a few words that use the ‘-ey’ spelling for the long vowel
sound (A) or (-ay); learn these as a group by inventing a sentence that
contains most of them, e.g. grey, prey, they, whey, obey, convey
grounded
granded
1 articulate this word clearly for spelling (gr - ou - nd)
2 note the ‘- ou -’ is a diphthong here and says (- ahoo -) – it makes two
sounds
3 ‘say the word ‘grand’ carefully for spelling and note that it has a different
meaning and short vowel ‘a’ sound
4 (grand) is used in the Cockney dialect for ‘ground’
5 there are several words that have the ‘- ou -’ diphthong in them; learn
them as a group, e.g. ground, found, round, sound, mound, out, ouch!
pouch
growling
groly
1 identify the baseword ‘growl’
2 note the use of ‘-ow’ as a diphthong making the sound (ahoo)
3 find the words owl and row in ‘growl’
4 articulate and syllabify the misspelling to note the difference from the
correct version (gro - ly); this shows the value of proofreading
5 teach the suffix ‘-ing’ as a whole writing unit and ensure that the (-ng)
can be identified
6 after a consonant ending simply ADD the suffix ‘-ing’: growl - ing,
howling
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grumpy
grumpey
1 the sound of ‘-ee’ at the end of words is represented most often by ‘-y’
2 because ‘-y’ can act as both a consonant and a vowel you do not need to
put ‘-e-’ with it as well, e.g. grumpy, lumpy, funny, sunny
3 the ‘-ey’ ending is usually only used at the end of words that finish with
‘-key’ and ‘-ney’, e.g. key, monkey, donkey, turkey, hockey, jockey,
lackey; chimney, kidney, cockney, chutney, spinney, Hackney, Sydney
gravity
graverty
1 identify the baseword ‘grave’
2 ‘-ity’ is a regular legal ending in English, e.g. gravity, levity, brevity;
entity, nonentity, probity
3 overarticulate the short vowel (- i -) when you say the word for spelling
4 use the family of words to help you: grave, gravely, gravity, gravitas
5 the word ‘grave’ can mean serious and this comes from the Latin ‘gravis’
6 the ending ‘-erty’ as in poverty and property has a clear (- er -) sound
guarantees
garrantees
1 the letter ‘g-’ remains hard when followed by silent ‘- u -’ in guarantee,
guard
2 there is no need to double the ‘- r -’ between two unstressed syllables
guards, guardian
gaurds, grerdien
1 the letter ‘g-’ remains hard when followed by silent ‘- u -’ in guard
2 we pronounce the word (gards) but remember to keep the ‘g’ hard by
linking silent ‘u’ to it
3 a person who guards is called a guardian; the ‘- ian’ ending is a regular
ending in English referring to people as in – Indian, Persian, musician,
electrician, politician
guessed
geussed, gest, gess
1 the letter ‘g-’ remains hard when followed by silent ‘- u -’
2 we pronounce this word as (gess) but must put in the silent ‘u’ linked to
the ‘g-’ otherwise the word would say (jess), ‘gest’ says (jest)
3 ‘guess’ is a regular verb and to make the past tense we simply ADD ‘-ed’
after the two consonants, e.g. guessed, helped, robbed, snubbed, walked,
talked
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guinea pig
ginny pig, geny pig, guiene, giney, guine, genipig, gunie, ginepigs, guinie,
gineypig
1 the letter ‘- g -’ remains hard when followed by silent ‘- u -’ because
especially before ‘- e -’, ‘- i -’ and ‘- y -’ it is soft, saying (- j -)
2 the ‘guinea’ is an obsolete coin made of gold originally from Guinea in
Africa
3 the guinea pig is a South American rodent called a ‘cavy’, which is often
a golden guinea colour
4 we also use the term to refer to subjects in an experiment because guinea
pigs were often used in them
guitar, guitars
gitar, gutaires, geter
1 we pronounce this word (gi - tar)
2 but to keep the ‘g-’ making its hard sound we must insert a silent ‘-u’
beside it – guitar
3 the misspelling ‘geter’ would give the pronunciation (jee - ter)
gut
get
1 practise the articulatory feel and sound of the two short vowel sounds (u -) and (- e -)
2 ‘gut’ is an Old English word for the intestines or viscera
hacked
haked
1 after a short vowel in a closed syllable we must double the final consonant
before adding suffixes -ed and -ing unless there are already two consonants
2 we never double ‘k’ at the end of syllables but use ‘-ck’ to make the
sound of (-k), as in hacked, packed, lacked, ticked, picked, licking,
sticking etc.
3 at the end of a closed syllable with a short vowel we never use ‘-k’ to
make the (-k) sound – we use ‘-ck’, except in the foreign word ‘kayak’
4 the pronunciation of ‘haked’ would be (hake) as in the fish and (haked)
had
hade, hard, hand, ha
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling, noting the feel of the final
consonant ‘-d’
2 note that there is a short vowel sound in the single closed syllabled word
(had)
3 articulate the short and long vowel (- a -) (- A -) sounds to hear and feel
the differences
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4 silent ‘-e’ at the end of words tells us the previous vowel is long (hAde),
made, wade (- VCe)
5 teach the end blend ‘-nd’ following the short vowel sound emphasising
the articulatory feel and writing the graphemes as a joined unit
6 find other words with the ‘-nd’ blend, e.g. send, mend, stand, hand,
land, bond
7 teach that ‘-r’ modifies the sound of ‘- a -’ and together they form the
sound (- ar) as in hard, lard, bard; tart, part, cart
Hallowe’en
hallowoon
1 look up the word ‘hallow’ in the dictionary – it means to make holy
2 it comes from All Hallows or All Saints day on 1 November
3 All Hallows evening is thus 31 October or Hallowe’en
4 note the apostrophe to denote the missing letter
5 use a capital letter for names such as Hallowe’en
hamster
hames, hamste
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ham - ster)
2 the unstressed (- ur) at the end of words is usually written as ‘-er’ as in
hamster, hamper, damper, ripper, letter, copper, patter, litter, letter
happened
hapend
1 identify the baseword ‘happen’
2 syllabify the word for spelling (hap-pen)
3 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable and the short closed
syllable pattern (- VC)
4 after a short vowel sound in a closed syllable in a two-syllabled word there
must be a DOUBLE consonant (it is a ‘rabbit’ word), e.g. ‘hap - p - en’
5 find some other words that follow this rule, e.g. matter, patter, ratter,
potter, redder, rudder, rammer, runner etc.
6 when making a past tense happen, happened we must ADD the suffix
‘-ed’ not just the sound ‘-d’ on its own
7 after a consonant we simply ADD suffixes beginning with vowels, e.g.
‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’: happened, happening; pattered, pattering
harbour
harbor
1 syllabify the word for spelling (har - bour)
2 use the meaning of the word to help you remember the English spelling
has a ‘- u -’ in it – a harbour is a refuge, a boat refuge especially in a storm
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3 not many common words end in the ‘-our’ ending – learn them as a
group and try to make two sentences using them: harbour, armour,
labour, colour, favour, odour, ardour, clamour, glamour
has, hasn’t
hers, hasent
1 identify the basewords ‘has’ and ‘has not’
2 a single ‘-s’ at the end of a word usually denotes a plural; if not it usually
has the (-z) sound, as in ‘has’, ‘was’ and ‘is’; we do not use a single ‘-z’
at the end of words
hair
hire, haja
1 articulate the word clearly and correctly (hair)
2 find the word ‘air’ in hair
3 teach the ‘-air’ word ending as a whole writing unit
4 find some other ‘air’ words: air, hair, stair, pair, fair
handling, handlebars
handeling, handabars
1 identify the basewords ‘handle’ and ‘bars’
2 the most common spelling for the (-ul) sound at the end of words is the
final stable syllable (-le), e.g. handle, rumble, humble, nimble, middle,
pebble, bubble, angle, mangle
3 we use ‘-el’ to keep ‘-c-’ and ‘-g-’ soft, e.g. cancel, parcel, angel
4 we also use ‘-el’ if the sound before it has no stick or tail, e.g. tunnel,
funnel, runnel, barrel, towel, travel, camel
5 when adding a word such as ‘bars’ to ‘handle’ to make the compound
word we simply ADD because it begins with a consonant
6 when attaching a vowel suffix such as ‘-ing’, ‘-ed’ and ‘-es’, we must first
DROP the silent ‘-e-’ and then add the suffix, e.g. handling, handled,
handles
hanging
haging
1 identify the baseword (hang) and especially notice and feel the ‘-ng’
ending
2 the ‘n’ nasalifies the preceding vowel ‘a’ rather than has a feel of its own;
you can detect it if you hold your nose and then try to say (hang)
3 practise writing the ‘-ng’ as a joined writing unit
4 find some other words with this end blend, e.g. hang, fang, tang, ring,
ping, thing; song, tong, among; rung, hung, dung
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happened
happend
1 find the baseword ‘happen’
2 the past tense is constructed in a regular verb by adding ‘-ed’ directly
after the last consonant ‘happen - ed’
happily
happiley
1 identify the baseword ‘happy’
2 teach the CHANGE rule when adding the final stable syllable ‘-ly’; to
words ending in final ‘-y’ we change the ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ and add ‘-ly’, e.g.
happ - i - ly, merrily
hardest
harders
1 identify the baseword ‘hard’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (hard - est)
3 teach the end blend ‘-st’ and practise it as a joined writing unit
4 find some more words with the same end blend, e.g. last, past, mast; rest,
best, nest; wrist, mist, list; post, most, lost; rust, must, lust
hasn’t
hasnt, hasent
1 identify the basewords: ‘has’, ‘not’
2 teach the shortened version in running speech, e.g. ‘hasn’t’, ‘haven’t’,
‘didn’t’
3 we use an apostrophe to show there is a letter missing
4 find the three common features of these shortened words:
i) ‘o’ is omitted and the apostrophe inserted;
ii) the two words are joined to make one word;
iii) the sound is different – hasn’t/has not)
hates
hats
1 teach the short vowel sound of ‘a’ in the closed syllable structure (- VCs)
in ‘hats’
2 teach the long vowel sound of (A) denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe) in ‘hates’ – the ‘e’ is silent and makes the vowel say its own name
– or makes it say its long vowel or sustained sound
3 find five other pairs of words that can do this, e.g. sat/sate, pat/ pate;
rat/rate, tat/Tate, mat/ mate
hat-trick
hatrick
1 identify the separate words in this compound word ‘hat’ ‘trick’
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2 put the words together but use a hyphen to link them and preserve the
original words
having, have
haveing, havind, of
1 identify the baseword ‘have’ and cue articulate it as we might have done
in earlier centuries (h - ave)
2 teach the DROP rule for suffixing when there is the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe) at the end of a single-syllabled word ‘hav - ing’
3 find some other silent ‘e’ verbs that behave like this, e.g. have, having;
love, loving; come, coming, shine, shining; mine, mining
havoc
havick
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (hav - oc)
2 we would expect this word to end in ‘-ck’ as it does in havocked, ‘mock’,
‘rock’, ‘mattock’, ‘puttock’ and ‘smock’ but for no reason that I can find
it does not
3 perhaps Mr Early Printer left the ‘- k’ off and his friends followed suit
he, he’s, he’ll
his, hill, hes, hs
1 identify the basewords ‘he’, ‘he is’, ‘he will’
2 the apostrophe indicates a letter or letters are missing
3 note that we run the two words together in speech but preserve letters
that give a clue to their origin, e.g. ‘he is/he’s’, ‘he will/he’ll’ even
though the sounds change
head, headquarters, headless
herd, headquaters, headles
1 identify the baseword ‘head’ and note it is pronounced (hed) with the
short vowel sound not (herd) as in a herd of elephants
2 to remember the spelling cue articulate the word by saying it as a Scot
might do (head) with the long vowel sound and the first vowel saying its
own name
3 headquarters is a compound word made of ‘head’ and ‘quarters’
4 the misspelling ‘quaters’ would have the long vowel ‘a’ sound (kwaters)
like (craters) not the (- or -) sound made by ‘ar’ as in quart – vowels
followed by ‘r’ change their sounds
5 cue articulate ‘quart’ to rhyme with ‘smart’
6 ‘headless’ means without a head or ‘less a head’
7 remember the ‘l - f - s’ rule – after a short closed syllable we must double
l - f - and s, e.g. less, mess, confess, headless, redress, seamless
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healthy
helfy
1 identify the baseword ‘heal’ and use this to remind you how to spell
healthy
2 practise the different articulatory feel and sound of ‘f’ and ‘th’
3 practise saying the words (health) and (healthy) correctly
hear, heard
here, herd
1 find the word ‘ear’ in hear to remind you how to spell ‘hear’ correctly
when you are listening
2 teach the rule ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking
and usually says its own name’ in (ear) and (hear)
3 ‘here’ is a homophone but has a different meaning, e.g. ‘come over here’
4 when making the past tense of ‘to hear’ we simply add ‘-d’ to make
‘heard’
5 (herd) is a homophone with a different meaning, as in ‘a herd of cows’
6 we keep the spelling of ‘hear’ in heard to show the origin of the word as
well as its meaning
heaviest
heavyest
1 identify the baseword ‘heavy’
2 teach the CHANGE rule when adding suffixes to words with ‘-y’ endings,
e.g. heav - i - est; we must change ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ before adding the
superlative suffix ‘-est’, e.g. heaviest, merriest
held
helled
1 identify the present tense of this verb ‘to hold’
2 use the present tense to guide the spelling of the past tense ‘held’
3 if the verb was regular like ‘to fold’ with the past tense ‘folded’ the past
tense would be ‘holded’ and probably was historically but not now
4 ‘hell’ is a different place, not a verb
her
here, hear
1 teach the word ending ‘-er’ and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
2 blend the ‘h-’ to ‘-er’ to make the single syllabled word (her) and practise
this as a whole writing unit
3 find five other words with the ‘-er’ ending, e.g. infer, other, mother,
water, gardener
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heroes
heros
1 identify the baseword ‘hero’
2 most words ending in ‘-o’ take the plural ‘-es’ to keep the ‘o’ long
3 the misspelling ‘heros’ would be pronounced (he - roz) with the short
vowel sound in (-roz)
4 find some more ‘-oes’ endings, e.g. potatoes, tomatoes, cargoes, vetoes,
echoes, grottoes, tornadoes, volcanoes
5 some words ending in ‘-io’ do not need the ‘e-’ in ‘-es’, e.g. ratios, folios,
radios
6 a few words do not take the ‘-es’, e.g. autos, dynamos, hippos and
avocados – perhaps because they have arrived more recently and have an
American influenced spelling
height
hight, hieght, hights
1 the word ‘height’ comes from the baseword ‘high’
2 it belongs to a small group of words with the long (-I-) sound represented
by ‘- ei -’
3 learn these words as a group and try to bind them into a sentence, e.g.
height, sleight, neither, either, eider
4 ‘eight’ is different ‘- ei -’ says (A) and it has a different family group, e.g.
weight, neighbour, sleigh, reindeer, feint
highways, highest
hiways, hieghst
1 identify the baseword ‘high’ and check its meaning
2 when adding a suffix or making a compound word we just add them
together, e.g. highways, Highschool, highest, higher
him
hem
1 practise identifying the articulatory differences and sounds of the two
short vowel sounds ‘- i -’ and ‘- e -’
2 identify the differences again in (him) and (hem), his, this and them, etc.
hippos
hipos
1 note and teach the sound and feel of the short vowel (- i -) in the first
syllable
2 teach the short vowel rule and pattern that after a short vowel sound in a
closed syllable we must DOUBLE the consonant to keep the short vowel
pattern (- VCCV -) e.g. ‘hip - p - o’
3 start the pattern at the first vowel (- VCCV -) for (CVC) + (CVC)
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4 find some other words with the -VCCV- pattern, e.g. tabby, potty,
runny, filly, hobby, kipper, hopper, patter
his
has, is
1 note and teach the different sound and articulatory pattern of the short
vowel (- i -) in his and short vowel ‘- a -’ in has
2 teach the aspirated sound (h - is) to distinguish it from (is)
3 note the different meanings of ‘his’ and ’is and ‘is’
4 we use an apostrophe to indicate a missing letter
hobby, hobbies
hobbie, hobbys, hobies
1 note and teach the sound and feel of the short vowel (- o -) in the first
syllable
2 teach the short vowel rule and pattern – that after a short vowel sound in
a closed syllable we must DOUBLE the consonant when suffixing, e.g.
‘hob - b - y’
3 start the pattern at the first vowel (- VCCV -)
4 find some other words with the -VCCV- pattern, e.g. tabby, potty,
runny, filly, kipper, hopper, patter, hippo
5 when making the plural for a word ending in ‘-y’ teach the CHANGE
rule, e.g. we must change ‘-y’ to ‘-i’ and then attach plural ‘-es’: hobb-i
-es, baddies, kiddies, babies (no doubling after the long vowel sound)
hockey
hokey
1 note the short vowel (- o -) sound and pattern (-VCC) in the first syllable
2 after the short vowel sound in the first syllable of a two-syllabled word we
must have two consonants or DOUBLE one to make the pattern
(-VCCV-)
3 in English words we do not double ‘- k -’ in words but add ‘- c-’ to make
‘- ck -’, as in hockey, jockey, lackey
4 we also use ‘-ck’ at the end of one syllabled words immediately after a
short vowel, e.g. back, peck, tick, lock, tuck
holiday
hoiday, hoilday, hodiday, holaday, hoilday, hollday
1 articulate the word and syllabify for spelling (hol - i - day)
2 look up the word’s meaning and note its origin from Holy Day – a
religious festival
3 when we make the compound word from holy and day we need to
CHANGE ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ before adding ‘day’, e.g. hol - i - day
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homework
homwork
1 identify the two words in this compound word ‘home’ and ‘work’ and
the meaning – work to be done at home
2 note the long vowel sound in (hOme) denoted by silent ‘-e’ and teach
the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe)
3 simply ADD the two words together to make the compound word
‘homework’
hops
hopes
1 say the correct and incorrect versions and note the different sounds and
articulatory patterns in the vowel ‘- o -’
2 teach the short vowel pattern in the closed syllable (- VC) as in (hop) and
(hops)
3 find other words with the same pattern: cop, top, tip, rid, run, tan, cat,
dog
4 teach the long vowel pattern in the closed syllable (- VCe) with the long
or sustained sound denoted by silent ‘-e’ as in (hope) and (hopes)
5 find other words with the long vowel pattern, e.g. rope, hope, tripe, kite,
rote, lute, note, made, fade
hoofs
hooves
1 plurals for words ending in ‘-f’ can vary but there are some patterns that
help, e.g. after double ‘-ff-’ you simply add plural ‘-s’: huffs, buffs, tiffs,
riffs, cliffs, giraffes, cuffs
2 but learn these words – chefs, chiefs, roofs, proofs, serfs – as a group by
trying to weave them into one sentence
3 all the other words ending in ‘-f’ CHANGE to ‘-ves’ to make the plural,
e.g. hoof – hooves, calf – calves, elves, halves, knives, leaves, lives, loaves,
selves, sheaves, shelves, thieves, wives, wolves
4 these words can take either form – dwarfs/dwarves, scarfs/scarves, staffs/
staves, wharfs/wharves – so it is easy to remember them as the‘-ves’ form
with all the other 14 words in 3. above
horrid
horied
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (hor - rid)
2 note the short vowel in the first syllable and remember the DOUBLING
rule and pattern (- VCCV -) that after a short vowel sound we must
double the next consonant (unless there are already two consonants
there)
3 say the misspelled word as it is spelt (hory - ed) like gory and tory to see
the value of proofreading
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horse’s
horses
1 the apostrophe is only used if we are saying something belongs to this
horse, e.g. its bridle or saddle
2 when we make a plural it is only necessary to ADD ‘-s’, e.g. horses, dogs,
cats, cows
hospital
hospit, hosbial
1 articulate and syllabify this word clearly for spelling (hosp - i - tal)
2 teach the ‘- sp -’ blend and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
3 find some more words with the initial ‘-sp-’ blend: spit, spot, spill, spare;
and the end blend rasp, hasp, clasp, crisp
hotel
hotle
1 articulate and syllabify this word clearly for spelling (ho - tel)
2 note the long vowel in the open first syllable and the emphasis (accent)
on the second syllable (ho - tel)
3 the misspelling ‘hotle’ has no emphasis in the last syllable ‘- le’ it is
unstressed and therefore is spelt differently; see candle, little, fettle, kettle,
angle, rifle
houses
hoses
1 identify the baseword ‘house’ and note the diphthong (ah-oo) sound of
the two middle vowels
2 note that the misspelling’s baseword has a different sound and structure
(hose); it has the long vowel (- O -) sound and pattern (- VCe) where
silent ‘e’ denotes the long vowel sound
3 learn that we use the diphthong ‘- ou -’ at the beginnings and in the
middle of words, e.g. out, grout, flout, house, louse, mouse, grouse,
loud
4 learn this group of diphthong words: ground, found, mound, sound,
round
humanity
humanety
1 identify the basewords ‘human’ and ‘humane’
2 ‘-ity’ is a legal suffix in English whereas ‘-ety’ is not
3 when suffixing, DROP the final silent ‘-e’ and add ‘-ity’, e.g. humane –
humanity; profane – profanity; profundity, fecundity
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hurricanes
hurricans
1 identify the baseword and syllabify for spelling (hurr - i - cane)
2 note that in the final syllable the vowel has the long vowel sound
3 the long vowel sound must be denoted by a silent ‘-e’ at the end of the
syllable ‘-cane’ as in hurricane, chicane even though in running speech
we might not stress the final syllable
hurt
hert
1 the spelling of the sound (-er) in the middle of one-syllabled words is
most often ‘-ur’, e.g. hurt, turn, curl, furl, purse, curve; we mainly use
‘-er at the end of words – murder, larder, paper, folder
2 it is also used in days of the week Thursday, Saturday and in hospital
words, e.g. nurse, hurt, burn, burst, surgeon
3 words beginning with (sur-) and (cur-) sounds are most commonly spelt
with ‘-ur -’, e.g. surface, surname, surprise, surly; curfew, curtain, cursive,
curl
I
i
1 an ‘- i -’ on its own is always written as a capital letter I
2 capital I says its own name (I)
3 it refers to the first person singular, as in I am, I have, I like, I go
if
iff, it
1 the ‘l - f - s’ rule states that we must double these letters at the end of a
single syllable after a short vowel sound, e.g. pill, cuff, mass
2 now you need to learn the two exceptions, e.g. ‘if’ and ‘of’ (ov) in the ‘f’
group
I have; I’ve, I’m, I’ll
iv, Ive; Im, im, iam; ill
1 identify the basewords in these contractions: I have, I am, I will
2 the I word must always be represented by capital letter I – remember ‘I
am important’
3 capital I says its own name (I)
4 the missing letters in the shortened versions are always represented by an
apostrophe – I’ve, I’m, I’ll – but leaving enough of the original word to
keep the sense
5 the lower case use of ‘i’ makes us use the short vowel sound in im, iv, ill,
it
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illustrated
illstrated
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (ill - us - strat - ed)
2 note each syllable must contain a vowel
3 use the word ‘illustrious’ to remind you of the unstressed medial vowel
imagination
immagination
1 identify the baseword ‘image’
2 the word comes from the Latin word ‘imago’ meaning an image
3 cue articulate to remind you not to double the consonant after the short
vowel sound by saying (I - mago, I - mage)
4 or syllabify ‘im - age’ – few words double ‘m’ after the short vowel sound
5 only scientific words double ‘m’ after the short vowel: ammeter, ammonia
impact
empact
1 The prefixes im- em- and in- en- are used interchangeably depending on
the context. They mean ‘to’ and ‘into’. Use the citation mode of speech
for spelling and notice the different feel in the mouth as you make the
sound, e.g. IM-port, IM-personal; EM-bark, EM-phasis; IN-trigue,
IN-correct, IN-vert; EN-gage, EN-dure
important
importen, inportant
1 identify the baseword ‘import’ – to ‘bring in from abroad’, or ‘significant’
2 ‘im’ and ‘in’ are both Latin prefixes meaning ‘not’
3 articulate and syllabify the word clearly for spelling ‘im - port - ant’,
which is easier to say than ‘in – portant’ and so results in the current
spelling
include
inclod
1 syllabify the word for spelling (in - clude)
2 note the long vowel sound in the final syllable (- U -)
3 teach the silent ‘-e’ rule and pattern that keeps the vowel long (- VCe)
4 find some other words that obey this rule – include, exclude, fate, lute,
wrote
independent
indepentant
1 identify the baseword ‘depend’ meaning to hang or rely upon
2 teach the sounds and the articulatory differences between the end blends
‘-nt’ and ‘-nd’
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3 find some more words with these different end blends: rent – rend; sent
– send; vent – vend
4 when the root word contains an ‘i’ or an ‘e’ we use the ‘-ent’ ending
5 find some more words following this rule: dependent, independent,
convenient, obedient, sufficient, proficient
infection
invection
1 identify the baseword ‘infect’
2 teach the articulatory feel and sound differences between ‘v’ and ‘f’ in
invect and infect
3 find some more words with these different sounds: infect, infer, infighting;
invect, invade, invict, invoke
injuries
injurys
1 identify the baseword ‘injury’
2 teach the CHANGE rule for words ending in ‘-y’ that before adding the
plural suffix ‘-es’ change ‘y’ to ‘i’, e.g. ‘in - jur - i – es’, babies, puppies
instead
in sted, insted
1 this is a compound word meaning ‘in the place’ or ‘stead of’
2 ‘- ea -’ is the second most frequent choice for the short vowel ‘e’ sound
3 we probably spell ‘stead’ with ‘- ea -’ because we once pronounced it as
in (-steed) for ‘when two vowels going walking the first one does the
talking and usually says its own name’
4 collect some other compound ‘stead’ words, e.g. instead, homestead
intelligent
intellegen
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (in - tell - i - gent)
2 think of ‘an intelligent gent’
3 be clever – find four whole words inside ‘intelligent’, e.g. in, tell, I, gent
4 practise writing each syllable as a joined unit
5 practice articulating the end blend (- nt) and always write it as a joined
unit
6 find some more words with the end blend ‘-nt’, e.g. pant, lent, stint,
mount, runt
intend
inten
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (in - tend)
2 teach the end blend ‘-nd’ as a whole writing unit and check for clear
articulation
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3 find some more words with the ‘-nd’ blend, e.g. end, blend, send, mend,
find, bind, wind, fond, pond, remind, fund
interested
intrested
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (in - ter - est - ed)
2 the word comes from the Latin words ‘inter’ meaning between and ‘esse’
to be
3 quite a large number of words need to use the word ‘inter-’; find five
more, e.g. interest, interact, interview, internal, interpret, interrupt
intercepted
intersepted
1 identify the baseword ‘intercept’
2 deconstruct the word into its component parts ‘inter’ from the Latin
meaning between and ‘cept’ from ‘capere’ to seize – interceptus
3 because an ‘- s -’ between two vowels usually has the sound of (- Z -) and
in intercept we can hear the (- S -) sound this is made by the second
sound of ‘- c -’
4 ‘- c -’ also has the soft sound when it is followed by ‘- e -’, ‘- i -’ and
‘- y -’, as in intercept, intercede, intercity, cell, celery, city, citric, cycle
introduce
introdoce
1 ‘intro’ is a Latin word meaning inwards and ‘ducere’ means to lead
2 a ‘duct’ leads water away from places
3 use the family of words to help your spelling, e.g. introduce, introduction
instruments
instuments
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (in - stru - ments)
2 teach the three letter blend ‘str-’ as a whole writing unit and how to
pronounce it
3 find some more words that use the ‘str-’ blend, e.g. strong, string, strip,
stripe, strange, strong, strain, straw
island
iland
1 cue articulate the word for spelling (is - land)
2 the word comes from Old English ‘igland’ and ‘egland’ meaning island
3 early on it became confused with the word ‘Isle’, as in Isle of Wight, Isle
of Man, Isles of Scilly so now we spell it ‘island’
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it, it’s
i, I, is. its, is
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (- it -) so that the pupil can hear
and feel the (-t) sound
2 identify the two words in ‘it’s’, e.g. it is
3 teach that we must put in an apostrophe to show there is a letter missing:
‘it’s’
4 find some more shortened forms with apostrophes, e.g. I’ve, I’ll, she’ll,
o’clock
jackpot
jakpot
1 this is a compound word made up of ‘jack’ and ‘pot’
2 note the short vowel sound of (- a -) in the first syllable (j - ack)
3 teach the single syllable short vowel patterns, e.g. (- VCC) (- VC)
4 we must use ‘-ck’ at the end of one-syllabled words, e.g. jack, back, luck,
lick, tick, sack for the (-k) sound
5 we use ‘k’ alone after a vowel digraph – beak, seek, look, week and also
after another consonant – bank, link, sank, milk, desk
jealous
jelous
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (jea - lous)
2 note the short vowel sound ‘- e -’ made by the vowel digraph ‘-ea’
3 if the ‘- e -’ was used on its own we would pronounce it as the long vowel
(E) sound in the open syllable (jee - lous)
4 find some other words that adopt ‘- ea -’, e.g. jealous, zealous
jogging
joggin
1 identify the baseword ‘jog’ and the suffix ‘-ing’
2 ‘-in’ is used in running speech but is not a legal suffix to add to a verb in
writing but ‘-ing’ is
3 find some more verbs and add suffix ‘-ing’: jogging, running, hopping,
tanning
John, John’s
john, johns
1 this is the name of a person and must have a capital letter – John
2 if something belongs to John, e.g. his coat, we use the apostrophe John’s
for John his coat
joined
joned
1 teach the ‘- oi -’ diphthong as a whole writing unit and its (oy) sound
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2 we use ‘oi-’ at the beginning and in the middle of words, e.g. oil, coil,
toil, spoil; coin, loin, join, joint
3 the (-oy) sound at the end of words is spelt ‘-oy’, as in toy, coy, boy, Roy,
annoy
4 the misspelling ‘joned’ would have the long vowel (O) sound, as in
boned, honed, toned
jokes
joke
1 teach plurals are most often denoted by putting an ‘-s’ at the end of
words
2 check for clear articulation of the ending sound (-ks): joke/jokes
3 find make some more words that use plural ‘-s’: cats, dog, hats, blogs,
rugs; jokes, pokes, smokes, makes, takes, likes, spikes
jeopardy
jepardy
1 cue articulate this word for spelling (je - o - pard - y)
2 look up its meaning and remember its dangerous friends ‘leopard’ and
Leo the lion
judo
jodo
1 syllabify this word for spelling (ju - do)
2 notice the long vowel sound in the first syllable is (- U -)
3 teach the difference in sound and articulatory pattern between long
vowel U and long vowel O
jumped
jumed
1 identify the baseword ‘jump’
2 teach clear articulation and the joined graphemes for the end blend ‘-mp’
3 find some more words that have this end blend, e.g. jump, stump, thump,
rump frump, trump
4 add the past tense suffix ‘-ed’ after consonant blend ‘-mp’, e.g. jumped,
stumped, thumped
kayak
kiacking
1 ‘kayak’ is an Eskimo/Inuit word for a one-person light wooden canoe
2 you need to learn the Inuit ‘way’ of spelling this word
karate
kraty
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ka - ra - te)
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2 karate is a Japanese system for unarmed combat using arms and feet
3 ‘kara’ in Japanese means empty and ‘te’ means hand
keeps, kept
ceeps, keept
1 identify the baseword ‘keep’
2 ‘- c -’ has no sound of its own; it uses its soft sound ‘s-’ or its hard sound
‘k-’
3 it uses its soft sound before the vowels ‘- e -’, ‘- i -’ and ‘- y -’, e.g. city,
city, cycle so ‘k’ is needed here before ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’: kin, king, akin,
askew, alike
kennel
kenal
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ken - nel)
2 note the short vowel ‘- e -’ in the first syllable
3 teach the DOUBLING rule and pattern after a short vowel in a closed
syllable ( - VCC - )
4 for the final (-l) sound in words we use ‘-el’ if the letter before it has no
‘stick’ or ‘tail’, e.g. kennel, tunnel, funnel, camel, runnel, towel, travel
5 use ‘-al’ for making adjectives, e.g. central, ventral, local, total, focal
6 use ‘-al’ when there is a whole word before it, e.g. seasonal, musical,
logical, electoral, doctoral, basically, magical, electrical
kicked
kiked, kick
1 identify the baseword ‘kick’
2 note the short vowel ‘- i -’ sound in the closed syllable
3 teach that we use ‘-ck’ at the end of one-syllabled words immediately
after a short vowel for the (-k) sound: kick, pack, tack, lack; peck, beck,
heck; lick, pick, tick; mock, lock; tuck, luck
4 when suffixing ‘-ck’ words we simply ADD suffixes, e.g. kicked, kicks,
kicking
kilo, kilometre
kelow, kilometer
1 articulate and syllabify this word for spelling (ki - lo)
2 ‘kilometre’ is a French word and keeps its French spelling even in the
short form ‘kilo’ – pronounce it as the French do to help with spelling
(ki - LO - met - r) with short vowel ‘- i -’ and ‘- e -’
3 a meter is a measuring device not a distance as in ‘metre’, e.g. gasometer,
taximeter, voltmeter, altimeter
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kitty
kittey
1 ‘kitty’ is a diminutive name for a cat
2 after the short vowel ‘- i -’ when adding suffix ‘-y’ we need to DOUBLE
the final consonant (kit - t - y)
3 There is no need to add ‘-ey’ as ‘-y’ acts as the vowel sound ‘-E-’ at the
end of words: kitty, mystery, canny, nanny
knew
new
1 ‘knew’ and ‘new’ are homophones with different meanings; to know is a
verb and its past tense is knew, new means lately made or young
2 words like ‘knew’ and ‘knife’ come from Old Norse and the ‘k-’ was
pronounced
3 although the ‘k-’ is now silent we did once pronounce it in England in
knew, knife, knight, knock
4 to remember the correct spelling pronounce the old ‘k-’ in these words
knocked, knocking
nocked, knock
1 this word comes from the Old Norse ‘knocka’
2 it is probably an imitative word of the sound we make when knocking on
a door
3 ‘k-’ is now silent in English words before ‘- n -’ but to remember the
correct spelling pronounce it with the ‘- k -’ (k - nock)
4 after the short vowel pattern (- VCC) we simply ADD our suffixes:
knocked, knocking, knocker, knocks
know, knows, knowledge
no, now, nows, knolage, knowlage
1 identify the baseword ‘know’
2 this word comes from the Old Norse ‘kna’ and we once pronounced the
‘k-’ as the Norsemen did (k - now); do the same for spelling – note that
‘know’ has the digraph (-ow) as in tow, low, bow
3 the words ‘no’ (nO) and ‘now’ with diphthong (n - ahoo) have very
different sounds; listen carefully to hear the differences for long vowel
‘O’ and diphthong ‘- ow’ and digraph ‘-ow’ in: no, go; cow, sow; low,
tow
4 feel the different articulatory patterns and try to find five more words in
each group, e.g. go, fro, so; how, brow; mow, know
5 after the word ‘know’ we simply ADD the suffix ‘-ledge’
6 articulate (- led - ge) clearly for spelling
7 after a short vowel sound we must put ‘- d -’ before the ‘-ge’ sound
because doubling ‘g’ according to the short vowel rule would make ‘g’
say its hard sound (-egge)
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8 find some more words that use the ‘-dge’ ending, e.g. ledge, badge;
hedge, edge; fridge, ridge; lodge, dodge, fudge, judge, nudge
9 the ‘-e’ following the ‘- g -’ is there to keep its soft sound in (-dge)
Labrador
labradour, labridor
1 this is the name of a type of dog; articulate and syllabify for spelling
(lab - ra - dor)
2 Labrador is also a place name in Canada and has a capital letter
ladder
lader
1 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable and the short vowel pattern
( - VCCV -)
2 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound (lad - d - er)
lamb
lamp
1 articulate clearly the correct and incorrect spellings and note the sound
and feel of the differences (la - mb) (la - mp)
2 teach the end blends ‘-mb’ and ‘-mp’ as joined graphemes
3 use the words ‘Lambeth’ Palace and ‘sheep’s byre’ or ‘barn’ to remind
you of silent ‘-b’ in ‘lamb’
4 find some more words with the ‘-mb’ and ‘-mp’ endings, e.g. lamb,
lambast, climb, clamber; lamp, ramp, camp, hamper, tamper
landed
laned
1 identify the baseword ‘land’
2 teach the end blend ‘-nd’ and its graphemes as joined writing units
3 find some more words with this end blend, e.g. land, sand, hand; end,
blend, send; wind, hinder, pond, fond; fund, sunder
last
larst
1 say this word for spelling as they do in Northern parts of England and as
we once said it before we changed its pronunciation, e.g. (last) with the
short vowel ‘- a -’ sound
2 find some more words that need to be pronounced in this way for
spelling, e.g. last, mast, past, fast, master
laughs, laugh, laughing
laugh, laghs, larf, laghing
1 identify the baseword ‘laugh’
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2 ‘-augh’ sounds (-arf) whereas all its friends ending in ‘-t’, e.g. ‘-aught’,
are pronounced (-ort)
3 learn these words as a group – caught, taught, fraught, haughty, daughter,
slaughter
law
lore
1 ‘law’ and ‘lore’ are homophones; ‘law’ is a body of rules and ‘lore’ is a
body of knowledge or scholarship so we have to find different spellings
for them
2 we use ‘-aw’ at the end of single-syllabled words: law, paw, saw, jaw,
straw, claw
lawn
lorne, law
1 articulate the word clearly and carefully for spelling (law - n)
2 we use ‘- aw -’ in words when it is followed by a single ‘-l’ or ‘-n’, e.g.
lawn, pawn, sawn, drawn, dawn, fawn, prawn; crawl, trawl, brawl, shawl
league
leage
1 a league is usually a distance of about three and a half miles
2 use the word ‘lea’ to remind you of distance and space in league
3 to keep the ‘- g -’ hard we put the silent ‘- u -’ between ‘g’ and ‘e’ and
we need the silent ‘e’ at the end to stop us saying (leag - ue)
4 it is probably from the French, for a Gallic mile was 1500 Roman paces;
fatigue is a French word with a similar ending
learn
leanr
1 find the word ‘earn’ in ‘learn’ and then ‘ear’ and ‘lear’
2 would King Lear help you spell ‘learn’? Did we originally pronounce it
(leearn)?
3 ‘-er’ is not used in the middle of one-syllabled words except these few –
term, germ, fern, verse, nerve, serve, swerve
4 in Suffolk we still hear the old dialect pronunciation (larn) to remind us
of the ‘a’ in it
5 remember that ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ both have ‘- ea -’ in them but
the ‘r’ in ‘learning’ changes the pronunciation of the preceding vowel
digraph
left
leaft
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (l - eft)
2 note the short vowel sound and pattern in this closed syllable (- VCC)
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3 articulate the misspelled word to show the difference (leaf - t) and the
long vowel sound denoted by ‘- ea -’ and its pattern (- VVCC)
leisure
leuise
1 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings to show the
value of proofreading (lei - zhur) and (leu - ise)
2 remember the two vowel rule ‘when two vowels go walking the first one
usually does the talking and says its own name’ and the Americans still say
(lee sure)
3 in the seventeenth century we probably would have pronounced it as the
Americans do now; use their pronunciation to help you (lee - zhur)
4 an ‘- s -’ between two vowels usually has the (- z -) sound: leisure,
pleasure, treasure, measure
leopard
lepard
1 think of the family of big cats to which this one belongs, beginning with
Leo the lion
2 cue articulate for spelling (le - O - pard)
3 leopards have spots on them and this word has one ‘spot’ too
lettuce
letece
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (lett - uce)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable (let -)
3 teach the DOUBLING rule after the short vowel sound making the
pattern (- VCCV -): let - t - uce
4 the sound ‘-s’ at the end of a word usually denotes a plural otherwise it
has the ‘-z’ sound
5 to make the (-s) sound here we need to use the soft sound of ‘-c’ but to
keep it soft we have to add a silent ‘-e’, as in let - t - uce
6 you could cue articulate it to capture the long vowel pattern in the second
syllable (let - tUce)
level
leavle
1 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings to show the
value of proofreading (le - vel) and (leav - le)
2 note the short vowel (- e -) sound in ‘level’ and the long vowel (- ea -) in
‘leavle’
3 if the letter before the final ‘-l’ sound has no ‘stick’ or ‘tail’ then we use
the ending ‘-el’ not the more common choice ‘-le’, e.g. level, bevel,
novel, travel, towel, tunnel
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4 the ‘- v -’ in words is never doubled even after a short vowel sound; there
are two exceptions – ‘navvy’ and ‘lavvy’ – both abbreviations of the words
navigator and lavatory
licking, licks, lick
liking, likes, lik
1 identify the baseword ‘lick’
2 note the short vowel sound (- i -) and pattern (- VCC)
3 we only use ‘-k’ at the end of one-syllabled words after a consonant, e.g.
bank, tank, link, monk, milk, dark or after a vowel digraph, e.g. book,
look, seek, leak, soak, week, creak, teak
4 after a short vowel sound we must use ‘-ck’ at the end of one-syllabled
words, e.g. lick, back, tack, beck, peck, tick, click, lock, block, duck,
muck, suck, stuck
lies
lyes
1 identify the baseword ‘lie’
2 just ADD plural ‘-s’ to make lies, spies, ties and pies
3 use the CHANGE rule when the word already ends in ‘-y’, e.g. spy –
spies; try – tries; Gypsy – Gypsies; pigsty – pigsties
light, lighting
lite, linting
1 ‘-igh’ is the least common form of the long vowel (- I -) sound
2 to remember it you need to use a strong Old Scots version for ‘-ight’
words, e.g. ‘It’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht, nicht to ficht’
3 learn these words as a friendship group and try to make up a sentence
that includes them all: light, might, right, bright, tight, fight, night
4 there is also group of ‘-igh’ words, e.g. high, sigh, thigh, nigh
like, likes, liked
lik, liks, like
1 identify the baseword ‘like’ and articulate it clearly for spelling
2 note the long vowel (- I -) sound and the long vowel pattern denoted by
silent ‘e’ (- VCe)
3 find some more words with this pattern: like, mike, hike
4 teach the DROP rule – drop silent ‘e’ before suffixing words, e.g. lik - es,
lik - ed, lik - ing
literally
litrally
1 identify the baseword ‘literal’
2 articulate it clearly and syllabify for spelling (lit - er - al)
3 simply ADD the suffixes ‘-ly’: literal - ly, and liter - ate, liter - acy
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little
littel
1 articulate clearly for spelling (lit - tle)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first closed syllable
3 teach the DOUBLING rule after a short vowel sound when we add suffix
‘-le’, e.g. lit - t - le, peddle, bubble, dabble, cuddle
4 final stable syllable ‘-le’ is the most frequent choice for the (- l) sound at
the end of words
5 we use the ‘-le’ suffix after words or roots that end in a ‘stick’ or a ‘tail’,
e.g. little, battle, puddle, rubble, kettle, juggle
living
liveing
1 identify the baseword ‘live’ when we have to earn a living and the word
(lIve) when we are talking about being alive
2 note (liv) has a short vowel sound but uses the long vowel pattern
denoted by silent ‘-e’ (- VCe)
3 words of more than one syllable ending in ‘-ive’, ‘-ite’, ‘-ice’, ‘-ine’ often
have the short vowel sound, e.g. massive, office, active, engine as well as
some common single syllabled words such as live, have, some, none,
come
4 no English words end in ‘v’ (except the word spiv) and v is never doubled
even after a short vowel sound except in the abbreviations navvy, savvy
5 teach that the silent ‘-e’ must be DROPPED before adding vowel
suffixes, ‘-es’, ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’, e.g. liv - es, liv - ed, liv - ing
6 this is one of those groups of words whose pronunciation has probably
changed from long to short vowel since spelling was crystallised
7 learn some friends of ‘live’ that have done the same, e.g. give, have, love,
glove, dove, above, shove, come, none, shone, some. Note that move,
these, those, rose and many others have not changed. In the US they still
say ‘shone’ with the long vowel ‘O’ sound
loads
lods, lodes, loweds, load
1 articulate clearly for spelling (loads)
2 note the long vowel sound this time denoted by the vowel digraph ‘- oa
-’ and the long vowel pattern (- VVCs)
3 teach the two vowel rule – ‘when two vowels go walking the first one
does the talking and usually says its own name’
4 ‘- oa -’ is the second choice for the long vowel sound after (- VCe) in
single syllabled words
5 find five more words with the ‘- oa -’ pattern, e.g. load, boat, coat, road,
coast, moat
6 ‘-ow’ for the long vowel (- O -) sound is used at the ends of words, e.g.
tow, row, snow, blow, mow, fellow, tallow, yellow, mellow, barrow
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7 ‘-ow’ is also used before ‘-l’ or ‘-n’ in one-syllabled words, e.g. bowl,
grown
lodge
log
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
differences (log) and (lod - ge)
2 note the short vowel sound with the ‘- d -’ there to close the syllable and
‘keep the vowel in’
3 the silent ‘-e’ is added at the end to keep the ‘- g -’ soft
4 double ‘gg’ would give ‘logge’ and the first ‘- g -’ would remain hard as
in boggy
look, looks, looked
looke, look, look
1 teach the long and short vowel sounds of the vowel digraph ‘- oo -’ and
the long vowel pattern (- VVC)
2 practise them as two different groups: a) look, took, book rook (short
sound) and b) moon, food, tool, fool, soon, goon
3 to remind you of the double vowel ‘- oo -’ you could cue articulate look,
took, book, rook with the long vowel sound as in some Northern dialects
4 simply ADD plural suffix ‘-s’ and past tense suffix ‘-ed’: looks, looked
loud
lowd, lowed
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (l - ou - d)
2 notice that there is the diphthong ‘- ou -’ that says (ah - oo) in this word;
neither vowel keeps its own sound
3 we use the diphthong ‘- ou -’ at the beginning and in the middle of
words not ‘-ow-’
4 find some more words with the ‘- ou -’ diphthong: loud, house, mouse,
nouse, out, rout, flout, trout and ground, found, mound, sound, bound
5 we use ‘-ow’ as a diphthong at the end of words and when the (- ahoo -)
sound is followed by a single ‘-l’, ‘-n’ or ‘-el’, ‘-er’, e.g. how, now, brown,
cow; owl, prowl, fowl, howl; town brown, crown; shower, tower, flower;
towel
loves, lovely
love, luvely, lovey, luvley
1 the (-uv) sound in single syllabled words is made by ‘-ove’ because
English words do not end in ‘-v’ (except the modern word spiv)
2 find some more ‘-ove’ words: love, dove, glove
3 we probably once upon a time pronounced them with the long vowel
sound; you could do this now to remind you of the correct spelling
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4 when adding the suffixes ‘-ly’, ‘-ing’ and ‘-s’ we simply ADD lovely,
loves, loving
lucky, luckily
luky, lukely
1 identify the baseword ‘luck’
2 note the short vowel sound and pattern (- VCC)
3 ‘-k’ is never doubled at the end of words
4 instead ‘-ck’ is used at the end of one-syllabled words immediately after
a short vowel to make the (- K) sound and keep the short vowel pattern,
e.g. luck, tuck, muck, suck, chuck
5 when adding the adverbial suffix ‘-ly’ to the word ‘lucky’ we must
CHANGE the final ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ beforehand, e.g. luck - i - ly, pluck - i - ly,
muck - i - ly
luggage
lugage
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (lugg - age)
2 note the short vowel (- u -) sound in the first syllable
3 teach the DOUBLING rule that we must double the consonant after the
short vowel sound ‘lug - g - age’
4 find some more words with this pattern, e.g. luggage, baggage, rummage;
mugging, hugging, bugging, ragging, tugging, blogging
machine
maching, mochen
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mach - ine)
2 note that the (- sh -) sound is made by the digraph ‘- ch -’ as if it were in
a French word such as ‘chef’
3 articulate and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings to hear and feel
the differences (mach - ing) and (moch - en)
4 teach the articulatory pattern and sound differences between short vowel
‘- o -’ and ‘- a -’
5 the ‘-ery’ ending refers to occupations or work, e.g. machinery, gunnery,
nursery, bakery
made
mad
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (ma - de) and its misspelling (mad)
2 note the long vowel sound (A) and single syllable pattern (- VCe) with
silent ‘e’ in ‘made’
3 teach that a silent ‘e’ at the end of a single syllabled word makes the
preceding vowel say its own name or ‘long’ sound – made, fade, glade;
cede; ride, glide, hide, pride; rode, mode, Spode; rude
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magazine
maggerzine
1 articulate the word clearly and syllabify for spelling (mag - a - zine)
2 use the short form ‘mag’ to remind you there is no need to double ‘g’ in
this multisyllabled word
3 look up the two meanings and use the Arabic word ‘mahkazin’ for
storehouses to help you spell
maggots
maggets
1 overarticulate and syllabify the word for spelling (mag - gots)
2 have you ‘got’ maggots?
3 in two-syllabled words we DOUBLE the medial consonant to preserve
the short vowel pattern, e.g. CVC + CVC
magnified
magnivied
1 practise articulating ‘f’ and ‘v’ sounds to feel and hear the differences
2 identify the baseword ‘magnify’ and syllabify for spelling (mag - ni - fy)
3 use its family group to help you: magnified, magnified, magnifies,
magnification, magnifying, magnificent
main
maine, mane, man
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (m - ain)
2 note the long vowel sound made by ‘- ai -’ and the long vowel pattern
(- VVC)
3 teach the two vowel rule ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ – main, rain, grain; mail, tail,
rail, fail, sail
4 ‘main’ has a homophone ‘mane’ so needs a different spelling
manager, managed
manger, manage, managre
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (man - a - ger)
2 tap out the three syllables as you say the word
3 identify the baseword ‘manage’
4 to add suffixes to words ending in silent ‘e’ we must DROP the silent ‘e’,
e.g. manag - ed, manag - es, manag - er, manag - ing
mania
mainia
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ma - ni - a)
2 note the long vowel sounds in the open syllables ‘ma-’ and ‘ni-’
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3 note other open syllabled words, e.g. go, to, so, no, ba - con, a - pron,
ta - ken
4 identify the family group here to aid spelling mania, manic – a form of
madness, use ‘mad’ ‘man’ (CVC) to remind you
manufacturers, manufacture
manafacturers
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (man - u - fact - ur - ers)
2 identify the baseword ‘manufacture’
3 the word is built from the Latin word for hand ‘manus’
4 when attaching final stable syllable ‘-er’ we must DROP silent ‘e’ first in
manufactur - er, capture - capturer
marriage
marrige
1 cue articulate the word and syllabify for spelling (marr - i - age)
2 identify the baseword ‘marry’
3 to add a suffix to words ending in ‘y’ teach the CHANGE rule; we must
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before suffixing, e.g. marr - i - age, carr - i - age
4 we use ‘-age’ spelling for the (- ij) sound at the end of words of two or
more syllables – marriage, carriage
5 find some more words with the ‘-age’ ending, e.g. baggage, luggage,
cabbage, message, rummage
mask
marsk
1 to remind you of the short vowel pattern (- VCC) you need to say this
word as a Northerner might do with a short vowel sound (mask)
2 the short vowel pronunciation was probably the way we said it centuries
ago when the spelling was first crystallised before Southerners started to
use the ‘- ar -’ sound
3 find some other words that behave like mask – task, fast, mast, past
massively, massive
massivly, masive
1 identify the baseword ‘mass’
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘a’
3 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule – that in a one-syllabled word we must double the
final consonant to hold in the vowel, e.g. mass, miss, mess, moss, fuss;
off, toff, cuff, buff; tell, will, pill
4 note there are a few exceptions, e.g. gas, bus, yes – pronounce the ‘s’
with the ‘z’ sound in these three words to remind you to use single ‘s’
second sound
5 when we add the suffix to mass the (-iv) sound is made by ‘-ive’ with
silent ‘e’ because we do not let words end in ‘-v’ in English (except spiv)
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6 in words of more than one syllable endings beginning with ‘- i -’ have the
short vowel sound despite the silent ‘-e’, e.g. massive, captive, active,
native, votive
7 you could cue articulate these endings to remind you, e.g. mass - Ive,
capt - Ive
8 to make an adverbial ending we simply ADD the suffix ‘-ly’: massive - ly,
passive - ly, aggressively
matches
matchs, mach
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (mat - ch)
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘- a -’ to keep its short sound and the short
vowel pattern (- VC) we give it consonant ‘-t’ as in mat - ch, wat - ch, cat
- ch, patch, fetch, wretch, witch, blotch, hutch
3 digraph ‘ch’ acts as a single letter so we can ADD ‘t’ to strengthen it
‘-tch’
4 the above words are all nouns or verbs so the exceptions are easier to
remember, e.g. rich, which, much, such
5 to make plurals after ‘-tch’ we need to ADD ‘-es’ as we do not want to
have four consonants in a row in English: match - es, witches, wretches,
hutches
mates
mats
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (mAte)
2 note the long vowel sound (A) and single syllable pattern (- VCe) with
silent ‘e’
3 teach that a silent ‘e’ at the end of a single syllabled word makes the
preceding vowel say its own name or ‘long’ sound – mate, rate, fate, gate;
mete; rite, white; rote, vote, tote; lute
4 say the misspelled word (mats) and note the short vowel sound and
syllable pattern (- VCC); this shows the value of proofreading
matter
mater
1 teach the short vowel rule and pattern in two-syllabled words – we must
double the middle consonant (- VCCV -) to keep the short vowel pattern
CVC + CVC, e.g. mat - t - er, butter, latter, patter
2 find some other words with this pattern – stopper, runner, hopper,
madder, rudder
mature
muture
1 articulate the word for spelling (ma - ture) and note the stress is on the
second syllable
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2 perhaps we once pronounced it with the long vowel sound and emphasis
on the first syllable as in (nA - ture); try this by cue articulating (mAture)
mealworm
milworm
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (meal - worm)
2 note that this is a compound word made from ‘meal’ and ‘worm’
3 the mealworm used as bait in fishing is the larva of the meal beetle that
infests granaries where grain or meal is stored
mean, meaner, meant
men, mener, ment
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to feel and hear the
differences (mean) and (men)
2 note the long vowel ‘- ea -’ pattern (- VVC) and short vowel pattern
‘- e -’ (- VC)
3 teach the two-vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ (mEan)
4 ‘- ea -’ is the second choice for the long vowel sound after ‘- ee -’ in main
syllables and is especially used when there is an existing homophone, e.g.
meet, meat
5 one of the meanings of ‘mean’ is ‘average’; this might remind you of the ‘a’
6 you could cue articulate the word to remind you (me - an), we probably
said it like this when spelling was crystallised
7 when suffixing we simply ADD them, e.g. meaner, means, meaning
8 when making the past tense we keep the original structure of the baseword
and add the past tense suffix ‘-t’ – meant – even though we change the
pronunciation
medicine
medecine
1 use the word ‘medic’ to remind you of the ‘- i -’ in medicine
2 in words of more than one syllable endings beginning with ‘- i -’ often
have the short vowel sound (- in) for ‘- ine’
3 find some more words with this ending – medicine, engine, famine,
doctrine, discipline, accipitrine
meeting
meting
1 identify the baseword ‘meet’
2 note the long vowel sound and pattern denoted by ‘- ee -’ (- VVC)
3 ‘- ee -’ is the first and most frequent choice for the long vowel E sound
4 meet has the homophones ‘mete’ and ‘meat’ – each one has a different
meaning; eating words such as meat usually take the ‘- ea -’ form
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mention
mension, menshen
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (men - tion)
2 ‘-tion’ is the most common spelling of the (-shun) sound if the baseword
or root ends in ‘-t’, e.g. mention, nation, ration, distraction, fraction,
action, lotion
mercy
msy
1 teach basic syllable structure that every beat or syllable in a word must
have a vowel in it (CVC) (CV)
2 check knowledge of the short vowel sounds and symbols a, e, i , o, u
3 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (mer - cy)
4 ‘- y-’ can act as a vowel or a consonant; at the end of words such as
‘mercy’ it is acting as long vowel (E) sound
5 ‘m - er’ makes the first syllable and ‘-cy’ the second syllable
6 ‘- e -’, ‘- i -’ and ‘- y -’ after ‘c’ make it say its soft sound (s); it has no
sound of its own: mercy, city, cell
7 an ‘-e’ at the end of a word in English is silent – mine, same, replace
message
mesage
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (mess - age)
2 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule – that after a short vowel sound in words we must
DOUBLE ‘- l - f - and s’, e.g. mess, fuss, mass; cuff, muff, tiff; call, till
will
3 the DOUBLING rule also applies in two-syllabled words after a short
vowel sound, e.g. message, passage, vessel; ballad, tillage, village;
rummage, wattage dunnage to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC
4 note the two words in message – ‘mess’ ‘age’
metres
meters, meitors
1 this is a French word and keeps its French spelling so say it as they do in
France (met - re)
2 use the family of words to help you spell metre – metric, metrical,
metricate
3 a ‘meter’ is a measuring device not a distance, e.g. speedometer,
voltmeter, gasometer, taximeter, altimeter
miaow
meows, maaow
1 this is a word that tries to capture the full sound made by the cat (mi - a
- ow)
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2 cats also make more peremptory versions when talking to us, e.g.
(maa-ow)
3 the verb is to ‘mew’ like a cat
middle
midle, midile, middul
1 identify the baseword ‘mid’
2 note the short vowel sound ‘- i -’ and short vowel pattern (- VC)
3 after a short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the consonant before
attaching final stable syllable ‘-le’: ‘mid - d - le’
4 ‘-le’ is the most common first choice for the (-ul) sound at the end of
words
5 the choice is always ‘-le’ after consonants with ‘sticks’ or ‘tails’, e.g.
middle, puddle, dabble, bubble, grapple, supple, juggle, haggle, little,
battle, nettle
midfield
midfeild
1 this is a compound word made of ‘mid’ and ‘field’
2 there are only a few words in which the long vowel (E) sound is made by
‘-ie’
3 learn these words as a group making them into two sentences – piece,
niece, chief, yield, shield, wield, field
4 did we once say (fI - eld) to account for this spelling?
milk
milke
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (mi -lk)
2 note the short vowel sound of (- i -) and the short vowel syllable pattern
(- VCC)
3 we do not need silent ‘-e’ because the preceding vowel is short and does
not say its own name
million
milion
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mill - i - on)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable ‘mill’
3 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule – we must DOUBLE these consonants after a
short vowel sound: million, trillion, galleon; passion, Russian; caffeine,
coffee, traffic
miniature, mini
minitch, miny
1 overarticulate and syllabify this word for spelling (min - i - a - ture)
2 note the prefix ‘mini-’ to denote small or tiny
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3 ‘mini’ and ‘miny’ are pronounced differently, e.g. miny is pronounced
like (tiny)
4 the unaccented (-er) sound at the end of words is spelled ‘-ure’
5 find some more words that end in ‘-ure’, e.g. miniature, leisure, pleasure,
measure, pressure, seizure, treasure, injure
mind
mid
1 practise careful articulation and identifying the end blend ‘-nd’
2 hold your nose and then try to say ‘mind has end blend’ ‘-nd’
3 ‘n’ does not have a sound of its own – it nasalifies the preceding vowel
and spellers often miss its presence
4 practise writing the ‘-nd’ as a joined writing unit
5 find some more words with this blend, e.g. mind, find, wind; send, wend,
lend; hand, stand; fond, pond; fund
6 note some ‘-ind’ words take the short vowel form and some the long
vowel sound and change their meanings, e.g. wind and wind and in some
old texts the long vowel is denoted by silent ‘e’ as in winde
minute, minutes
minet, minuites, minnets, minets, miets, minuets, minuete, minerts, minites,
mintite, minuiet
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (min - ute)
2 you could cue articulate it for spelling (mI - nute), meaning very tiny as
a minute is in terms of time, then you can also note the long vowel sound
in the second syllable denoted by silent ‘-e’
miracle
mirical
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mir - ac - le)
2 use its family to help you – miracle, miraculous
3 the final stable syllable ‘-le’ is the first choice for the (-l) sound at the end
of multisyllabled words – mir - acle, barn - acle, tabern - acle, man - acle
moan
mone
1 we use ‘- oa -’ for the long vowel O at the beginning of words – oak,
oath, oat, oast
2 it is our second choice (- VVC) in the medial position in words after the
silent ‘e’ pattern (- VC e)
3 find some more words with the ‘- oa -’ pattern, e.g. moan, groan, roan,
foal, coal, road, coat, boat, coast, roast, toast, boast
4 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’
5 you might try cue articulation to remember these: mo - an, bo - at, fo al
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models
modles, modals
1 we have borrowed this word from the French ‘modelle’ so it does not
obey English rules
2 but we have made it look more English ‘model’
3 you could cue articulate it to help you remember (mO - del)
4 its family may help too: model, modelling, modelled
5 ‘modal’ has a different meaning and pronunciation (mo - dal) and family
– mode, modal, modality
moggie
morgey
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mogg - ie)
2 note the short vowel ‘- o -’ in the first syllable
3 teach that after the short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the next
consonant in two-syllabled words ‘mog - g - ie’
4 because ‘moggie’ is a diminutive or friendly name the ending ‘-ie’ is used
moment
monent, monents
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mo - ment)
2 note the long vowel sound in the first syllable
3 it is an open syllable in which the vowel says its own name, e.g. mo - ment,
ba - con, o - pen, ta - ken, bro - ken, fore - sa - ken
4 practise distinguishing the sound and feel of medial ‘- m -’ and ‘- n -’,
e.g. moment, money, mammoth, monkey and endings maim, main
monkey, monkeys
monky, monkes
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (monk - ey)
2 ‘-ey’ is usually used at the end of words and they end in ‘-key’ and ‘-ney’,
e.g. monkey, donkey, flunkey, lackey, turkey, hockey, jockey and
chimney, kidney, money, cockney, hackney, chutney, spinney, Sydney
monster
monter
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mon - ster)
2 teach the ‘- st -’ blend as a whole writing unit and practise articulating it
3 find some more words that have a ‘- st -’ blend in them, e.g. start, step,
stop, stock; monster, master, mister; mast, last, past, repast
months, month
mounths, mounth
1 cue articulate this word for spelling with the short vowel sound (mon - th)
2 it has some friends just like it: Monday, monk, money
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3 ‘month’ is from the Old English word ‘monath’ and ‘mona’ meaning
moon
morning
norning
1 identify the baseword ‘morn’
2 practise distinguishing between the articulatory feel and sound of ‘- m -’
and ‘- n -’
3 find five more words beginning with their sounds, e.g. morning, man,
mine, mountain, month, mimic; nine, nan, neat, narrative, nickel, nice
mostly
mostley, mosty
1 identify and articulate the baseword (most)
2 note the short vowel syllable pattern but the long vowel sound (- VCC)
3 there are a number of single syllabled words that do this with vowel ‘- o -’,
e.g. most, ghost, post and host but only two that behave ‘properly’: cost,
lost
4 simply ADD the adverbial ending ‘-ly’: most - ly, costly, ghostly
5 practise articulating the ‘- ly ending and writing it as joined graphemes in
some different words – mostly, costly, ghastly, rashly, hotly
motor
motore
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (mo - tor)
2 note the long vowel sound in the first syllable; it is an open syllable
(- V)
3 ‘-or’ is a Latin prefix meaning ‘that which’ or ‘the one who’, e.g. a motor
is that which moves; an actor is one who acts.
4 find some more words with this ending, e.g. major, minor, motor,
tractor, indicator, mirror; actor, doctor, editor, sailor, solicitor, author
moustache
mastach
1 we have borrowed this word from the French
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (mou - stache)
3 note the long vowel (- O -) sound in the first syllable denoted by ‘- ou -’
4 use the word ‘mouth’ to remind you of the ‘- ou -’
5 French words use the soft sound of ‘- ch -’ in moustache and chef
6 draw out the long vowel sound in the second syllable (-ache) denoted by
silent ‘e’
moved
mooved, move
1 identify the basword ‘move’
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2 note the long vowel sound of (- O -) with the long vowel sound denoted
by the silent ‘- e -’ pattern (- VCe) in one-syllabled words
3 to add vowel suffixes ‘-ed’, ‘-es’ and ‘-ing’ we must DROP silent ‘-e’ first,
e.g. mov - ed, mov - es, mov - ing
much
mush
1 teach the different consonant digraphs and their sounds (-sh) and (-ch)
2 teach them as joined writing units and find some more words with these
two sounds, e.g. much, such rich; rush, push, mush
3 the only words that use the (- sh -) sound for digraph ‘- ch -’ are French
words, e.g. chef, moustache
muesli
musli
1 cue articulate this word for spelling (mu - e - sli)
2 it is an imported word so does not obey English rules which means it can
end in final ‘-i’
mum’s
mums
1 ‘mums’ is a plural noun meaning several of them
2 mum’s with an apostrophe means something belonging to mum, e.g. it
is short for ‘mum, her coat’ or ‘mum, her handbag’ – mum’s coat, mum’s
handbag
my
mie, me, moe
1 English words do not end in the letter ‘-i’ although some foreign words
may
2 in a one-syllabled word with the sound (-I) at the end choose ‘-y’ after
two consonants: cry, fry, try, sky, why, pry
3 choose ‘-ie’ after one consonant: pie, die, lie, tie
4 learn these exceptions: ‘my’ and ‘by’
mystery
mystry
1 cue articulate and syllabify for spelling (my - ster - y); medial ‘y’ has the
short (- i -) sound
2 use the family of words to remind you of the spelling mystery, mysterious
3 we often give the final ‘-y’ the sound of (- E -), e.g. mummy, daddy,
funny, baby
4 ‘-e’ is always silent at the end of words so when we hear the (-E) sound
use ‘-y’
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nans, nanny, nannies
nan’s, nanie
1 ‘nans’ is a plural noun meaning several of them
2 nan’s with an apostrophe means something belonging to nan, e.g. it is
short for ‘nan, her coat’ or ‘nan, her handbag’ – nan’s coat, nan’s handbag
3 teach the short vowel rule that we must DOUBLE the final consonant
after a short vowel sound when adding endings: nan - n - y, mummy,
daddy, granny
4 we often give the final ‘-y’ the sound of (-E), e.g. nanny, daddy, funny
5 when making plurals teach the CHANGE rule – change ‘- y -’ to ‘- i -’
and add ‘-es’: nann - i - es, mummies, daddies, funnies
natural
natual
1 identify the baseword ‘nature’
2 to add the suffix ‘-al’ we must first DROP the silent ‘-e’: natur - al
3 we use the final ‘-al’ for the (-l) sound in adjectives natural, final, total,
local
naughty
norty, noughty
1 there are just nine words that use ‘-aught’ to spell (-ort)
2 try to make most of these words fit into one sentence to help you
remember them: aught, naught, fraught, caught, taught, slaughter,
daughter, naughty, haughty
3 if the word does not belong to one of the group above use ‘-ought’ to
spell the (-ort) sound, e.g. ought, bought, brought, thought, fought
nearly
nerley
1 identify the baseword ‘near’
2 find the words ‘ear’ and ‘early’ in nearly
3 cue articulate the baseword for spelling (ne - ar)
4 articulate the misspelled word to show the difference and the value of
proofreading: (ner - ley)
5 the most frequent final stable syllable is ‘-ly’ not ‘-ley’: near - ly, early,
surly
neighbour
naboug, neibors, neighbors
1 ‘-eigh’ is an infrequent spelling of the (- A -) sound in words
2 you need to learn these common eight ‘-eigh’ words as a family group,
e.g. neigh, neighbour; eight, eighteen, eighty; weigh, weight and freight
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nervous
nearvous
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (ner - vous)
2 note the ‘-er’ sound in ‘nervous’ and the baseword ‘nerve’
3 the misspelling has the ‘- ea -’ vowel digraph in it and makes the long
vowel sound as in ‘near’ and ‘ear’
never
nerver
1 articulate the word clearly and syllabify for spelling (nev - er)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable and remember that we
never double ‘- v -’ except in the word ‘navvy’, which is an abbreviation
for an Irish ‘navigator’ and ‘savvy’ slang for ‘savoir faire’
3 note that the misspelling is pronounced differently (ner - ver)
night, nights
knight, night
1 ‘-ight’ is an infrequent spelling of the (-ite) sound
2 learn this group of words by binding them into a sentence: night, fight,
might, bright, sight, tight, right, e.g. The tight knight, fights with all his
might tonight to defend the right of all in sight at bright moonlight.
3 remember to cue articulate the word (k - night) as we did in olden days
4 the Scots have a unique way of saying many of these words that can
remind you of the ‘-ight’ spelling; try it (It is a braw bricht, moonlicht,
nicht. the nicht)
5 the Old English spelling of ‘night’ was ‘niht’. Caxton probably introduced
the Flemish habit of putting ‘- g -’ before the ‘- h -’ in ghost, for example.
Did he come from Ghent?
nil
neal
1 articulate the word clearly (nil) and note the short vowel sound of (- i -)
2 practise noting the difference between ‘- i -’ and the vowel digraph
‘- ea -’, which usually will have the long vowel (E) sound
3 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule that after a short vowel sound we must DOUBLE
l - f - and s to hold in the vowel, e.g. all, well, full, till; off, cuff, toff, puff;
fuss, pass, confess, miss
4 learn the few exceptions to this rule: nil, pal; if, of (ov); yes, us, gas, bus,
plus, thus, this
ninety, nineteen
ninty, nintine, nity
1 identify the baseword ‘nine’
2 note the long vowel sound (- I -) denoted by the silent ‘e’ syllable pattern
(- VCe)
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3 simply ADD the consonant suffixes ‘-ty’ and ‘-teen’ to ‘nine’, e.g. nine
- ty, nine - teen
4 think of the number 19 as being 9 ADD 10 or ‘nine plus ten’, the ‘-teen’
particle represents the ten you have added
5 note the long vowel E sound made by (- ee -) in ‘teen’
nocturnal
opternal
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (noc - turn - al)
2 this is a Latin word from ‘nox’, ‘nocturnus’ meaning night
3 find the words ‘turn’ and ‘urn’ in nocturnal
4 practise articulating in the end blends ‘-ct’ and ‘-pt’ to hear and feel the
differences – act, pact, Pict, nocturnal; rapt, apt
nodded
noded
1 identify the baseword ‘nod’
2 note the short vowel sound of (- o -) and the short vowel pattern
(- VC)
3 teach the short vowel rule in the single syllable, e.g. that when adding
suffixes we must DOUBLE the final consonant to keep the short vowel
pattern CVC + CVC, e.g. nod - d - ed, plodded, hopped, runner, cladding
noisy
nosiy, nousey, nosey
1 find the baseword ‘noise’ – note the diphthong ‘- oi -’ pronounced (- oy -)
2 DROP silent ‘e’ before adding suffix ‘y’ – nois - y
3 we use ‘oi-’ at the beginning and in the middle of words for the (- oy -)
sound, e.g. oil, toil, boil, coin, joint, spoil, point, anoint
4 we use (-oy) at the end of words: boy, toy, annoy, destroy, employ
5 there are just a few exceptions – oyster and loyal, royal and voyage where
using ‘- oi -’ would give four vowels in a row, not an English habit, e.g.
‘looial’ and make a very different sounding word
no one
Knowone
1 identify the basewords here: ‘no’ and ‘one’, e.g. not anyone
2 remember that ‘no’ has a homophone ‘know’ with an entirely different
meaning and history
3 in Old English we used to pronounce the ‘k’ which is now silent in words
such as know, knife, knight; use the OE pronunciation to help you
remember the different spellings that go with different meanings
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normally
normaly, normly
1 identify the basewords ‘norm’ and ‘normal’
2 teach the suffix rule ADD here after the adjectival ending ‘-al’: normal ly, final - ly, usual - ly, annual - ly
not
no
1 you need to articulate this word very precisely for spelling (not) to feel
and hear the final ‘-t’
2 the spelling ‘no’ is a different word and meaning and has the long vowel
(- O -) sound because it is an open syllable: no, go, so, o - pen, ba - con
3 in an open syllable there is no consonant to close in the vowel (-V)
nothing
nothen
1 this is a compound word made from ‘no’ and ‘thing’
2 ‘nothen’ is an East Anglian dialect version of ‘nothing’
nowhere
nowere
1 this is a compound word made from ‘no’ and ‘where’ meaning not
anywhere
2 teach the consonant digraph ‘- wh -’ as a joined writing unit
3 cue articulate this digraph by aspirating the ‘wh’
4 teach the ‘wh’ digraph and the question words as a group: why, what,
where, which, when, who (and later perhaps whither, whether and
whence)
novice
novis
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (nov - ice)
2 ‘Someone who is such a beginner as a novice may have no vice’
3 in words of more than one syllable, endings beginning with ‘- i -’ very
often have the short vowel sound even when there is a silent ‘e’ at the end
of the word, e.g. novice, office, service, practice, justice
now
know
1 articulate this word clearly for spelling (now)
2 note that the (-ow) sound is a diphthong with two vowel noises, neither
having the sounds of ‘o’ or ‘w’, e.g. (ah - oo) as in ‘How now brown
cow’
3 articulate the incorrect spelling (know) and note that it ends in the vowel
digraph (-ow) as in tow, row, mow, know, low
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o’clock
o clarck
1 o’clock stands for ‘of the clock’; note the short vowel ‘o’ in clock
2 when there are words or letters missing as in ‘of the clock’ we replace
them with a single apostrophe – o’clock
occur
ocre, ocur
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (occ - ur)
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘o’ at the beginning
3 teach the DOUBLING rule – after a short vowel sound we must double
the next consonant: ‘oc - c - ur’
4 it is very unusual for words ending in ‘-ur’ to make the (-er) sound so
learn them as a group: occur, cur, fur, spur
of, off
off, of
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings and notice the difference in
sound and articulatory feel, e.g. ‘of’ has the sound (ov) and ‘off’ (off)
2 practise the detection of the different sound of (v) and (f) in some more
words, e.g. love, have, give; off, cuff, tiff, puff
often
oftan, oftn
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (oft - en)
2 find the words ‘of’, ‘oft’ and ‘ten’ in often
3 teach that every syllable must have a vowel in it as in oft - en
on, one, one’s
one, ony, ones
1 articulate both the correct and incorrect spellings of (on) and (one)
2 note that in ‘on’ we have the short vowel sound of ‘o’
3 ‘one’ is pronounced (wun) and we do not know why; it should be
(O - n), making the long vowel sound denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern.
Learn it as a writing unit
4 when something belongs to one we need to use an apostrophe, e.g. one’s
coat
opened
opend
1 identify the baseword ‘open’
2 articulate and syllabify it for spelling (o - pen)
3 note the long vowel sound in the first and open syllable
4 when attaching suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing we simply use the ADD rule: open
- ed, open - ing
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opportunity
oppertunity
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (op - port - un - i - ty)
2 look up its meaning and origin and find that an opportunity is an opening
and comes from the word ‘port’ – a haven or opening
3 note the short vowel sound of the prefix ‘ob-’ changes to ‘op-’ and thus
the structure follows the short vowel pattern (- VCCV - ) in opportune,
opportunity
opposite
opsite
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (opp - o - site)
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘o-‘ at the beginning and teach the
DOUBLING rule and pattern ‘op - p - osite’
3 stable endings beginning with ‘-i’ often make the short vowel sound even
if they have the silent ‘-e’ pattern (- VCe), e.g. oppos - ite, definite,
favourite, granite
orange
orgeng
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (o - range)
2 the final silent ‘-e’ is needed to keep ‘- g -’ soft, as in age, range, page, rage
3 the word comes from the Arabic ‘naranj’ and in Spain it is still called
‘naranja’; we dropped the ‘n’ when we imported the word and anglicised it
other, others
outher, over
1 cue articulate as in Old English with the long vowel (O - ther)
2 the word means ‘one of two’; it may help remind you of the initial ‘o-’
3 teach the differences in sound and articulatory feel of the consonant
digraph ‘- th -’ and the consonant ‘- v -’
4 find some more words with these sounds: the, there, these, this, that;
vain, victory, voice, vine, vigour
5 note the unvoiced sound of digraph ‘- th -’ at the end of words, e.g. path,
wraith, wrath, faith, maths
our, ourselves
owr, ower, ourselfs
1 this is a compound word made from ‘our’ and ‘self’
2 in ‘our’ the ‘ou-’ is a diphthong: two vowels are present but the sound
made is not represented by either of them; it is (ah - oo)
3 we use ‘ou-’ at the beginning and in the middle of words for this sound,
e.g. our, out; loud, house, mouse, louse; ground, found, sound, round
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4 at the end of words we use ‘-ow’ for this sound, e.g. ‘how now brown
cow’ and when it is followed by ‘-l’ ‘-n’ or ‘-er’, e.g. owl, howl, prowl,
cowl; brown, crown, drown, town; flower, shower, tower
5 most words ending in ‘-f’, ‘-fe’ or ‘-ff’ simply ADD plural ‘-s’, e.g. cafes,
roofs, cuffs, muffs, chiefs, chefs
6 but 13 words must CHANGE the ‘-f’ to ‘-v’ and add ‘-es’, e.g. self,
selves; elf, elves; shelf, shelves; half, halves; calf, calves; leaf, leaves; sheaf,
sheaves; thief, thieves; knife, knives; life, lives; wife, wives; loaf, loaves;
wolf, wolves
7 some verbs do this too when the noun has an ‘-f’ ending: grief, to grieve;
belief, to believe
out, outside
aot, oot, out side
1 ‘outside’ is a compound word made from ‘out’ and ‘side’
2 in ‘out’ the ‘ou-’ is a diphthong – two vowels are present but the sound
made is not represented by either of them; it is (ah - oo)
3 we use ‘ou-’ at the beginning and in the middle of words for this sound,
e.g. out, our; loud, house, mouse, louse; ground, found, sound, round,
mound
paid
payed
1 paid is the past tense of the verb ‘to pay’, e.g. I paid, you paid etc.
2 when adding the past tense suffix ‘-ed’ to three common verbs ending in
‘-y’ we CHANGE the ‘-y’ to ‘-i’ and just add ‘-d’ because the ‘ai’ digraph
gives us the sound we want, e.g. pay, paid; say, said; lay, laid, learn these
three as a group
3 in Suffolk you can still hear ‘said’ pronounced in the old way (sayed)
painful
painfull
1 this is a compound word made from ‘pain’ and ‘full’
2 teach the ‘all, full, well till’ rule
3 when these four words are used to make a compound word they can
DROP one of their ‘ls’, e.g. painful, awful, careful, beautiful; also, always,
although, altogether; welcome; until, fulfil – they are no longer onesyllabled words following the ‘l - f - s’ rule
pan
pane
1 teach the short vowel sound and syllable pattern in ‘pan’ (CVC)
2 to make it into the long vowel pattern we must add silent ‘e’ at the end
which makes the vowel ‘say its own name’ (CVCe) – pan, pane; hop,
hope; top, Tope; mop, mope; can, cane; rip, ripe
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papyrus
papirus
1 this is a reed of the sedge family and the pith was used by the Egyptians
to make a form of writing material Egyptian ‘papyrus’ and Greek ‘papyros’
2 we use ‘-y-’ in an open accented syllable in Greek derived words like this
(pap - y - rus) for the (I) sound
3 other similar words are cy - clone, py - thon, cy - cle
parent
parrent
1 articulate and syllabify the correct and the incorrect spellings to hear and
feel the differences (pa - rent) and (parr - ent)
2 note the long vowel ‘a’ sound in ‘parent’ and the short vowel sound in
‘parrent’
3 the doubling of the consonant ‘rr’ tells us to make the short vowel sound
of ‘a’
4 find some similar short vowel words: current, currant, turret, parrot
park
prack
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (par - k)
2 we always use ‘k’ after a consonant as in par - k, bank, desk, lark, link,
milk
3 articulate the misspelled word (pr - ack) to show the value of proofreading
pasta
paster
1 ‘pasta’ is an Italian word and we keep the original spelling (past - a)
2 Italian is a much more phonically regular language than English; in other
words it is spelt as it sounds
part, party
purt, part
1 articulate the baseword clearly (par - t)
2 note the differences between the sounds and feel of (- ar -) and (- ur -) in
the correct and incorrect versions, especially the more open mouth in
‘- ar -’ and the pursed lips in ‘-ur -’
3 say the word (part - y) and note the long vowel (-ee) sound at the end of
the word
4 no English spellings end in E except the silent ‘e’; instead we use ‘-y’ as
a vowel to end words
5 find five more words that end in ‘-y’: party, rally, pretty, perky, sparky
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pass, passes, past, passed, passing
pars, parst, pased, pasing, parsing
1 identify the baseword ‘pass’
2 in order to get the correct spelling you have to pronounce it as we did in
olden times and as Northerners still do with the short vowel ‘- a -’ sound
3 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule, that after the short vowel sound in single syllabled
words we must DOUBLE these consonants: pass, lass, bass, mass; off,
cuff, buff; all, will, full, till, sell
4 when attaching final suffixes such as ‘-es’, ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’ we simply ADD
them to the baseword ‘pass’, e.g. pass – es, pass - ed, pass - ing
5 ‘past’ is a bygone era or time; it is also an old past participle of the verb
‘to pass’
6 again you need to pronounce it with the short vowel sound for ‘a’ and
clearly articulate it with the end blend ‘-st’, as in pa-st, last, mast, fast
patches
phaches
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (pat - ch - es)
2 in order to keep the vowel short in one syllabled words we need to use
‘- t -’ before the consonant digraph ‘-ch’, which counts as one letter
3 find some more words that have this pattern – pat - ch, watch, catch,
match, fetch, witch, blotch, wretch, hutch and also in these words
kitchen, satchel, stretcher, hatchet
4 we use ‘- ch -’ everywhere else: chief, chop, chew, chat, chest – the
beginning of words; after long vowel sounds teach, reach, leech; and
when there is another consonant already holding in the vowel – larch,
march lunch, munch, truncheon, crunch
5 there are some exceptions to the general rule; learn these as two groups
by making them into sentences: such, much, rich, which; attach, detach,
duchess, bachelor; ostrich, sandwich
pellet, pellets
pelet, pelles
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (pell - et)
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘- e -’ in the first syllable
3 teach that after a short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the next consonant;
in two-syllabled words the pattern is (- VCCV - ): ‘pel - l - et’
4 find some other words that follow this pattern: pellet, bullet, mallet,
follow, marrow, barrow, harrow
5 simply ADD the plural suffix ‘-s’ to all these words: pellets, bullets,
marrows, follows
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penalties
penalite, penaltys
1 identify the basewords ‘penal’ and ‘penalty’
2 clearly articulate and syllabify for spelling (pe - nal) and (pen - al - ty)
3 when making plurals in words ending in ‘-y’ teach the CHANGE rule –
we change the ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ and add ‘-es’, e.g. penalt - i - es, injury
– injuries; harmony – harmonies; daddy – daddies
people
pepele, poeple, pepole, peaple, peopole, pepole, pople, pepal, peball
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (peop - le)
2 the ‘- eo -’ is an unusual spelling for the long vowel (- ee -) sound
3 teach the vowel digraph rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one
does the talking and usually says its own name’ as in ‘p - eo - ple’
4 to remember the silent ‘- o -’, note the word comes from the Latin
‘populus’ via Old French ‘people’
5 the most common final stable syllable for the (- l) sound at the end of
words is ‘-le’, as in peop - le, stable, couple, purple, comfortable, nettle,
little, cattle, bubble
6 final stable syllable ‘-al’ is an adjectival ending, as in local, focal, nautical,
central total
7 ‘-al’ is also used after a whole word as in musical, electrical, political,
clerical
performance, performed, performing
perfomance, preformed, proforming
1 identify the baseword ‘form’
2 add the prefix ‘per’, meaning ‘through’ and ‘thoroughly’ and syllabify for
spelling (per - form)
3 ‘pro-’ is a prefix meaning ‘in front of’ and ‘pre-’ is a related prefix meaning
‘before’
4 find some more words with these different prefixes, e.g. perform,
persuade, person, perhaps; project, promise, probable; prefix,
predetermine, predestination
person, personally
purson, personly
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (per - son)
2 ‘per-’ is the most common spelling of the (pur-) sound at the beginning
of words
3 there are however about 25 words that begin with ‘pur-’, with the prefix
derived from the French ‘pour-’ meaning ‘for’ which has the (-ur) sound
and was anglicised to the ‘pur-’ spelling as in purchase, purpose, pursue,
pursuit, purport, purvey, purloin; add to this group purr, purse, purl and
purple that have some different origins you could trace
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persuasion, persuading
persasion, perseshion, persading
1 identify the baseword ‘persuade’
2 overarticulate and syllabify the words for spelling (per - su - ade) and
(per - su - a - sion)
3 note the prefix ‘per’ meaning ‘through’ and ‘thoroughly’
4 the Latin word ‘suadere’ with the long vowel (- a -) sound means ‘to
advise’
5 the spelling of the (-zhun) sound in words is always ‘-sion’, as in
persuasion, television, erosion, provision, seclusion, conclusion
6 note that the (-zhun) sound for ‘-sion’ always follows after a vowel
whereas the sound is (-shun) after a consonant, e.g. tension, propulsion,
diversion, repercussion
7 articulate and syllabify the incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (per - sa - sion) (per - esh - i - on) (per - sad - ing)
pets
pet’s
1 teach that after a single syllabled word all we need to do to make a plural
is ADD the suffix ‘-s’ (CVCs) as in pets, cats, dogs, rats, cows
2 if we put in an apostrophe this stands for ‘the pet, its collar’, ‘the cat, its
food’; we put in the apostrophe to denote missing words or letters – the
pet’s collar, the cat’s food; and do not, don’t; cannot, can’t
phrase
thrase
1 teach the different articulatory feel, sound and joined graphemes for the
digraphs ‘- ph -’ and ‘- th -’, voiced and unvoiced
2 ‘ph-’ is not a regular spelling for the ‘- f -’ sound but is always the first
choice for words derived from the Greek language and for words
connected with medicine and science
3 find some words that have the ‘- ph -’ digraph in them, e.g. phrase,
alphabet, nymph; and telephone, microphone, photograph, physics,
sulphur, camphor, lymph
pick
pike
1 articulate the word for spelling (p - ick)
2 note the short vowel ‘- i -’ sound
3 teach the short vowel pattern in one-syllabled words (- VC) (- VCC)
4 we always use ‘-ck’ at the end of one-syllabled words after a short vowel
sound to make the (-k) sound
5 find some more words with this pattern: pick, peck, back, lick, lock, tuck,
duck
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6 articulate the misspelling and note the long vowel sound and pattern
denoted by silent ‘-e’ (- VCe)
7 find some more words with this pattern: pike, like, sake, make, bloke,
take
picture
picuture
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (pict - ure)
2 note the short vowel sound and pattern in the first syllable (- VCC)
3 teach the clear articulation and joined graphemes for the end blend (-ct)
4 find some more words with this blend: picture, strict, pact, duct
pieces
pesises, pices, peices
1 there are a few words that have ‘- ie -’ as the spelling of the long (- ee -)
sound
2 it is best to learn these as a group of friends: piece, niece, priest, chief,
brief, grief, wield, yield, shield, belief, pier
3 make up two sentences that together include all the ‘- ie -’ words
4 at least you can find the ‘pie’ in ‘piece’
pier
piere
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to hear and feel the
differences (peer) and (pee - air)
2 a pier is usually a mass of stone, wood or metal projecting into the sea,
imagine stalls on it selling sea pies
3 pier has two homophones: ‘pear’ (the fruit) and ‘peer’ (a lord or lady) so
probably needs to have this unusual spelling
4 some piers have lights on the end to warn boats of their presence; the
‘- i -’ in light could remind you of the ‘- i -’ in pier
pigeon
pidgions
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (pi - ge - on)
2 note the short vowel sound of ‘- i -’ in the first syllable and then the
‘- ge -’ in which the ‘- g -’ is kept soft by the following ‘-e’
3 the (- j -) sound is made by ‘-dge’ at the end of one-syllabled words
straight after a short vowel sound: badge, hedge, ridge, lodge, budge
4 ‘- ge -’ is used everywhere else: pigeon, burgeon, curmugeon –
multisyllabled words; and cage, rage, barge, hinge, huge after the long
vowel sound
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pizza
pizsa
1 this is an Italian word and is spelt and pronounced as in Italy (pi - zza)
2 note the short vowel sound ‘- i -’ in the first syllable
3 after the short vowel sound the next consonant is DOUBLED, giving
the short vowel pattern (- VCCV -) in the two-syllabled word
pirate
pirtret
1 cue articulate and syllabify for spelling (pi - rate)
2 note the long vowel sound (- i -) of the open syllable pattern (CV -) in
the first syllable and the long vowel sound denoted by silent ‘- e -’ in the
second syllable (- VCe) pirate, irate
pitch
pich
1 articulate clearly for spelling (pit - ch)
2 in order to keep the vowel short it needs to be held in by consonant (- t -)
before adding the digraph ‘-ch’, which only counts as one letter
3 we use ‘-tch’ at the end of one-syllabled words after a short vowel sound,
e.g. pitch, patch, witch, titch, match, batch, hatch, blotch, hutch
4 use ‘-ch’ everywhere else, e.g. chat, chip, chap, chop, chuck, chick – the
beginning of words and teach, screech, larch, birch, lunch, hunch – after
long vowel sound and other consonants
5 you will need to learn these exceptions; try to include them in two
sentences – rich, such, much, which, attach, detach, duchess, sandwich,
ostrich
places
place
1 articulate the baseword and the plural for spelling (pl - ace) and
(pl ace - s)
2 after silent ‘-e’ patterns (- VCe) simply ADD plural ‘-s’, e.g. places, ices,
races
plane
plaine
1 there are two ways to make syllables with the long vowel sound; the first
is the silent ‘-e’ pattern (- VCe) as in plane, mane sane, pane, same, tame,
fame, lame
2 the second is the two vowel or digraph pattern (- VVC), as in plain, main,
train, grain, pain; seen, seem, team, cream
3 there is no need to add a silent ‘-e’ after the vowel digraph pattern as the
digraph already makes the long vowel sound
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4 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ – plain, rain, mail
plastic
plasic
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (plast - ic)
2 note the short vowel sound and pattern in the first syllable (- VCC -)
3 practise articulating the end blend ‘-st’ and write its graphemes as a
joined unit
4 find some more words with this blend – plastic, mastic, plaster, past,
wrist, mist, vista, sister, master
played, playing, Playstation, players
playen, palying, playstaision, playstaition, plays
1 identify the baseword ‘play’
2 practise feeling and articulating the initial blend (pl-) and write its
graphemes as a joined unit
3 find some more words with this initial blend: play, plot, plum, please,
plate
4 to suffix ‘-ed’, ‘-er’, ‘-ing’ and plural ‘-s’ to the baseword simply ADD
them – play - ed, play - ers, play - ing, plays, players
5 syllabify the word ‘station’ for spelling (sta - tion); note the long vowel
sound (A) in the first and open syllable
6 the (shun) sound in the second syllable is made by the final stable syllable
‘-tion’; it is the first and most frequent choice for the (-shun) sound
plasma
plazmer
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (plas - ma)
2 we use ‘z-’ at the beginning of words: zoo, zonk, zebra, zigzag and
‘- s -’ everywhere else for the ‘- z -’ sound: plasma, is, has, rise, rose,
miser, pose
3 plasma is from the Greek word plasma, plasmatos meaning moulded
pleasure
plesure, pleaser
1 identify the baseword ‘please’
2 cue articulate the word pleasure for spelling (pleas - ure)
3 when adding the vowel suffix ‘-ure’ DROP the silent ‘-e’: pleas - ure
4 there are not many words that use ‘-ure’ for the (-er) sound; learn them
as a friendship group: pleasure, treasure, measure; seizure, leisure, injure,
pressure
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plodding
ploding
1 identify the baseword ‘plod’; note short vowel (- o -) in the closed syllable
2 teach the DOUBLING rule – that after a short vowel sound when
attaching a suffix such as ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’ we must double the final consonant
in the baseword: plod - d - ing, plodded CVC - C - ing, CVC - C - ed
plus
pluss
1 this pupil has applied the ‘l - f - s’ rule – that after these consonants in a
single syllable they must be doubled to hold in the vowel – fuss, truss,
loss; off, cuff; ill, well
2 however, there are a small group of exceptions to the rule and these need
to be learned separately, e.g. plus, bus, thus, us, yes, gas, this; of, if; pal,
nil
3 other words with a single ‘-s’ have the (- z -) sound as a clue: is, his, as,
was, has, otherwise the single final ‘-s’ denotes a plural – cats, dogs, boys,
girls
pollution
pollition, plotion
1 identify the baseword ‘pollute’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (poll - ute)
3 note the short vowel sound and pattern of the first syllable (- VCC) and
the long vowel with silent ‘- e -’ pattern in the second (- VCe)
4 syllabify the word ‘pollution’ (poll - u - tion)
5 we always use ‘-tion’ for the sound (-shun) when the baseword ends in
the ‘-t’ sound as ‘t’ or ‘te’, as in pollute, pollution; dictation, action,
distraction, vacation
ponds
pond
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings (pon - ds) (pon - d)
2 we simply ADD the ‘s’ to make a plural, meaning several ponds, cats,
dogs, girls
pony, ponies
ponnie, ponys
1 articulate the correct and incorrect versions clearly and syllabify for
spelling (po - ny) and (pon - ny)
2 note the long vowel (O) sound in the open syllable ‘po-’ and the short
vowel sound in ‘pon-’
3 if you hear the long vowel (ee) sound at the end of words it is denoted
by vowel ‘y’, e.g. pony, mummy, daddy, fairy, puppy, story
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4 when making these words into plurals teach the CHANGE rule; change
‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ and add ‘-es’: pony, pon - i - es, mummies, daddies, fairies,
puppies, stories
porch
proche
1 articulate clearly the correct and the incorrect spellings (por - ch) and
(pro - che)
2 note the differences between ‘por’ and ‘pro’ and find some more words
that have these different sounds, e.g. porch, port, pork, porpoise, portent;
product, process, produce, promenade
Portugal, Portuguese
portuigal, Portugese
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (Port - u - gal) (Port - u - guese)
2 note that in Portuguese we need to put in silent ‘-u -’ in order to keep
the ‘- g -’ hard
3 find some more ‘g’ words that have silent ‘u’ in them, e.g. guest, guitar,
guys
positions
posisions
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (po - si - tion)
2 note the long vowel ‘o’ in the open first syllable
3 note the final (- shun) sound, its most frequent spelling is ‘-tion’
4 find five more words that have the ‘-tion’ ending, e.g. position, ration,
location, vacation, ambition
5 we use ‘-tion’ after the baseword ends in the ‘t’ sound: distraction, action;
after a short vowel ‘i’ sound – condition, position, ambition; and after a
long vowel sound – accusation, lotion, completion, institution
possible, possibly
posible, possiblie, posibley
1 identify the baseword for spelling ‘possible’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (poss - ib - le)
3 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable
4 when a short vowel sound is heard in the first syllable of a two syllabled
word it must be followed by two consonants, e.g. possible, russet, rabbit,
puppet; carpet, upset
5 ‘-le’ is the most frequent spelling of the final (- l) sound of words
6 the long vowel (-ee) sound at the end of English words is always denoted
by ‘-y’ acting as a vowel; ‘taxi’ is one exception and is an abbreviation for
taximeter
7 when adding the ‘-y’ ending we must DROP silent ‘e’ first: ‘possibl -y’,
capably
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poured
pourd
1 to make a past tense we must ADD ‘-ed’ to regular verbs ending in
consonants, e.g. pour - ed, planned, praised, mixed, picked
powered
powerd
1 identify the baseword ‘power’
2 to make a past tense we must ADD ‘-ed’ to regular verbs ending in
consonants, e.g. power - ed, poured, planned, praised, mixed, picked
practice, practised
practis, practiced
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (pract - ice)
2 use the family of words to remind you – practic, practice, practical
3 in words of more than one syllable endings beginning with ‘- i -’ often
have the short vowel sound despite silent ‘-e’ at the end, e.g. pract - ice,
office, service, novice, justice, malice
4 practice is a noun; when it becomes a verb we spell it with the ending
‘-ise’, as in practise, practised, practising
prefer
prefere, profer, profere, preffers
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (pre - fer)
2 articulate and syllabify the misspelling to hear and feel the differences
(pre - fere) (pro - fer) (pro - fere) (preff - ers)
pregnant
pregnent
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (preg - nant)
2 use family words to help you: preg - nant, preg - nancy
3 ‘Nancy’ is the one who is pregnant
presents
prezents
1 we use ‘z-’ at the beginning of words: zoo, zebra, zigzag
2 we use ‘- s -’ for the (z) sound everywhere else – present, rose, use, advise
3 an ‘- s -’ between two vowels usually has the (z) sound: present, miser,
user
pretends
prendes, pertend
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (pre - tends)
2 per- is a prefix meaning ‘through’ and pre- as a prefix means ‘before’
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3 teach the articulatory feel of the initial consonant blend ‘pr-’ as joined
graphemes
4 find five more words with the initial blend ‘pr-’: pretend, product, prop,
prep, pry, prescription, prefer
pretty
preety
1 you will need to cue articulate this word for spelling with a short vowel
(- e -) in the first syllable (pret - ty)
2 the word comes from the Old English word ‘praetig’ meaning ‘tricky’
but there is no trace of it before that
3 when a short vowel sound is heard in the first syllable of a two-syllabled
word it must be followed by two consonants, e.g. pretty, possible, russet,
rabbit, puppet; carpet, upset
primary
primery
1 identify the baseword ‘prime’
2 use the family of words to help with this spelling, e.g. primary, primate,
primal
3 ‘-ary’ is the most common spelling of the (-eri) sound at the end of
words; it is used for adjectives or describing words, e.g. primary,
secondary, tertiary, ordinary, culinary, monetary, veterinary
4 ‘-ary’ is also used to refer to people; then it is a noun ending meaning
‘the one who’, e.g. secretary, visionary, missionary
probably
probely, proberly, probaly, properbly
1 identify the baseword ‘probable’
2 articulate clearly and syllabify the target word for spelling (prob - ab - ly)
3 teach the different articulatory feel and sound of the consonants ‘- p -’
and ‘- b -’ and ensure that their graphemes are known and practised
simultaneously
produce
produse
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (pro - duce)
2 use the family of words to help, e.g. produce, product, production
3 ‘- c -’ has no sound of its own; it uses ‘- s -’ or ‘- k -’ depending on its
position in a word
4 ‘- c -’ has the (- s -) or its ‘soft’ sound when followed by ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ –
cell, city, cycle; everywhere else it has the ‘k’ sound: cap, cot, cling, acre,
cut
5 an ‘- s -’ between two vowels usually has the (- z -) sound, e.g. laser,
poser, uses
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professional, professionally
profstional, proffessional, proffesional, proffecanily
1 identify the baseword ‘profess’
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (pro - fess)
3 if a word ends in the (-s) sound after a short vowel we must double the
final ‘-s’, e.g. profess, confess, egress, progress
4 when suffixing after ‘-ess’ we simply ADD the suffixes, e.g. profess - or,
profession, professional, professionally
programme
program
1 the word programme is from the Greek ‘pro’ meaning forth and ‘gramma’
a letter
2 the spelling ‘program’ is an American one when they tried to regularise
and simplify their spelling system
3 ‘program’ is now the spelling in English usually referred to for computer
programs
protective
protectiv
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (pro - tect - ive)
2 stable endings beginning with ‘i-’ often have the short vowel ‘(- i -)’
sound even though the ending has the silent ‘-e’ pattern, e.g. protect ive, active, lucrative, motive, native
pulled
puled
1 identify the baseword ‘pull’
2 note the short vowel ‘- u -’ sound
3 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule that after a short vowel sound in a single syllabled
word these consonants must be DOUBLED to hold the vowel in, e.g.
pull, full, well, till, mill, call, sell, doll
4 the two exceptions are nil and pal
5 after the doubled consonants we simply ADD the vowel suffixes ‘-ed’ and
‘-ing’ – pull - ed, pulling
punishable
punishabl
1 identify the baseword ‘punish’
2 we use the final stable syllable ‘-able’ after a whole word, e.g. punish able, habitable, washable, comfortable
3 we also use ‘-able’ when the baseword ends in silent ‘-e’, e.g. believe,
believable; move, movable
4 the most common form of the (-ul) sound at the end of words is ‘-le’:
table, cable
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puppy, puppies
pupy, puppys, pupys
1 after a short vowel sound in two-syllabled words we must DOUBLE the
next consonant to preserve the short vowel pattern ( - VCCV - ): pup - p
- y, daddy, mummy
2 teach the CHANGE rule; we must change ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ before adding
‘-es’: pupp- ies, daddies, mummies, nannies, to make plurals
purpose
perpasse
1 the most common spelling of the initial (pur-) sound is ‘per-’
2 however about 25 words use the spelling ‘pur-’, as in pur - pose, purchase,
pursue, purvey, purl, purr, purple
3 you might try cue articulating the Scots very short vowel ‘- u -’ in ‘pur-’
to remind you
pyramids
prymamids
1 cue articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (py - ra - mids)
2 syllabify the misspelling to note the differences and the value of
proofreading (pry - ma - mids)
quadbike
quodbike
1 a quadbike is a fourwheeler motorbike; quadrus is Latin for square – four
sides
2 ‘quad’ is an abbreviation of ‘quadrangle’, a FOUR-sided play area;
quadruped is?
quality
quallity
1 this word comes from Latin ‘qualitas’ and Old French ‘qualite’, meaning
the nature of or attribute
2 follow the single ‘- l -’ pattern as in Latin for multisyllabled words
3 use related words to remind you, e.g. equal, equality, qualitative
quarter
quater
1 ‘qu-’ has the sound (kw-) and you could cue articulate quarter as (kw art - er)
2 the misspelling ‘quater’ sounds like the word ‘equater’ with the long
vowel ‘- a -’ sound
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quiet, quite
quite, quit, qiuet, quete; quiet, quit, qute
1 in English words the letter ‘q’ is always followed by the letter ‘u’ and
together they make the (kw-) sound
2 articulate the two words clearly for spelling (qui - et) or (kwi - et) and
(qu - ite) or (kw - ite)
3 note that in ‘quiet’ there are two vowel sounds: long vowel (I) and short
vowel (e) and in ‘quite’ there is only one vowel sound and that is long
vowel (-I-)
4 note that ‘quite’ has the silent ‘e’ denoting the enclosed long vowel
(- VCe)
5 the misspelling ‘quit’ has the single closed syllable pattern with the short
vowel sound (- VC)
quickly
quickley
1 identify the baseword ‘quick’
2 in order to make it into an adverb which tells how, when or where an
action takes place simply ADD the ending ‘-ly’: quick - ly, slowly, early,
loosely, rarely
quilt
quelt
1 in English words the letter ‘q’ is always followed by the letter ‘u’ and
together they make the sound (kw-)
2 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings carefully to hear and feel the
differences, e.g. (qu - ilt) and (qu - elt)
quirky
quirkey
1 identify the baseword ‘quirk’
2 note the small word ‘irk’ in quirk
3 when we hear (- ee -) at the end of English words this is made by the
vowel ‘-y’
4 simply ADD ‘-y’ to make quirk - y, murky, mummy, daddy, baby
rabbit, rabbits
rabbitt, rabit, rabits
1 when a short vowel sound is heard in the first syllable of a two-syllabled
word it must be followed by more than one consonant so we must
DOUBLE as in rab - bit, pattern, puppet, tennis; carpet, upset and
pocket already have two consonants
2 there is no need to double the final consonant in the second syllable,
simply add plural ‘-s’: rabbits
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3 the words habit, robin and cabin are rare exceptions to the doubling rule
and they were probably originally pronounced with the long vowel
sound; this cue articulation strategy will help remember them
random
radom
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (rand - om)
2 practise articulating the ‘-nd’ blend by holding your nose and letting it
go trying to say the blend
3 write ‘-nd’ as joined graphemes and find some more words with this
blend – random, end, blend, find, bind, ground found, sound
reaction
reacion
1 identify the basewords ‘react’ and ‘act’ in reaction
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (re - act)
3 note the open syllable and long vowel (- ee -) sound in the first syllable
and the short vowel (- a -) in the second syllable
4 if the baseword ends in the sound (-t) spelled ‘- t-’ or ‘- te’ then the
(-shun) ending is made by ‘-tion’: react - ion; act, action; dictate,
dictation; vacate, vacation; separate, separation
reading
reeding
1 identify the baseword ‘read’ and its homophone ‘reed’
2 words with the ‘- ea -’ spelling are usually homophones of those with ‘- ee -’
3 meaning cues can help us to remember the different spellings, e.g. we
read books and papers; the reed is a member of the sedge family like
weeds found in bogs
4 try cue articulation of (re - ad)
5 the word ‘read’ comes from the Old English ‘raedan’ – to discern
ready
redey, redy, reddy
1 this is an adjective and comes from the Old English ‘raede’
2 we need to distinguish between the words ‘ready’, meaning to be
prepared, and ‘reddy’, meaning a reddish colour, using a silent vowel ‘- a
-’ in ready; linking it with the O.E. does this
3 when we hear the ‘- ee -’ sound at the end of a word this is usually
represented by final ‘-y’, as in read - y, mummy, daddy, copy, nappy,
baby
really, realised, realise
realy, relly, realli, rely, relised, relise
1 identify the baseword ‘real’
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2 overarticulate for spelling (re - al) and use family help: ‘realise’ ‘realistic’
3 the ending ‘-ly’ has the sound (-lee) and is a suffix meaning like, how or
when
4 we simply ADD this suffix after a word: real - ly, slowly, hardly, lately,
finely
5 after ‘real’ we can simply ADD other suffixes such as ‘-ise’: realise, realised
reason, reasonably,
reasing, reasnably, resonable
1 identify the baseword ‘reason’ with the vowel digraph ‘- ea -’
2 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’, as in rea - son, trea - son,
sea - son
3 the word ‘reason’ comes from the Latin ‘ratio’ meaning to think; we can
still use ratiocination!
4 after a whole word the ending ‘-able’ is usually used, e.g. reason - able,
comfortable, habitable, readable
5 after the whole word ending in a consonant it is only necessary to ADD
the suffix ‘-ing’, as in reason - ing, dieting, collecting, stamping, camping
received, receiving
recived, recieved, reciving
1 identify the baseword ‘receive’
2 remember the rule ‘i before e except after c’, as in re - ceive, perceive,
deceive, conceive; the ‘e’ helps keep the ‘c’ soft
3 the family words may help you remember, e.g. reception, perception,
deception, conception
4 after a silent ‘e’ in the second syllable teach the DROP silent ‘e’ rule
before suffixing a vowel ending ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’, e.g. receiv - ing, received
recommend
recomend
1 identify the baseword ‘commend’ in recommend
2 teach that after the short vowel sound in the first syllable there must be two
consonants so we must DOUBLE the next consonant: com - m - end, re
- commend, happened, ripple, copper
record
recored, recold
1 find the word ‘cord’ in record and syllabify for spelling (re - cord)
2 teach the end blend ‘-rd’ as an articulatory unit and joined graphemes
3 find some more words with this end blend: record, cord, sword, discord,
accord
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4 articulate and syllabify the incorrect spelling to show the value of
proofreading (re - cold) and the differences in articulatory feel and sound
of the end blends ‘-rd’ and ‘-ld’
recycling
recycleing
1 identify the baseword ‘cycle’
2 when suffixing ‘-ing’ after silent ‘e’ teach the DROP rule – we drop silent
‘e’ before attaching the vowel suffixes ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’, e.g. recycl - ing,
rat - ing, rac -ing; and recycled, rated, raced
regular
regarlar
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (reg - u - lar)
2 note the long vowel ‘- u -’ sound
3 note the others in this family: regular, regulate, regulation
relaxing
realxing
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (re - lax - ing)
2 note the baseword ‘lax’: prefix ‘re-’ and the suffix ‘-ing’
3 build two more words with these affixes using the words ‘form’ and
‘pack’
remember
remembe
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (re - mem - ber)
2 note carefully the stable ending ‘-er’; it is the most common spelling of
the sound (-ur), especially at the end of words
3 find five more words with the ‘-er’ ending, e.g. remember, summer,
winter, sister, hamper
renamed
rennamed
1 identify the baseword ‘name’
2 simply ADD the prefix ‘re-’ to make ‘re - name’ because ‘re-’ has the long
vowel sound in an open syllable; there is no need to double consonant
‘- n -’
3 when suffixing the past tense ‘-ed’ we DROP silent ‘e’ and attach suffix
‘-ed’: renamed, framed, timed
repaired
repeared
1 identify the baseword ‘pair’ and its homophone ‘pear’
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2 use the meaning of words to help remember the spelling, e.g. pear is a
fruit and many eating products contain the ‘- ea -’ digraph: eat, meat,
wheat
3 the word ‘repair’ comes from the Latin ‘reparare’ and ‘parare’ meaning
to prepare: ‘Repair this pair of shoes please’
resident
resedent
1 identify the baseword ‘reside’ and note the long vowel ‘i’ in the second
syllable
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (res - i - dent)
3 note that the middle syllable is an unstressed ‘- i -’ with a short vowel
sound not the long ‘- ee -’ sound, as in resident, residence, residential;
use ‘reside’ to help you
responsibility
responcibiaty
1 identify the basewords ‘respond’ and ‘response’ meaning to answer
2 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (re - spons - i - bil - i - ty)
3 use answer’s spelling to remind you of the ‘- s -’
4 ‘-onse’ like ‘-ense’ is part of the baseword response: sense, dense, suspense
5 ‘-ence’ and ‘-ance’ are noun suffixes meaning state or act of performance,
elegance; intelligence, innocence and ‘-once’ is rarely if ever used
6 ‘-ible’ and ‘-able’ are adjectival suffixes meaning able or capable
7 use the family to remind you to use ‘-ible’, e.g. respons - ive, respons ible, repsonsib - ility
restaurants
resteraents, resteraunt, restruant, restraunt, reperons, restarnts, restiarants,
restuarant
1 cue articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (rest - au - rants)
2 the word comes from French ‘restaurer’, meaning to restore – food is a
restorer!
3 the (- aw -) sound is denoted by ‘- au -’ at the beginning and in the
middle of words – autumn, August, auk, haunt, clause, caul, restaurant,
maul
4 ‘-aw’ is used at the end of words for the (aw) sound: jaw, claw, raw,
straw, paw and before final ‘l’ or ‘n’: trawl, lawn
retriever
retriver
1 articulate clearly and syllabify (re - triev - er)
2 it comes from the word ‘retrieve’, which means to find and fetch; note
the ‘i’ before ‘e’ in these words
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3 ‘- ie -’ is the least common choice for the long (- ee -) sound in words so
collect them into groups and make sentences with them to remind you:
retrieve, believe, piece, niece, field, yield, wield, shield, chief, thief, brief,
priest
rhythm
rythum
1 this unusual word comes from the Latin ‘rhythmus’ and Greek ‘rhythmos’
2 a related word is ‘rhyme’ – use it to give the first syllable spelling ‘rhy thm’ and the Latin to give the second ‘rhyme nor reason’ – ‘rhyme nor
rhythm’
rides, riding
ride, rideing
1 identify the baseword ‘ride’
2 note the long vowel ‘- i -’ denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
3 when suffixing ‘-es’ and ‘-ing’ DROP silent ‘e’ and attach the suffixes,
e.g. rid - es, rid – ing; hides, hiding
ripped
riphed, riped
1 identify the baseword ‘rip’
2 note the short closed syllable structure with the short vowel sound (r - ip)
3 teach that after a short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the final
consonant before adding suffixes, e.g. rip - p - ed, rip - p - ing
4 articulate the misspelled words to show the differences (riph - ed) (ripe - d)
roadster
roadstar
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the correct and incorrect spellings (road ster) and (road - star)
2 ‘-er’ at the end of words is a suffix meaning ‘that which’ or ‘the one who’,
e.g. road - ster, youngster, folder, rocker; teacher, learner, baker, maker
3 a ‘star’ is a luminous body in the sky or a person of high talent
rocks
ricks
1 practise the articulation of the short vowel sounds of (- o -) and (- i -) and
note the pattern of the lips, teeth and opening of the mouth
2 link the sound with its grapheme in writing and saying the letters
3 find some more words with the ‘-ock’ and ‘-ick’ patterns: rocks, rock,
pock, tock, block, sock; rick, pick, wick, nick, tick, sick
4 we always use ‘-ck’ afte a short vowel sound in a single syllabled word
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roller
rollar
1 the overemphatic ‘-ar’ ending as in ‘rollar’ is a recent dialect habit
emerging in South Essex for the unstressed ‘-er’ ending
2 ‘-er’ at the end of words is a suffix meaning ‘the one who’, as in teacher,
porter, learner, baker, or it means ‘that which’, as in folder, rocker, roller,
roadster
round
rond
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (r - ou - nd)
2 note the diphthong ‘ou’ with the (- ahoo -) sound
3 find some more of this group of friends – round, sound, mound, ground,
bound
4 say the misspelled word (ron - d); note that it has the short vowel sound
and is in the short vowel syllable pattern (- VCC)
rosettes
rossettes, rossetes
1 a rosette is a rose-shaped arrangement of ribbon often given as an award
in pony trials
2 use the word ‘rose’ to help make the ‘ros - ette’ the (-ette) ending from
French makes a diminutive form: rosette, usherette, palette
row
rowe
1 there are two meanings to the word ‘row’ – we row a boat and the word
ends in digraph (-ow), as in row, mow, tow, low, below
2 the second meaning of ‘row’ is to make a lot of noise or have an argument;
in this meaning it has a different ‘-ow’ sound called a ‘diphthong’, in
which the ‘-ow’ has the sound (- ahoo -) as in row, sow, how, now,
brown, cow
3 although ‘owe’ has a silent ‘-e’ to denote the long vowel sound none of
the other ‘-ow’ words needs one
4 ‘-ow!’ on its own is a diphthong, as in ‘ouch!’
ruined
ruend
1 identify the baseword ‘ruin’ and syllabify for spelling (ru - in)
2 after the final consonant in ‘ruin’ we simply ADD the past tense suffix
‘-ed’ – ruin-ed
3 articulate and syllabify the misspelled word to show the difference (ru - end)
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Russian
russion
1 identify the baseword Russia
2 a Russia-n is a person coming from Russia
3 the suffix ‘-ian’ is used when referring to people: Russian, Persian,
magician, electrician, technician
4 use capital letters for the names of countries and people
sad
sade
1 teach the closed single syllable pattern (- VC) as in ‘sad’
2 note that closed single syllables have the short vowel sound in them, e.g.
sad, bad, had, mad; bed, fed, red; rid; bid, lid, hid; cod, rod, hod; mud,
dud
3 if we add a silent ‘e’ at the end of a single closed syllable this tells us the
syllable has the long vowel pattern (- VCe) and sound, e.g. bade, made;
cede; ride, side; rode, code; dude, rude
safety
safty
1 identify the baseword ‘safe’
2 note the long vowel sound and pattern (- VCe) denoted by silent ‘e’ at
the end
3 when adding consonant suffixes such as ‘-ty’ to silent ‘e’ words we can
simply ADD e.g. safe - ty, sorely, purely
4 articulate the misspelled word (saf - ty) and note it has the short vowel
sound and pattern (- VC - ty)
Saints
sants, seents
1 this is the name of a football team and names begin with capital letters
2 we use the vowel digraph ‘- ai -’ in the middle of one-syllabled words for
the long (A) sound before final ‘-d’, ‘-l’, ‘-m’, ‘-n’, ‘-t’, as in pain, rain,
claim, train, tail, maid, raid, bait, trait, remain, portrait
3 we also use it before words ending in ‘-nt’: Saint, paint, faint, complaint
and words ending in ‘-r’: lair, pair, despair or ‘air’ words
4 articulate the misspelled words to show the differences (san - ts) (see - nts)
satellites
satalights
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (sat - ell - ites)
2 a satellite is an attendant to a larger body as our moon is to earth, nothing
to do with lights
3 note the short vowel sounds in the first two syllables and the long vowel
pattern with silent ‘e’ in the final syllable (- VCe)
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Saturday
Saterday, saterday, Sataday
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (Sat - ur - day)
2 the word comes from the name of Saturn, the ancient Roman god of
agriculture and is also the name of the sixth planet from the sun
3 Saturn’s day is the seventh day of the week; note the Roman type ‘urn’ in
the word Saturn
4 ‘-ur’ is common in the middle of one-syllabled words: curse, purse, curve,
purl, curl, turn, and is always used in days of the week – Saturday and
Thursday and hospital words – nurse, surgeon, hurt, burn, burst
5 capital letters are always used for the names of the days of the week and
the months of the year
save
safe
1 teach the different articulatory patterns and sounds of ‘- v -’ and ‘- f -’,
especially the voicing vibration of ‘ v ’ in save and safe
2 find five more words with each sound, e.g. save, love, rave, prove, move;
safe, life, knife, rife, strife
saxophone
saxaphone
1 articulate and syllabify for spelling (sax - o - phone)
2 use family words to remind you of the medial long vowel ‘- o -’ sound,
e.g. saxophonist
3 Saxa is the name of a salt product
says, say, said
sais, see, sed
1 identify the baseword – the verb ‘to say’
2 ‘-ay’ is common at the end of words for the long (A) sound: say, play,
may, ray, relay, dismay, array
3 when changing to the past tense regular verbs simply ADD the suffix
‘-ed’: played, dismayed, relayed, stayed
4 or they just ADD ‘-s’ to make the present third person tense: ‘he say - s’,
plays, lays, stays
5 a few verbs in frequent use such as say, lay and pay go one step further
with the past tenses and apply the CHANGE rule – they change ‘-y’ to
‘-i’ and just add final ‘-d’, as in sa - i - d, paid, laid
6 in running speech ‘says’ and ‘said’ have over time lent themselves to
shortening to ‘ses’ or ‘sez’ and ‘sed’ and even were written as such by
Daniel Defoe in the sixteenth century in the History of Moll Flanders
7 in East Anglia you can still hear the old version ‘sayed’ in use
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scampering
scapering
1 identify the baseword ‘scamp’
2 practise articulating and feeling the pattern of the end blend ‘-mp’
3 find some more words with this ending: scamp, ramp, damp, camp,
pamper, sample, tamper, limp, timpanum, hemp, romp, rump, dump
scarce
scarse
1 when a single vowel is followed by a single ‘r’ it regularly changes its
sound
2 ‘ar’ usually sounds (-ar), as in ‘car’; in scarce it sounds long (-air) as in
‘care’ because of the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VrCe)
3 ‘c’ has no sound of its own and before ‘e’, ’i’ and ‘y’ it has the ‘s’ sound
as in (scarce) – a single ‘s’ before ‘e’ will have the (z) sound (scarze)
scary, scared
scarey, serey, schary, sceerd
1 identify the baseword ‘scare’
2 when adding suffixes ‘-ed’, ‘-ing’ and ‘-y’ to scary DROP the ‘-y’ and add
the suffix e.g. scar - ed, scar - ing, scar - y
3 for the (sk) sound we use ‘sk-’ at the beginning or in the middle of words
before ‘e’, ’i’ and ‘y’: sky, skeleton, skip, skill
4 we use ‘sc-’ everywhere else, especially before ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘u’: scar, scary,
scout, scumble, scuttle, discuss, describe
5 there are a few exceptions: skull (remember skeleton), skate, skunk, skulk
schools
scools
1 the spelling is based on the Latin ‘schola’ and Greek ‘schole’ see our
words ‘scholar’ and ‘scholastic’
2 ‘ch’ is the regular spelling of the (k) sound in Greek-derived words,
especially when they are scientific, medical or technical
3 some common words with consonant digraph ‘ch’ making the (k) sound
are Christ, Christmas, Christian; chemist, chemical, chloride, ache,
stomach; scholar, school, choir, orchestra, chord, character, anchor
science
scince, sciece
1 the word is derived from the Latin ‘scientia’
2 articulate and syllabify for spelling (sci - ence); it may help to cue articulate
the word (ski - ence)
3 when the baseword contains ‘i’ or ‘e’ we use the ending ‘-ence’: science,
audience, difference
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4 practise the articulation of the ‘-ence’ ending and note the particular feel
of the ‘-nce’ and find some more words with this ending: eminence,
eloquence, adolescence, frequence, conference, difference
scored
scoored
1 identify the baseword ‘score’
2 before the letter ‘r’ vowels tend to change the regular sounds they make
3 note that in score we can find the words ‘or’ and ‘core’ as clues
scrape
scrap
1 articulate the word carefully for spelling (scr - ape)
2 note the long vowel sound in the closed syllable and the silent ‘e’ rule –
that the long vowel sound in a closed syllable is denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern (- VCe)
3 find five more words with the long vowel silent ‘e’ pattern, e.g. save, rave,
rate, pate, sate, mane, lane
4 teach that the short vowel pattern is (- VC) or (- VCC) as in ‘scr - ap’ and
‘pa - ck’
5 articulate (scrap) and (scrape) to hear and feel the difference and write
each word as a joined unit
scream, screamed
screem, screemed
1 identify the baseword ‘scream’
2 remember the rhyme ‘I scream, you scream we all scream for ice cream’
– it might help you remember the long vowel (E) sound is made by the
digraph ‘ea’
3 teach the two vowel rule – ‘when two vowels go walking the first one
does the talking and usually says its own name’ as in scream, cream, ream,
team
4 the word is derived from Middle English ‘scraemen’ and some dialects
still reflect this old spelling
Scotland
Scottland
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (Scot - land)
2 it means the land belonging to the Scots people
3 a short vowel sound needs to be followed by two consonants in two
syllabled words to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC, e.g.
(- VCCV -) is the pattern
4 because in ‘Scotland’ the short vowel ‘o’ is followed by two consonants
there is no need to double the ‘t’, however there is a need to do so in
‘Scottish’ Scot - t - ish
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season
seson
1 syllabify for spelling (sea - son) or (seas - on)
2 note the long vowel ‘ea’ sound in the first syllable and the pattern
(- VVC -)
3 use the word ‘sea’ and ‘seas’ to remind you of the spelling of ‘season’
Seaworld
seaword
1 identify the basewords in this compound word: ‘sea’ and ‘world’
2 remember the owners are trying to communicate a concept of the ‘world
of the sea’ or ‘marine life’
3 practise articulating the end blend ‘-rld’ to feel its pattern in the mouth
especially the ‘-ld’ in (wor - ld)
4 find more words with this ending if you can: world; lots end in curled,
furled
5 names of people and places have capital letters – Seaworld, Marineworld
second, secondary
secound, seconed, secoundairy, secondrey, seconary, secondry
1 identify the baseword ‘second’
2 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (se - cond) and (sec - ond)
3 we add ‘-ed’ to make past tenses to verbs – planned, played not to nouns
4 articulate the misspellings to show their different pronunciations (sec ound) as in hound and found; (se - cone - d) (se - con - dairy)
5 the (-erri) sound at the end of words is most frequently spelled ‘-ary’
6 it is used for adjectives (describing words): secondary, primary, tertiary,
ordinary, culinary
security
securaty
1 identify the baseword ‘secure’
2 ‘-ity’ is a final stable syllable but ‘-aty’ is not
3 when adding ‘-ity’ to words ending with silent ‘e’ we DROP the silent ‘e’
before attaching the suffix, e.g. secur - ity; active, activity; selective,
selectivity
seemed
seamed
1 identify the baseword ‘seem’
2 note that ‘to seem’ is a verb meaning to appear to and it has a homophone
‘seam’, the noun referring to a line of junction between two edges sewn
together
3 ‘ee’ is the first choice for the long vowel (ee) sound and is common in
verbs – seem, feel, meet, greet, weed; greed, seed, heel, wheel, feet
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4 ‘ea’ is a second choice and more common in food words and for
homophones meat, feat, seam
self
slth
1 articulate clearly for spelling (sel - f) (s - elf)
2 teach that every syllable or beat in a word must contain a vowel
3 the basic syllable structure is the closed syllable with the short vowel
sound, e.g. (- VC) and (- VCC) as in ‘set’ and ‘self’
4 teach the sound and articulatory pattern of the short vowel ‘e’ in words
such as bed, bet, set, pet, bet
5 teach the articulatory pattern and sound of the end blend ‘-lf’ and its
graphemes as a joined unit and find some more words with this end
blend: self, elf, shelf, pilfer
sensitive
sencetive
1 identify the baseword ‘sense’
2 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (sens - i - tive)
3 use the family of words to remind you of the ‘s’ in sense, sensitive,
sensible, sensation
4 ‘-ense’ is not a suffix but forms basewords, e.g. sense, dense, tense;
nonsense, intense, suspense, expense, dispense
5 the word comes from the Latin ‘sensus’ – ‘sentire’ meaning to feel and
the French ‘sens’ feeling
6 in words of more than one syllable endings beginning with ‘i’ often have
the short vowel (i) sound despite the silent ‘e’ at the end: sensitive, active,
office, practice, justice
sent
set
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (s - ent)
2 note the end blend ‘-nt’ and hold your nose while trying to make the
sound
3 the ‘n’ nasalifies the preceding vowel ‘e’ and so is often difficult to detect
4 find some more words with this end blend: sent, bent, lent, tent, pant,
cant, rant, lint, hint, stint, winter, canter
separate
seperate
1 look up the meaning of this word and find it is ‘to part’ or divide
2 use the words ‘part’ and to ‘pare’ to remind you of the spelling
3 articulate and syllabify for spelling (se - par - ate)
4 the word comes from the Latin ‘se’ meaning aside and ‘parare’ to put
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serious
sereus
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (ser - i - ous)
2 ‘-us’ is a noun ending, as in crocus, bonus, circus, virus
3 ‘-ous’ is an adjectival ending, a describing word as in serious, religious,
vicious
4 ‘-eus’ is not a legitimate adjectival ending
settee
seate, setee
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (set - tee)
2 note the short vowel ‘e’ in the first syllable
3 teach the short vowel rule and pattern (- VCCV -) that after a short vowel
sound in two-syllabled words there must be two consonants so here we
must DOUBLE the final ‘t’ – set - t - ee to keep the short vowel pattern
CVC + CVC (- VCCV -)
4 find five more words where there is doubling after a short vowel: pretty,
happy, running, hopped, little
settled
setteled
1 identify the baseword ‘settle’
2 the most common final stable syllable for the (-l) sound at the end of
words is ‘- le’, as in settle, little, nettle, cradle, tickle, ripple, bubble
3 use the ‘-le’ ending if the letter before the (-l) sound has a stick or a tail
– apple, rattle
4 teach the DROP rule for attaching suffixes to silent ‘e’ words, e.g. settl
- ed, rattled, peddled, meddled, nettled, tickled, pickled
severely
severly
1 identify the baseword ‘severe’
2 note the long vowel sound in the second syllable denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern ‘- ere’ (- VCe)
3 simply ADD the ‘-ly’ ending after silent ‘e’: severely, perversely, rarely
4 note that the misspelling ‘sever’ is a different word with a different stress
pattern (se - ver) meaning ‘to cut’; the letter ‘v’ is never doubled even
after a short vowel sound except in the word ‘navvy’ which would be
‘navy’ without doubling
seven
sevan
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (se - ven)
2 number seven is more to do with Venn diagrams than vans or small
lorries
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3 the letter ‘v’ is never doubled even after a short vowel sound except in the
word ‘navvy’ – shortened forms often use doubling – lavvy, privvy
shaky
shakey
1 identify the baseword ‘shake’
2 note the long vowel sound (A) denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
3 when adding final ‘-y’ to silent ‘e’ words we DROP the silent ‘e’ and
simply attach the ‘y’: shak - y, flaky, waky
4 the same rule applies for other stable endings, e.g. shak - en, shak - ed,
shak - ing
shallows
shalows
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (shall - ows)
2 note the short vowel (- a -) sound in the first syllable
3 teach the short vowel rule and pattern (- VCCV -) that after a short vowel
sound in two-syllabled words there must be two consonants so here we
must DOUBLE the final ‘l’: shal - l - ow, follow, wallow, mallow
shepherd
shepered, sheped
1 use the meaning of this word to aid spelling; it comes from sheep herder
2 over time is has been shortened to (shep - herd) but we keep the silent
‘h’ to show the history of the word
she’s
shes, see
1 the full expression of this word is ‘she is’, shortened to ‘she’s’
2 whenever we shorten words in this way we put in an apostrophe to show
there is a missing letter
3 teach the ‘sh-’ consonant digraph, its clear articulation and the graphemes
as a joined unit
4 find five more words that contain this digraph – she, shall, short, shoulder,
fashion, fish
shiver
shivver
1 ‘the letter ‘v’ is a special case and is never doubled even after a short
vowel
2 there is one exception and that is ‘navvy’ short for navigator; if it were
not doubled it would spell ‘navy’ – something entirely different (lavvy is
also a short form)
3 find some more ‘v’ words: shiver, quiver, never, lever, fiver, even
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shoddy
shody
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (shod - dy)
2 note the short vowel (- o -) sound in the first syllable
3 teach the short vowel rule and pattern (- VCCV -) that after a short vowel
sound in a two-syllabled word there must be two consonants so here we
must DOUBLE the final ‘d’ before attaching the ‘-y’ ending: shod - d y, baddy, happy, snappy
shone
shon
1 this spelling reflects how we once said the word with the long vowel (O)
sound (sh - one)
2 listen to some Americans reading books for the Audiobooks series in
libraries and note they still say ‘shone’ as we did in the 1700s
3 ‘shone’ with the long vowel ‘o’ is denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe)
4 find some more silent ‘e’ patterned words that might once have been
pronounced with long vowels, e.g. shone, have, love, come
shoot, shooting
shot, shoting
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the baseword for spelling (sh - oot)
2 note there is the long vowel sound (-OO-) which is different from the
long sound or the name of letter ‘O’
3 the digraph ‘oo’ has a short vowel sound and a long vowel sound
4 find three more words with the long vowel (OO) sound: shoot, hoot,
food, moon
5 and three more words with the short vowel (oo) sound: look, book, took
6 articulate the misspelled versions and note the differences and the value
of proofreading, e.g. (shot) as in a gunshot and (shoting) as in voting
short
shot
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to notice the differences and
the value of proofreading (sh - ort) and (shot)
2 note the ‘or’ word inside short, port and fort
3 the letter ‘r’ after a vowel frequently changes its usual pronunciation as in
short, part, flirt, skirt, shirt
shoulder, shoulders
sholder, sholders
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (shou - ld - er)
2 note the vowel digraph (- ow -) sound as in tow, and mow
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3 we use ‘ou’ for this sound at the beginning and in the middle of words
and ‘ow’ at the end of words, e.g. shoulder, moulder; elbow, yellow
4 the word comes from the Old English ‘sculdor’
5 it is the U-shaped junction of the arm with the body; the ‘u’ in junction
can help you remember it in shoulder
shredder
shreder
1 identify the baseword ‘shred’
2 note that it has the short vowel ‘e’ sound
3 teach that after a short vowel sound in a two-syllabled word there must
be two consonants so here we must DOUBLE the final consonant before
attaching a suffix: shred - d - er, shred - d - ing, shredded
sight
site
1 the word in German is ‘sicht’ and perhaps we once pronounced the
(-ght) in a similar way in Old English or Scots as in ‘tis a braw bricht
moonlicht nicht the nicht’
2 the word ‘sight’ can be cue articulated to emphasise the ‘-ight’
3 ‘-igh’ is an unusual spelling for the long vowel (I) sound – learn the
words as a special group: high, sigh, nigh, thigh
4 all the others in the group end in ‘- t’: sight, light, might, right, fight,
night, tight
5 the misspelled word is a homophone and has a different meaning related
to land and plans and building sites
silver
sliver
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sil - ver) a precious metal
2 sliver is another word for to split off or slice, note the initial blend ‘sl-’
3 find five more words that use the ‘sl-’ blend – slip, slender, slow, sleep,
slap
simply
simpley
1 identify the baseword ‘simple’
2 ‘-le’ is the most common spelling of the final (-l) sound in words
3 when adding the ‘-y’ ending teach the DROP rule – we must drop the
silent ‘e’ and then attach final ‘y’: simple – simpl - y; noble – nobly,
wobble – wobbly
since
sise
1 articulate clearly for spelling (sin - ce)
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2 note that the ‘n’ nasalifies the preceding vowel rather than has a feel of its
own; try holding your nose and saying ‘since’
3 there are not many ‘-ince’ words; keep a note of them – since, mince,
wince, sincere
sister
sisther
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sis - ter)
2 check that the ‘- st -’ blend is correctly and clearly articulated
3 find five more words that use the ‘st’ blend: stop, stand, plaster, master,
past, last
sit, sitting
site, sitng
1 articulate the baseword clearly for spelling (sit)
2 note the short vowel sound of (- i -) in the single closed syllable and teach
the basic pattern (- VC)
3 teach the silent ‘e’ syllable pattern in which the silent ‘e’ tells us that the
vowel has the long sound or says its own name (- VCe) as in (site)
4 note that in the word ‘sitting’ there are two syllable beats – each syllable
must have a vowel in it
5 suffixes have a specific meaning and a stable pattern, e.g. ‘-ing’ is a suffix
and changes the meaning of sit to sitting
6 ‘-ng’ is not a suffix but is part of a base word, e.g. bang, hung, fling,
tongue
7 when suffixing single closed syllables with short vowels we must
DOUBLE the final consonant to keep the closed syllable pattern CVC +
CVC, as in sit - t - ing; run, running, hop, hopping
skating, Skatepark, skater
scating, skateing, skatpark, scater
1 there are only four common words that begin with the ‘sk-’ blend at the
beginning of words before vowels ‘a’, ‘o’, ‘u’ – skate, skull, skulk and
skunk – all the rest begin with ‘sc-’
2 ‘sk-’ is used before vowels ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’, e.g. skeleton (link with skull),
ski, skip, skill, sky
3 note the long vowel sound of (A) in ‘skate’, denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern (- VCe)
4 when suffixing words with silent ‘e’ teach the DROP rule; we drop silent
‘e’ and just attach the suffix, e.g. ‘skat - ing’, ‘skat - er’, ‘skat - ed’
5 when making the compound word Skatepark we simply add ‘park’ to
‘skate’; the silent ‘e’ is necessary to keep the vowel long and preserve the
origin of the word and its meaning
6 names of places and people always have capital letters: Skatepark, Sarah,
Sam
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skidding
skiddin
1 although in running speech and some dialects we may say ‘skiddin’ and
goin’ the spelling of the suffix is ‘-ing’
2 articulate clearly and correctly for spelling (skid - ding)
skinny
skinney
1 after the short vowel sound in the closed syllable (skin) the final consonant
is DOUBLED before adding the final ‘y’
2 vowel ‘y’ at the end of words makes the long (ee) sound so there is no
need to add an extra ‘e’, e.g. skinny, funny, mummy, daddy, nanny
3 ‘-ey’ is only used when it helps to form the baseword, e.g. money,
phoney, spinney and after ‘k’, e.g. monkey, donkey, flunkey, lackey,
hockey
slide
slid
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spelling (slide) and (slid)
2 note that in ‘slide’ there is a long vowel (I) sound and pattern (- VCe)
and in ‘slid’ there is a short vowel (i) and pattern (- VC)
3 teach the long vowel rule that the long vowel sound is denoted by the
silent ‘e’ pattern: slide, hide, ride, ripe, hate, mate, dene, hope, mope,
dune, lute, refute
slimey
slimy
1 identify the baseword ‘slime’; note the long vowel sound denoted by the
silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
2 vowel ‘y’ at the end of words makes the long (ee) sound so there is no
need to add an extra ‘e’ – slimy
3 when adding the adjectival ‘-y’ ending teach the DROP rule; we must
drop the silent ‘e’ and just add ‘y’: slim - y, simpl - y; noble – nobly
smell
snell
1 practise articulating and noting the different sound and articulatory feel
of the blends ‘sm-’ and ‘sn-’
2 find five more words with these initial blends – smell, smoke, smart,
small, smile; snow, snake, snort, snooze, sneeze
smiling
smilling
1 identify the baseword ‘smile’
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2 note the long vowel sound (I) and the long vowel syllable pattern
denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe)
3 when suffixing words with silent ‘e’ teach the DROP rule: we must drop
the silent ‘e’ and just attach the suffix – smil - ing; file, filing; hope,
hoping
4 articulate the incorrect spelling to feel and hear the differences (smill
- ing)
smothered
somothered, smuthered
1 identify the initial consonant blend ‘sm-’ and find five more words with
this blend: smother, smart, smile, smoke, smell
2 the word derives from the Old English ‘smorian’ and Middle English
‘smorther’
3 most words using ‘-other’ with a short vowel (u) sound come from Old
English, e.g. other, mother, brother, smother – learn them as a group
4 the word ‘brother’ also can take the Old English plural ‘-en’, as in
brethren
5 you could cue articulate these words saying them with a long ‘O’ vowel
sound as we might have done in a past age
sniff
snif
1 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule – that directly after a short vowel in a single
syllabled word ending in l - f - or s these three final consonants must be
DOUBLED to hold in the vowel, e.g. sniff, off, tiff, boff; will, till, all,
call, tell, mill, sell, full; fuss, miss, mass
2 there are only a few exceptions – of (ov) and if; pal and nil; and yes, gas,
this, thus, bus, us, plus
snorkelling
snorkerling
1 a ‘snorkel’ is a device to help us get air with our faces under water so that
we can observe the marine life
2 in a multisyllabled word we must use double ‘ll’ after the short vowel ‘e’
and than add -ing
soared
sawed
1 identify the baseword ‘soar’ and look up its meaning – to fly up high in
the air
2 link it to the origin from the Latin ‘aura’ meaning ‘air’ and digraph ‘oa’
and note how final ‘r’ alters the digraph’s pronunciation (-oar)
3 ‘soar’ also has homophones ‘sore’ meaning painful and ‘saw’ the past
tense of the verb ‘to see’ so needs a different spelling
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sometimes, something
some times, somthing, someting
1 these are compound words made up of two other words, e.g. some times, sometimes; some - thing, something
2 they need to keep their original spellings to preserve their pronunciations
and meanings
3 check for the clear articulation of the consonant digraph ‘- th -’ in ‘thing’
and teach the graphemes as a joined unit
soon
sone
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings (s - oo - n) and (sone)
2 note that ‘- oo -’ has a different sound and pattern (- VVC) from (O) in
sone, lone and phone in the silent ‘e’ patterned word (- VCe)
3 the vowel digraph ‘- oo -’ has a short or a long vowel sound, e.g. soon,
moon, room have the long sound and book, cook, look and took have
the short vowel digraph sound
sorts
soughts
1 identify the baseword ‘sort’ and its meaning – a variation or type of
2 its homophone ‘sought’ is the past tense of the verb ‘to seek’
3 not many words have the ‘-ought’ spelling for the sound (-ort)
4 learn them as a group: sought, ought, fought, brought, bought, thought
Southend
safen
1 Southend is a place name and must begin with a capital letter
2 it is a compound word derived from the words ‘south’ and ‘end’ depicting
where it was sited; the misspelling is how it is said in a London dialect
sown
sowen
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (sow - n)
2 find the word ‘own’ in ‘sown’ from the verb to sow (or scatter) seeds
3 teach the digraph sound of ‘-ow’ in which the ‘w’ modifies the ‘- o -’
sound
4 find some more words with the ‘ow’ digraph: sown, own, mow, low,
row, tow, bow
5 note the difference when ‘- ow -’ acts as a diphthong and makes the
(ahoo) sound, as in ‘how now brown cow’
sound
sownd
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (s - ou - nd)
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2 note the vowel sound is (ahoo); this is a diphthong – two vowels that
together make different sounds from their original ones
3 we use ‘- ou -’ in the middle of words to represent the (ahoo) sound and
as ‘-ow’ at the end of words for this sound, and ‘how now brown cow’
4 find the family of ‘- ou -’ words – sound, found, mound, round, hound,
ground, pound – and learn them as a group by trying to write them into
one or two sentences
spaghetti
spagetti, spegety
1 this is an Italian word and retains all its Italian spelling – it does not obey
English conventions
2 cue articulate and syllabify it for spelling (spag - het - ti)
Spain
Spian
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (Sp - ai - n) (Spi - an)
2 note the vowel digraph ‘- ai -’ in Spain
3 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ – Spain
4 find some more words with the ‘- ai -’ digraph, e.g. ‘the rain in Spain falls
mainly on the plain’
spaniel
spainel
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (span - i - el)
2 articulate and syllabify the incorrect spelling to show the differences
(spain - el)
3 spaniel is derived from the Spanish word Espanol meaning ‘Spanish’
spare
spaer
1 vowels in words followed by ‘r’ frequently change their sounds, as in this
word ‘spare’ (- air)
2 the word comes from the Old English word ‘sparian’, meaning to use
frugally
3 it can also mean left over as in spare parts
4 the digraph ‘-ar’ without silent ‘e’ has the short vowel sound modified by
‘- r -’, e.g. spar, bar, car; part, hart, tart
5 ‘-are’ with silent ‘e’ makes the long vowel sound modified by ‘- r -’
6 find some more words with this ‘-are’ long vowel ending: spare, pare,
mare, tare, ware, care, fare
7 they sometimes use this format because they have a homonym, e.g. wear,
pair, tear, fair
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spattered
spatted
1 identify the baseword ‘spatter’
2 when making the past tense of a regular verb we simply ADD the suffix
‘-ed’
3 find some more of these regular verbs: potter - ed, walked, called, lifted
speakers, speaking
speackers, speacing
1 identify the baseword ‘speak’
2 after a vowel digraph such as ‘ea’ we use ‘k’ on its own not ‘-ck’
3 find some more words that follow this rule: speak, seek, look, book,
weak, meek, creak, week, hook, cook, took
4 when adding vowel suffixes we simply ADD the suffix: speak - ing, speak
- ers; cooked, looked, booked; seeking , leaking, tweaking
special, specially, specialties
specal, spescel, specialy, specilltys
1 identify the baseword ‘special’
2 articulate and syllabify the baseword for spelling (spec - i - al)
3 ‘c’ has the (s) or soft sound when it is followed by ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’ as in spec
- ial, precious, species, celery, cell, circle, city, cycle
4 we simply ADD the suffixes ‘-ly’ and ‘-ty’ to the baseword: special-ly,
specialty
5 when making the word specialty into a plural teach the CHANGE rule
with final ‘-y’, e.g. we change ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add plural ‘-es’: special - t - ies,
penalties
species
spices
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (spe - cies) and (spi - ces)
2 the word ‘species’ is the plural of specie and ‘spices’ is the plural of the
word ‘spice’
speech
speach
1 the long vowel sound (- ee -) is made by the ‘ee’ digraph and is our first
choice for this sound: speech, leech, breech, speed, feed, seed
2 we use the ‘ee’ digraph in speech even though it is related to the word
speak
3 think of all the ‘ee’s in making a ‘clever speech’
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spend
spent
1 articulate the correct and incorrect words for spelling (spen - d) and
(spen - t)
2 teach the differences in the articulatory feel and sounds of the end blends
(- nd) and (- nt): I spend is the present tense and I spent is in the past
3 find some more words with these different end blends writing them as
joined units: spend, end, blend, tend, lend, fend; spent, lent, tent, rent
spirit
spiret
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (spi - rit)
2 use the family of words to remind you of the ‘- i -’ spelling: spirit, spiritual,
spirited
3 think of all the ‘- i -’s in the meaning of spirit: ‘the vital principle’
spoilt
spolit
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (sp - oil -t) and (spol - it)
2 note the ‘oi’ diphthong in ‘oil’ and ‘spoil’
3 a diphthong has a two vowel sound neither of which is like its originals,
e.g. ‘oi’ has the (- oy -) sound
4 find some more words with this diphthong: spoil, oil, toil, voil, soil
spoke
spook
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (sp - oke) and (sp - oo - k)
2 note the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) in ‘spoke’ – here the long vowel sound
is denoted by silent ‘e’ at the end: spoke, vote, hope, smoke
3 the digraph ‘- oo -’ has a long and a short vowel sound of its own, as in
spook, fool, moon, soon, food – the long sounds; and took, book, look,
hook – the short sounds
spooky
spokey
1 identify the basewords in these spellings, e.g. ‘spook’ and ‘spoke’
2 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (sp - oo - k) and (sp - oke)
3 note the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) in ‘spoke’: here the long vowel sound
is denoted by silent ‘e’ at the end – spoke, poke, vote, hope, smoke
4 the digraph ‘- oo -’ has a long and a short vowel sound of its own, as in
spook, fool, moon, soon, food the long sounds; in took, book, look,
hook there are the short sounds
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sprinkles
sprincles
1 identify the baseword ‘sprinkle’
2 in the middle of words we use ‘k’ after a consonant not ‘c’ to make the
(k) sound, e.g. sprinkle, bank, lank, tank, desk, link, duke, frisk, conker,
banker, monk
sprint
sprit
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (spr - int)
2 note the end blend’s feel and sound ‘-nt’ and write the graphemes as a
joined unit
3 find some more words with the ‘-nt’ blend: Kent, meant leant, rent,
went, sent, pint, lint, punt, want
spun
spon
1 practise the articulation and note the pattern of the short vowel ‘u’ and
‘o’ sounds
2 write five more words with the short vowel ‘u’ sound as a whole writing
unit: spun, nun, fun, hunt, rum
squashes
sqaushes
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 here the ‘qua-’ makes the sound (kwa-) in squash, quash
squeak
sqweek, sqeik
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 here the ‘quea-’ makes the sound (kwee-) in squ-ea-k and squeal
3 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’ as in digraph ‘ea’
4 you could try cue articulating the word for spelling (sque - ak)
squealed, squealing
sqauled, squeeled
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 here the ‘quea-’ makes the sound (kwee-) in squeal, squeal - ed, squeal
- ing
3 you could try cue articulating the word for spelling (sque - al)
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squeeze
sqeil
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 here the ‘quee-’ makes the sound (kwee-) with the long vowel ‘- ee -’ as
in squeeze
3 ‘- ee -’ is the first choice for the long vowel digraph (ee) sound in the
middle of words
squelching
swellching
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw -) sound
2 here the ‘quel-’ makes the short vowel sound (kwel) in squelch
3 there is no need to double the ‘l’ to hold in the short vowel because it has
the help of the consonant digraph ‘- ch’ – sque - lch
squirrel
squirel
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 here the ‘qui-’ makes the sound (kwi-) in squirrel and squib
3 because ‘i’ has the short vowel sound you must DOUBLE the following
consonant: squir - r - el
squirt
sqert
1 the ‘q’ in words must always be followed by the vowel ‘u’ so that together
they make the (kw-) sound
2 when a vowel is followed by the consonant ‘r’ it changes its usual sound
3 here the ‘quir-’ makes the sound (kwir-) in squirt and squirm
stabilised
stabalised
1 identify the baseword ‘stable’
2 use the family of words to help with this spelling: stable, stabile, stabilise
3 articulate the word carefully for spelling (stab - i - lise)
stadium
stadem
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sta - di - um)
2 note there are three syllables in this Latin word for an arena or racecourse
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stairs
stese
1 vowels followed by consonant ‘r’ will often change their regular sounds
2 the vowel digraph ‘ai’ normally makes the long (A) sound, as in pain and
train
3 when followed by ‘r’ it makes the (air) sound, as in stairs, pair, fair; think
of these as ‘air words’ when you hear the (air) sound
4 ‘stair’ already has two homophones ‘stare’ for when we gaze hard at
something and ‘stere’ which is a cubic metre from the Greek ‘sterios’ so
stairs need a different spelling
start, started, starters
stoart, stared, startes
1 identify the baseword ‘start’
2 articulate the word clearly for spelling (st - art)
3 simply ADD suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’, e.g. start - ed, start - ing, start - ers
stay, stayed, stays
stey, stade, sayed, stay, stad
1 identify the baseword ‘stay’ and note the initial blend ‘st-’
2 words ending in ‘-ay’ are common, e.g. stay, play, pray, dray, affray,
spray, lay, bray, tray, way
3 to preserve the original meaning we simply ADD suffixes to regular verbs
such as stay - ed, play - ed, pray - ed, spray - ed
4 there are three verbs in this group that follow the CHANGE rule –
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘-ed’, e.g. said, paid, laid
steeple
steepel
1 the most common spelling of the (-l) sound at the end of words is ‘-le’
so make it your first choice – steeple, feeble, people
2 Find five more words that have this ending: little, nettle, bubble, rabble,
griddle
steps
step
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (st - ep - s)
2 note the final plural ‘s’
stereo
sterio
1 ‘stereo’ comes from the Greek word ‘stereos’ meaning solid
2 other words using ‘stereo’ are stereoscope and stereotype
3 another Greek prefix is ‘tele’, as in television and telescope – use this to
remind you the word has an ‘- eo -’ not an ‘-io’ spelling
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stiff
stif
1 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule that after a short vowel sound in a single syllabled
word these three consonants must be DOUBLED: stiff, off, puff
2 find five examples for each of these consonants: all, well, full, till, sell;
cuff, puff, tiff, stiff, boff; puss, miss, mass, mess, less
3 now note the very few exceptions to the rule: if; nil, pal; yes, bus, thus,
us, plus, gas, this
4 ‘of’ has the (ov) not the (off) sound and is, his, as, has, was the (Z) not
the (ss) sound
5 in all other cases a single ‘s’ at the end of a word denotes the plural: cats,
dogs
stick
stike
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (st - ick)
2 note the short vowel (- i -) in this single closed syllable
3 we must use ‘-ck’ at the end of one syllabled words for the (K) sound
4 find five more words that follow this pattern: stick, block, tack, peck,
pick, suck
5 in the misspelling ‘stike’ note the long vowel denoted by the silent ‘-e’
pattern (- VCe)
6 find five more words which have the long vowel silent ‘- e’ pattern: mike,
rake, make, rope, line, fine, phone, tune
stilettos
stillettos
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (stil - et - tos)
2 the word comes from the Italian word ‘stilo’ meaning a dagger
3 we do not need to follow the doubling rule in multisyllabled words
4 the ‘-etto’ ending is the diminutive form in Italian words; here it means
a narrow-bladed knife with a sharp point
5 collect some more words with this ending and look up their meanings
– polpetto
stopped
stoped
1 identify the baseword ‘stop’
2 when suffixing single closed syllables we must DOUBLE the final
consonant – ‘stop - p - ed’, stopper, stopping to keep the short vowel
pattern, e.g. CVC + CVC
3 find five more examples of this suffixing rule – hopped, capped, tipped,
cupped, dipped, ripped, sipped
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stored
stod
1 identify the baseword ‘store’ and pronounce it with a Scottish long vowel
‘o’
2 note the long vowel pattern in this single syllable denoted by silent ‘e’
(- VCe)
3 when suffixing words with the silent ‘e’ ending teach the DROP rule,
e.g. when suffixing past tense ending ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’ we must drop the
silent ‘e’ and attach the ‘-ed’: stor - ed, stor - ing
4 apply this rule to three more words: snore, snoring; hope, hoping; rave,
raving
stories
storys, storry
1 identify the baseword ‘story’
2 when making plurals of words with the ‘-y’ ending teach the CHANGE
rule
3 we must change ‘-y’ to ‘- i -’ and attach ‘-es’: stor - i - es, babies
4 apply this rule to three more words that end in ‘-y’: mystery, bakery,
mummy, daddy, nanny, puppy
straight
strat, sraight, srate, strait, staight
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (str - ai - ght)
2 teach the trigraph blend ‘str-’ and find three more words that use it:
strong, strike, stray
3 note the long vowel sound in this closed syllable is made by the ‘- ai -’
digraph
4 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says it own name’ – straight, pain, train, Spain,
mail, maid
5 the word comes from the Old English ‘streht’ and probably Caxton the
first printer added the Flemish ‘g’ to this spelling str - ai - ght
strange, strangers
strang, stranges, stange
1 articulate the baseword clearly for spelling (str - ange)
2 check the pupil can articulate the three letter blend correctly
3 after the three letter blend the trigraph ‘str-’ note the long vowel (A)
sound
4 teach the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’, e.g. (- VCe) in str –
ange; here the ‘ -ng’ make one consonant sound and count as one letter
– write them as a joined unit
5 the silent ‘e’ at the end of the word also makes the ‘-g’ have its ‘soft’
sound, as in strange, range, hinge, lunge
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6 an ‘-er’ at the end of a word is usually a suffix and has the meaning ‘the
one who’ or ‘that which’
7 the one who is strange is a ‘stranger’ and the silent ‘e’ has been dropped
to take ‘- er’ and the plural is strangers
strawberry
steroby
1 this is a compound word for the soft fruit made from ‘straw’ and ‘berry’
2 the name may come from the chaff – like appearance before the soft part
of the fruit swells up, we also put straw under the fruits to protect them
3 teach the trigraph blend ‘str-’ and write it as a joined unit in straw, strike,
string, strange, stroke
4 the ‘berry’ is a common part of fruit words and to keep the vowel short
we need to DOUBLE the consonant ‘r’ before attaching the final ‘y’:
ber - r - y, merry, perry, Terry, wherry
stressful
stressfull
1 teach the ‘all, well, full till’ rule
2 when these words are added to another word they DROP the final ‘l’
because they are no longer one-syllabled words: ‘stress’ and ‘full’ becomes
‘stressful’
3 all + ways gives al-ways; all + together, altogether; well + come, welcome;
help + full, helpful; un + till, until; full + fill, fulfil
strike
stirke
1 articulate both the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value
of proofreading (str - ike) and ( stir - ke)
2 teach the trigraph blend ‘str-’ and write it as a joined unit in the following
words: strike, strong, stroke, stray, strange
3 note the long vowel sound and pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- CVe)
4 find five more words with this long vowel pattern: strike, mike, hike,
poke, lake, make, bloke, take
string
sting
1 articulate both the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value
of proofreading (str - ing) and (st - ing)
2 look up the different meanings of ‘string’ and ‘sting’
3 teach the trigraph blend ‘str-’ and write it as a joined unit in the following
words: string, strike, strong, stroke, stray, strange
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stroke, stroking
stoke, stroaking, strok
1 articulate both the correct and the incorrect spellings to show the value
of proofreading (str - oke) and (st - oke) and look up their different
meanings
2 teach the trigraph blend ‘str-’ and write it as a joined unit in the following
words: stroke, strong, strike, stray, strange
3 note the long vowel sound and pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- CVe)
4 the silent ‘e’ pattern for the long vowel sound is our first choice for the
long vowel sound before our second choice vowel digraph ‘- oa -’
5 find five more word with the silent ‘e’ pattern: stroke, strike, strake,
stripe, stride
6 when suffixing a silent ‘e’ patterned word teach the DROP rule that we
must DROP the silent ‘e’ to attach a suffix such as ‘-ing’ or ‘-ed’, as in
strok - ing, strok - ed
7 suffix these words: strike, stripe
studying
studing
1 identify the baseword ‘study’
2 the word comes from the Latin studere, studens with the long vowel ‘u’
sounds
3 cue articulating our word (stu - dy) like its family word ‘student’ may
help when suffixing ‘-ing’ to this baseword we simply ADD, e.g. study +
ing = studying; this preserves the sense
4 the incorrect spelling has a different structure telling us to pronounce it
as the long vowel (U) as in (st - U - ding)
5 when suffixing words with final ‘y’ to make plurals we must CHANGE
the final ‘y’ to ‘i’ and attach ‘-es’: stud - i - es, ponies, daddies, mummies
stunning
stuning
1 identify the baseword ‘stun’
2 when suffixing single closed syllables we must DOUBLE the final
consonant: ‘stun - n - ed’, stunner, stunning, stunned
3 find five more examples of this suffixing rule: hop, cap, tip, run, rip, sip
stupid
stuped, stopid
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (stu - pid)
2 use the family to help remember the ‘-id’ ending: stupidity, stupidness,
stupidly from the Latin ‘stupidus’
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substitutes, subbed
subtitute, subed
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sub - sti - tute)
2 the short version of substituted in sport is ‘subbed’
3 after a short vowel sound in a single closed syllable we must DOUBLE
the final consonant before attaching suffixes, e.g. sub - b - ed, sub - b -ing
to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC
4 suffix these two words – rob, hop – using the rule
suddenly
suddly, sudley
1 identify the baseword ‘sudden’
2 in two-syllabled words after a short vowel sound we must have two
consonants to preserve the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC or
(- VCCV -): sudden, happen, rabbit or master, backer, hacker
3 ‘-ly’ is an adverbial suffix showing how something occurs: sudden - ly,
slowly, quickly
4 because ‘-ly’ already has the sound (- lee) we do not need to add an extra
‘e’, as in ‘-ley’
suffocate
suffucate
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (suff - o - cate)
suit, suitcases
suite, sotcases
1 the ‘ui’ spelling for the long vowel ‘oo’ sound is rare
2 you can cue articulate to help, e.g. (s - yoot)
3 articulate the correct and incorrect words to show the value of
proofreading (sweet) and (sot - cases)
4 the silent ‘e’ at the end of single syllabled words tells us to make the long
vowel sound in ‘suite’ (sweet), hope, type, escape
summer
sumer
1 in two-syllabled words after a short vowel sound we must have two
consonants; here we DOUBLE the consonant (- VCCV -) sum - m - er
to keep the short vowel pattern and sound CVC + CVC
2 find three more words that obey this rule: rabbit, winner, banner, ‘Hobbit
words’
sunbathing
sunbaving
1 identify the basewords in this compound word: ‘sun’ and ‘bathe’
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2 teach the articulatory feel, sound differences and graphemes for consonant
‘- v -’ and consonant digraph ‘- th -’ – both voiced and unvoiced in ‘bave’
and ‘bathe’ and in ‘bath’ and ‘bathe’
3 we must DROP silent ‘e’ before attaching vowel suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’
support
surrport, suports
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sup - port)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable and teach the short vowel
rule that after a short vowel in a two-syllabled word there must be TWO
consonants to keep the short sound (su - p - port) and pattern CVC +
CVC (- CVVC -): rabbit, Hobbit and banker, captain
3 the word comes from the Latin ‘sub’ meaning up and ‘portare’ meaning
to bear. The sub - port, in speech and then spelling becomes assimilated
to sup - port.
suppose
sposse, surpose
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sup - pose)
2 note the short vowel sound in the first syllable
3 teach the short vowel rule, that after a short vowel in a two-syllabled
word we must have TWO consonants so here we must double the
consonant – su - p - pose, compose, dispose to keep the short vowel
pattern CVC + CVC (- VCCV -)
4 the word is derived from the Latin prefix ‘sub-’ and the French word
‘poser’. In speech and then in spelling over time sub - pose becomes
assimilated to suppose
5 in the second syllable note the long vowel sound denoted by the silent ‘e’
pattern (- VCe)
6 the ‘posse’ with double ‘ss’ makes a different sound (poss - e) in possible
as opposed to ‘pose’ with a single ‘s’ (poze)
surname
surename
1 identify the words in this compound word: ‘sur’ and ‘name’
2 they both originate from the Latin word ‘super’ via the French ‘sur’,
meaning over or above, and the Latin ‘nomen’ (a name) and the French
‘surnom’, anglicised to ‘surname’
3 the spelling ‘sure’ gives us an entirely different meaning and pronunciation
(shoor) and has the long vowel silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe)
swapped
swaped
1 note the short vowel sound in the baseword ‘swap’
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2 after a short vowel sound in a single-syllabled word teach the DOUBLING
rule for suffixing to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC (- CVVC -),
e.g. ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’: ‘swap- p - ed’, swapping, hopped, clipped, tapped
surprisingly
surprizingly
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (sur - pris - ing - ly)
2 the (- z -) between two vowels is usually made by the letter ‘s’ except in
American spelling: surprise, excise, revise, rose, miser, adviser
swimming
swiming
1 note the short vowel sound in the baseword ‘swim’
2 after a short vowel sound in a single-syllabled word teach the DOUBLING
rule for suffixing – we must DOUBLE the final consonant after a short
vowel to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC (- CVVC -) when
attaching a suffix such as ‘-ing’: ‘swim - m - ing’, hopping, clipping,
tapping, running
switched
swiched, swich
1 overarticulate this word for spelling (swit - ch)
2 at the end of one-syllabled words straight after a short vowel sound we
must use ‘-tch’ to spell the (ch) sound: swi - tch, witch, catch, match,
blotch, fetch, hutch, fitch, bitch, kitch
3 in words of more than one syllable it is used to protect the short vowel
sound: stretcher, catcher, kitchen, satchel, hatchet
4 you will need to learn the exceptions by making up two sentences that
include them: rich, which, much, such, attach, detach, bachelor, duchess,
ostrich, sandwich
tackled
takled
1 identify the baseword ‘tack’ and ‘tack - le’
2 note the short vowel sound (- a -) in tack
3 we must use ‘-ck’ after the short vowel sound in one-syllabled words
4 find some more words that have ‘-ck’ at the end: tack, back, lack, peck,
pick, tick, lock, sock, luck, muck
tail
tale
1 ‘tail’ and ‘tale’ are homophones
2 a tail is the thin prolongation of the end of a body, the hindmost part of
something; think of thin and hind most and remember the ‘i’ in tail
helping make the long vowel digraph ‘ai’ (- VVC)
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3 ‘tale’ with the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) is a story told by a storyteller
4 find some more words with the silent ‘e’ pattern: tale, pale, sale, whale
take, taking, taken
tack, taek, takeing, taking
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (t - ake)
2 note the long vowel pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in take, lake,
make
3 the ‘ae’ digraph is rarely used for the long (A) sound
4 teach the DROP rule: when suffixing after the long vowel we must drop
the silent ‘e before attaching the suffix, e.g. tak - ing, tak - en
5 if there are two consonants after a vowel in a single-syllabled word then
the vowel has the short sound (- VCC), e.g. tack, lack, back, bank, tank
talent
talant
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (tal - ent)
2 the word comes from the Latin ‘talentum’
3 remember you cannot be lent a talent – it is a ‘gift’
talk
talke
1 the word comes from the Middle English word ‘talken’, perhaps once
pronounced (tal - ken)
2 when ‘a’ is followed by ‘l’ plus another consonant it has the sound (or),
as in walk, talk, all, wall, bald, almost, tall, wall, pall, hall and (ar), as in
calf and half
3 there are a few exceptions: alp, scalp, palp, talc (talcum), shall
4 a silent e’ is not needed at the end of ‘talk’ because it does not have the
long vowel ‘a’ sound in it
5 two consonants at the end of a single syllable tell us it has the short vowel
sound, as in, bank, tank, thank, sink, pink, sword, bird, third
tall
taill
1 when ‘a’ is followed by ‘l’ plus another consonant it has the sound (or),
as in all, wall, tall, hall, pall, fall, walk, talk, bald, almost and (ar) as in calf
and half
2 there are a few exceptions: alp, scalp, palp, talc (talcum), shall
3 the vowel digraph (- ai -) has the long (A) sound and the syllable pattern
would be (- VVC) as in tail, pail, fail, maid, raid, paid
tamed
tammed
1 identify the baseword ‘tame’
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2 note the long vowel ‘e’ pattern denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in tame,
fame, lame, name
3 when suffixing silent ‘e’ words teach that we must DROP the silent ‘e’
before attaching the suffix: tam - ed, famed, named, taming, naming
4 articulate the misspelled word and note it has the short vowel pattern
‘tam - m - ed’ and we DOUBLE the final consonant before suffixing: run
- n - ing, runned, hopped
tank
tance
1 in a single-syllabled word use ‘k’ after a consonant, as in tank, bank, desk,
link, milk, silk, lark
2 the misspelling ‘tance’ would be pronounced like ‘dance’, instance
3 the ‘e’ after the ‘c’ makes it say its ‘soft’ sound
tattered
tatord
1 identify the baseword ‘tatter’
2 after the short vowel sound in a two-syllabled word we must have two
consonants or double the single one: tatter, patter, batter, hatter; poster,
master
3 at the end of these words we simply ADD the suffix ‘-ed’ to make the
past tense: tatter - ed, pattered, fostered, mastered
taught
teched
1 identify the baseword ‘teach’
2 note the long vowel ‘ea’ sound as in tea, teach, lea, pea
3 the past tense of the verb to teach is ‘taught’; only in regular verbs it is
made by ADDING ‘-ed’: reached, impeached, leaped, reaped, neaped
4 there are only nine words that use the ‘-aught’ spelling for the (-ort) ending
5 try to remember them by making up two sentences in which all of them
are used: taught, fraught, caught, naughty, haughty, daughter, aught
and naught
team, teammates
teum, tiems, teamates
1 articulate the baseword clearly for spelling (t - ea - m)
2 note the long vowel (E) sound denoted by the vowel digraph ‘ea’
3 teach the two vowel rule: ‘when two vowels go walking the first one does
the talking and usually says its own name’, as in tea, team, ream, dream,
tease, fleas
4 when making a compound word we just put the two words together
– team-mates
5 the misspelling has a very different meaning as ‘tea - mates’
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Teddies
teddys, teddys’
1 identify the baseword ‘teddy’
2 the ‘ee’ sound at the end of words is made by the final ‘y’, as in teddy,
mummy, daddy, nanny, funny
3 when making plurals teach the CHANGE rule – we must change final ‘y’
to ‘i’ before attaching the ‘-es’ plural ending: teddies, mummies, daddies,
nannies, funnies
teenager
tennager
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the baseword for spelling (teen - age); note
the long vowel sound denoted by digraph ‘ee’ in the first syllable
2 articulate and syllabify the misspelling to show the value of proofreading
(ten - nage), the first syllable has the short vowel sound
3 the ‘-er’ suffix means ‘the one who’ or ‘that which’, as in teenager, manager
4 the silent ‘e’ in the second syllable must be DROPPED before attaching
‘-er’
television
teleavishon
1 identify the words in this compound word: ‘tele’ and ‘vision’
2 tele is a Greek prefix meaning ‘far’ or ‘at a distance’
3 there is only one spelling of the (-zhun) sound in words and that is
‘-sion’, as in tele - vi - sion, erosion, explosion, conclusion, provision,
seclusion
4 note that in each case the ‘-sion’ follows a vowel
tentacles
tentickals
1 articulate and syllabify the word for spelling (tent - ac - le)
2 to make the (kl) sound at the end of words we use ‘-cle’ at the end of
words of three or more syllables: tentacle, barnacle, pinnacle, chronicle,
manacle, cubicle
3 ‘-cle’ is also a noun ending: circle, uncle, vehicle, article, cycle, treacle
term
team
1 articulate the correct and the incorrect spellings (ter - m) and (tea - m)
2 find some more words with the ‘-er’ sound: term, perm, stern, tern
terrible, terrorists
tereable, terarists
1 identify the baseword ‘terror’ and note the short vowel sound in the first
syllable
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2 teach that after a short vowel sound in a two-syllabled word there must be
TWO consonants to preserve the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC
( - CVVC -) so we double the ‘r’ in terror, mirror, marrow, farrow, harrow
3 we use stable final syllable ‘-ible’ after words that would be incomplete
without it, e.g. terr - ible, incredible, horrible, possible
4 we use ‘-able’ after a whole word: read - able, washable, affordable,
comfortable
5 ‘-ist’ is a Greek suffix that forms nouns and means ‘the one skilled in’ or
‘one who believes in’: terror - ist, dentist, typist, pacifist
terrier
tairer, terria
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (terr - i - er)
2 after the short vowel sound in the first syllable we must have TWO
consonants so we double ‘r’ to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC
(- VCCV -)
3 the suffix ‘-er’ is the most common spelling for the (ur / er) sound at the
end of words: terrier, hammer, paper, starter, water, winter, summer,
sister, brother, mother
than
then
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spelling to show the differences
between short vowel (a) and short vowel (e) in ‘than’ and ‘then’
2 find some more words with these short vowel patterns: than, an, ant, pan,
ran; then, fen, ten, men, when
that, that’s
thit, the, that, tiat
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (th - at)
2 find five more words with the short vowel ‘a’ sound: that, fat, mat, ran,
pan, can
3 we use an apostrophe to show there is a missing letter when we shorten
words, e.g. ‘that is’ becomes ‘that’s’
the
there, th, thee
1 teach the definite article ‘the’ as a single syllable and fully joined writing
unit
2 articulate the different sounds of (th-) (the) (th - ers) (th - ee); (th - ick)
(thin)
3 note the long vowel pattern denoted by the silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in ‘there’
4 remember that ‘there’ refers to a place over there
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their
there, thire, theree
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (th - eir)
2 note that the meaning of the word applies to ‘hers and his’ property so
you must put ‘e’ and ‘i’ in to remember them in ‘their’ and ‘theirs’
them
the, theme, theam
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (th - em)
2 note the short vowel ‘e’ sound followed by ‘m’ in (-em)
3 find five more words that use the (-em) sound: them, member, remember,
semtex, nemesis
then
the
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (th - en)
2 note the short vowel ‘e’ sound followed by ‘n’ in (- en)
3 find five more words that use the (- en -) sound: then, ten, men, when,
rent, tent, sentence, fen, wren, brethren
there, there’s
ther, there, the’s, their, three
1 articulate the different sounds of (the) (th - er) (th - ere) (thr - ee)
2 note the long vowel pattern denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) in
‘there’
3 remember that ‘there’ refers to a place over there
4 the homophone ‘their’ refers to hers and his property so we use ‘e’ and
‘i’ in the spelling to remind us of them: ‘th - ei - r’
5 when shortening a word such as ‘there is’ to ‘there’s’ we use an apostrophe
to show there is a letter missing: there’s
these
theys, theese
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (th - ese)
2 note the long vowel pattern and sound denoted by silent ‘e’ (- VCe) in
‘th - ese’ so there is no need to use ‘ee’ as well
3 articulate the word (they) to show the difference in sound and feel from
(these)
they, they’re, they’ve
the, thay, there, ther, thier, therf
1 the use of ‘-ey’ to make the long vowel (A) sound is only found in a few
words
2 learn these common words as a group by trying to bind them into one
sentence – they, grey, prey, whey, obey, convey
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3 when we shorten a word such as in ‘they are’ it becomes they’re – the
apostrophe shows there is a letter missing
4 and ‘they have’ becomes ‘they’ve’
things
thengs, thigs
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (th - ings) (th - engs) (th - igs)
2 note the short vowel (i) in the ‘-ing’ ending found in many words
3 note especially the sound produced by consonants ‘-ng’ when put
together
4 hold your nose then try to say ‘-ing’; the ‘n’ nasalifies the preceding
vowel so if you hold your nose you cannot say it – th-ing, sing, ring, song
thong, hang, rang, fang, pang, wing, rung, dung
thirsty
thirstly
1 identify the baseword ‘thirst’ and articulate clearly for spelling (th - irst)
and (thir - st - ee)
2 we often give the final ‘-y’ an (ee) sound: thirst - y, mummy, puppy,
nanny
those
thoughs
1 identify the meaning of the words ‘those’ and ‘though’, e.g. we use those
books, those boys when we point them out
2 ‘those’ is the plural of ‘that’; remember this family of words, ‘this and
that, these and those’, to help with spelling
3 note the long vowel sound of (O) denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe)
though
thow
1 ‘though’ is a conjunction meaning ‘even if’ or ‘nevertheless’ – link it to
‘although’
2 it is from an Old English word ‘thauh’ to which Caxton the fifteenthcentury printer probably added a Flemish ‘g’
3 ‘ough’ is only used in the middle of a few words for the sound of (O) – learn
them as a group and write the ‘ough’ as a joined writing unit – th - ough,
although, dough
4 ‘ough’ is used to make other sounds in Old English words: cough (-off)
and plough (-ow) – their friendship groups should be learned separately
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thought
though, thort, thourght
1 there are only six words that use ‘-ought’ to spell the (- ort) sound at the
end of words
2 learn these words as group by trying to connect them all into one sentence
– ought, brought, sought, fought, bought, thought
3 all this group are based on Old English words such as ‘thoht’ for thought
to which the Flemish ‘g’ was probably added by the fifteenth-century
printer Caxton and ‘ou’ to make the sound (o)
throw
trow, through, thew, thaur
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (thr - ow) is from the verb ‘to
throw’ and its past tense is (thr - ew)
2 check that the digraph blend (th/r -) is fully articulated and teach the
graphemes as a joined writing unit
3 look up the meaning and note it is to twist and turn and to hurl; use twist
to remind you of the ‘-ow’ ending
4 we use (- ow) as a vowel digraph at the end of one-syllabled words, such
as in thr - ow, tow, mow, low, row, bowl, mown
5 ‘- ow’ is also used as a diphthong making an (ah - oo) sound in these
words: ‘how, now, brown, cow’
6 the diphthong (-ow) is also used before the consonants ‘-l’, ‘-n’, ‘-el’ and
‘-er’, as in owl, prowl, howl; brown, town, crown; flower, shower, tower;
towel, trowel
through
threw, throu, throuw
1 ‘through’ is a preposition meaning from side to side or from end to end,
as in ‘all through the night’ and ‘a through bolt’ that goes from one side
of a ship’s timber to the other
2 it comes from the Old English word ‘thurh’, to which Caxton the
fifteenth-century printer probably added the Flemish ‘g’
3 the early clerical scholars and printers used a variety of spellings to
represent the sounds made in those days and these became regularised
over time
4 thr - ough is about the only word I can think of that uses ‘-ough’ to make
the long vowel (- oo -) sound. Let me know if you can find another
Thursday
Tursday
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (Thurs - day)
2 teach the consonant digraph (- th -) both voiced and unvoiced versions
and its graphemes as joined writing units
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3 the word is said to come from the Old Norse god called ‘Thor’ – Thor’s
day
4 however, in Old English the fifth day of the week was also sacred to the
thunder god Thunor and was called ‘Thunres daeg’ (Thuner’s day), now
shortened to Thursday
Tibetan
Tabettan
1 identify the baseword, the country of Tibet (Ti - bet)
2 when we hear the final (- n) in words we use the spelling ‘-an’ if it is a
person or nationality, e.g. Tibet - an, Persian, Russian, American; artisan,
magician, paediatrician, electrician
3 everywhere else we use ‘-en’, as in blacken, lighten, hasten
4 collect some more nationalities with the ‘-an’ ending
ticket
ticit
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (tick - et)
2 after a short vowel sound in a multisyllabled word we must use ‘- ck -’ to
preserve the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC (- VCCV -): tick -et, picket,
wicket, pocket, rocket, packet, racket, socket
3 note that all these words take the ‘-et’ ending
tickle
tickal
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (tick - le)
2 the most common form of the (- l ) sound at the end of multisyllabled
words is ‘- le’: tick - le, little, bubble, nettle, fettle rattle, saddle, rifle,
angle, bugle
3 the ‘-al’ ending is used for adjectives, as in local, central, papal, regal,
total
tidied
tidyed
1 identify the baseword ‘tidy’
2 teach the ADD rule for attaching ‘-ing’ suffixes to words ending in ‘-y’,
e.g. tid - y - ing, steady - ing, ready – ing; keeping the ‘y’ preserves the
meaning of the original word and because we do not use (- ii -) in words
following the change rule
3 teach the CHANGE rule for attaching suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-es’ – we must
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before suffixing them, e.g. tid - i - es, tid - i - ed; pity,
pitied
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tilts
tillts
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (t - ilt) (t - ilts)
2 note the end blend’s articulatory feel and sound (-lt) and teach the
graphemes as a joined writing unit
3 find some more words with this end blend tilt, silt, pelt, felt, welt, malt,
salt, poult, fault
4 we do not have to double the consonant ‘l’ because with ‘-lt’ there are
already two consonants to close in the short vowel
tired, tiring
tied, tyering
1 identify the baseword ‘tire’ meaning to become fatigued or weary
2 note the long vowel sound and pattern (- VCe) denoted by silent ‘e’
3 when attaching suffixes to silent ‘e’ words teach the DROP rule – we
must drop silent ‘e’ before attaching suffixes ‘-ing’, ‘-es’, ‘-ed’, tir - ing,
tir - ed, tir - es
4 find some more silent ‘e’ word to suffix – wire, wired, wiring; fade, faded,
fades, fading; shade…
to
too, two
1 the words to, too, two are homophones so it is important to learn their
meaning and be able to use them in context
2 ‘to’ is a preposition serving a verb, such as to go, to see, to fight, to eat
(verb infinitives)
3 it also means ‘in the direction of’, as in I am going to London
4 use the words ‘to and fro’ to remind you
5 the word ‘too’ means ‘as well as’ or ‘also’, for example ‘Are you coming
too?’
6 the word ‘two’ refers to the number ‘2’, as in two books, two people;
think of its partners two, twice, twain
together
togeter, togeter
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling and syllabify (to - geth - er)
2 teach the sound and articulatory feel of the voiced consonant digraph (th -) and its graphemes as a joined writing unit
3 find some more words with this voiced ‘- th -’ digraph: the, these, those;
either, together, gather, whither, father, mother, brother
tomatoes
tomatos
1 words ending in ‘o’ after a consonant add ‘-es’ to make plurals: potato - es,
tomato - es, echoes, heroes, cargoes, torpedoes
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2 words ending in ‘o’ after a vowel add ‘-s’ to make plurals: radio - s,
patios, rodeos, kangaroos
3 the exceptions are either words of Italian origin especially musical terms:
pianos, sopranos, contraltos; or Spanish origin burros, ponchos
tomorrow
tomorro, tommorow
1 this is a compound word made from ‘to’ and ‘morrow’, meaning on the
morrow or next day
2 ‘to-’ has the long vowel sound and the next consonant is not doubled
but ‘r’ does follow a short vowel so must be DOUBLED to keep the
short vowel pattern (- VCCV -)
3 mor - r - ow, follow, fellow, barrow, mellow, tallow
4 we use the digraph ‘-ow’ at the end of words for the (-ow) sound, as in
row, tow, mow, follow, tomorrow
ton
tun
1 you will have to cue articulate ‘ton’ with the short vowel (- o -) to correct
this spelling and think of motor bikes doing ‘a ton’
2 an English ‘long ton’ is 2240 lbs, an American ‘short’ ton is 2000 lbs and
a metric ton or tonne is 1000 kilograms or 2204.6 lbs, a ship’s cargo
weight is in tons or tonnage
3 the word is related to the Old English word ‘tunne’ or tun that is a cask
or tub for holding 216 gallons of ale or 252 gallons of wine
tongue
tonge, tounge
1 you will need to cue articulate this word for spelling with short vowel ‘o’
as in (tong); in some Northern dialects the ‘-gue’ is also clearly heard
(ton - gue)
2 the word is from the Old English ‘tunge’ and Old Norse ‘tunga’ and
related to the Latin words ‘lingua’ and ‘dingua’
3 the modern words ‘linguistics’ and ‘language’ will remind you of the
spelling of tongue
4 the silent ‘u’ after the ‘g’ makes it use its hard sound in language and
tongue
too
to, two
1 see the entry for ‘to’ above
torpedo
torpeado
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (tor - pe - do)
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2 note the long vowel sound in the open second syllable ‘pe-’; open
syllables in multisyllabled words do not need the vowel digraph ‘- ea -’
3 remember that one vowel at the end of an open syllable is long: tor - pe
- do, he, she, flu, go, ba - con, o - pen
town
towen
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings to show the value of
proofreading (t - ow - n) and (tow - en)
2 note the diphthong sound (ah - oo) in the middle of the word
3 we use ‘-ow’ at the end of words and before final ‘l’, ‘n’, ‘-el’ and ‘-er’, as
in ‘how now brown cow’ and owl, prowl, howl; town, clown, brown,
crown; tower, shower, flower; towel, bowel
touch, touched
totch, toached
1 the pronunciation of this word is (tuch)
2 to remember ‘- ou -’ makes this sound you can cue articulate the word
like (ouch!) (t - ouch)
3 the French word is ‘toucher’
4 we only use ‘-tch’ after a single short vowel in certain words such as
witch, titch, ditch, fitch, crutch but not in the exception group such as
rich and which
tournament
tounant, tornaments, tournement, tornumants
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (tour - na - ment)
2 a ‘tournament’ was originally a mediaeval military combat usually on
horses; we probably borrowed the word from the French
track
tarck
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (tr - ack)
2 teach the initial blend ‘tr-’ and its graphemes as a whole writing unit
3 find five more words with this initial blend: track, trip, try, train, treat,
trial
trailer
traler
1 articulate the correct and incorrect spellings and syllabify the word for
spelling (trail - er) and (tral - er) with the short vowel sound
2 the ‘-er’ is a common stable ending meaning ‘that which’ or ‘the one
who’, as in trailer – that which trails; teacher, baker, folder, learner
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3 the word ‘trail’ follows the rule that in one-syllabled words we use ‘ai’ to
denote the long vowel (A) sound, as in trail, train, main, strain, maid,
raid, bait – except for homophones: tail – tale; maid – made
trampolining, trampolines
tramolpining, trampoleins
1 identify the baseword ‘trampoline’ and syllabify (tramp - o - line) for
spelling
2 syllabify the incorrect spellings to show the value of proofreading (tram
- ol - pin - ing) and (tramp - o - leins)
3 try we ‘tramp on lines’ to help with this spelling
travel, travelling
travil, traval, traveling
1 identify the baseword ‘travel’ and note the syllables (trav - el)
2 the final ‘l’ sound in words is ‘-el’ when the letter before the (l) sound has
no ‘stick’ or ‘tail’, e.g. trav - el, novel, tunnel, barrel, towel, camel
3 when attaching suffixes to words ending in ‘-el’ we must DOUBLE the
final ‘-l’ first to keep the short vowel pattern ( - VCCV -) travel - l - ing,
travel - l - ed, novello, barrelling, towelling, towelled, tunnelling,
tunnelled
trees
treys
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (tr - ee - s)
2 note the long vowel (- ee -) sound in ‘tr - ee’ and the (- ey) sound in trey
as in grey
3 find some more words with the long vowel ‘ee’ patterns at the end of
words (- VV), e.g. tree, free, see, knee, agree, degree, committee; and in
the middle of words greed, freed, seed, weed
4 there are just a few exceptions to remember: me, he, she, we, be and
open syllables in words, e.g. ba - con, o - pen, equal, between, retail
triathlon
trelathlone
1 articulate clearly and syllabify the word for spelling (tri - ath - lon)
2 ‘tri-’ means three sports are entered in this competition; find some more
‘tri-’ words, e. g triathlon, triangle, tripod, triptitch, tricycle
tries, tried
trieus, trys, tryed, try
1 identify the baseword ‘try’
2 teach the CHANGE rule for attaching suffixes to verbs ending in ‘-y’ –
we must change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘-es’ or ‘-ed, e.g. tr - i - es, tri - ed;
spy, spied, spies; cry, cries, cried
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3 when attaching the ‘-ing’ suffix we must keep the final ‘y’ to preserve the
sense of the word and because English does not put (- ii -) in words, e.g.
not triing but try - ing, crying, spying
4 the rules change a bit when there are homophones – look up die and dye
trips, tripped
tripes, triped
1 articulate the baseword clearly for spelling (tr - ip)
2 note the short vowel sound and pattern (- VC) in trip
3 when attaching suffixes to single-syllabled words with the short vowel
pattern (-VC) teach the DOUBLING rule – we must double the final
consonant to keep the short vowel pattern CVC + CVC (- VCCV -)
before attaching the suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’, e.g. trip - p - ed, trip - p
- ing
4 when attaching plural ‘s’ it is only necessary to ADD it to the baseword,
e.g. trips, cats, dogs, blogs, fogs
5 articulate the incorrect spelling to show the value of proofreading (tripe
- s) and (tripe - d); these have the long vowel sound and pattern with
silent ‘e’ (- VCe)
trouble, troubles
troble, troulble, trobles
1 articulate this word and syllabify it for spelling (trou - ble) (truh - bl)
2 it is unusual for the digraph ‘ou’ to be used for the short vowel ‘u’ or
(uh) sound, trouble, touch – usually the first vowel ‘does the talking’
3 use the French verb and pronunciation to help with this spelling ‘troubler’
Tuesday
Tusday
1 Tues - day is the third day of the week; note the long vowel sound of (U)
denoted by the digraph ‘- ue -’, as in Tues, cue, rue, tissue, rescue
2 the misspelling has a different sound (Tus - day) with a short vowel sound
3 this word comes from the Old English ‘Tiwes daeg’. Tiw was the god of
war
turbo
tbo
1 articulate the word clearly and syllabify for spelling (tur - bo)
2 teach that every syllable in English words must have a vowel
3 the ‘-ur’ spelling is common in the middle of one-syllabled word for the
(- er -) sound, e.g. tur- bo, curl, purse, turn, burn, curse, curve
4 ‘- er’ is very common at the end of words, e.g. learner, teacher, paper,
cover, over
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turf
terf
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (tur - f)
2 the ‘-ur’ spelling is common in the middle of one-syllabled words for the
(- er -) sound, e.g. tur - f, curl, purse, turn, burn, curse, curve, turbo
3 ‘-er’ is most common at the end of words, e.g. learner, teacher, paper,
cover, over
4 ‘-ur’ is part of the baseword while ‘-er’ is a suffix meaning ‘the one who’
or ‘that which’
turned
turn
1 articulate the baseword clearly for spelling (t - ur - n)
2 find the word ‘urn’ in turn
3 when attaching suffixes to the baseword ending in two consonants teach
the ADD rule: turn - ed, turn - ing, burned, prodded, parked, parking
twist
twis
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (tw - i - st) and note the short
vowel ‘- i -’ sound in ‘twist’
2 after the short vowel sound note the sound and feel of the final consonant
blend (- st ) and practise its clear articulation
3 teach ‘-st’ as a joined writing unit and find five more words that use it:
twi-st, fist, mist, must, lost, coast, roast, most
two
to, tow, too
1 the words to, too, two are homophones so it is important to learn their
meaning and be able to use them in context
2 ‘to’ is a preposition serving a verb such as to go, to see, to fight, to eat
(verb infinitives)
3 it also means ‘in the direction of’, as in I am going to London
4 use the words ‘to and fro’ to remind you
5 the word ‘too’ means ‘as well as’ or ‘also’, for example ‘Are you coming
too?’
6 the word ‘two’ refers to the number ‘2’ as in two books, two people;
think of its partners two, twice, twain
7 the spelling ‘tow’ has an entirely different sound and meaning: we tow
caravans and boats behind our cars
underneath
underneaff
1 this is a compound word made from ‘under’ and ‘beneath’
2 articulate the word ending clearly for spelling (nea - th)
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3 note the consonant digraph at the end of the word ‘-th’ and teach its
articulatory feel as distinct from final ending ‘-ff’, in cuff
4 find some more words with the unvoiced and voiced ‘- th -’ digraph, e.g.
thing, bath, path, plinth, thick; these, those, the, bathe, lathe
unfortunately
unfortunetly, unfortuneatly, unfortunaley, unfortunatly
1 identify the baseword ‘fortune’
2 note the long vowel pattern in the second syllable denoted by silent ‘e’
3 teach the DROP rule; we must drop the silent ‘e’ when attaching suffixes,
e.g. ‘un - fort - un - ate’ and then again in ‘un - fort - un - at - ly’
4 the final stable syllable is ‘-ly’ not ‘-ley’ because the final ‘y’ already makes
the long (-ee) sound, as in mummy, daddy, baby, only, finely
unless
unles
1 identify the baseword ‘less’ in ‘unless’
2 teach the ‘l - f - s’ rule that in a single-syllabled word ending in l - f - or s
we must DOUBLE the final consonant call, till, fill, all, ball; off, tiff, cuff,
riff, boff; pass, less, miss, truss, puss
3 you will also need to learn these exceptions to the rule: if, of (ov); nil, pal;
yes, bus, gas, this, thus
4 ‘his’ and ‘is’ for example have the (- z) not the ‘- s’ sound so the rule does
not apply
until
untill
1 teach the ‘all, well, full, till’ rule
2 when these four words are added to other words making two-syllabled
compound words they DROP the final ‘- l’, e.g. un + till = until, well +
come = welcome, all + ways = always, although, altogether, fulfil, helpful
unusual
unasal
1 identify the baseword ‘usual’
2 articulate the word clearly and syllabify for spelling (un - u - su - al)
urinate
urine
1 identify the baseword ‘urine’
2 cue articulate it (u - rine) to emphasise the long vowel ending denoted by
silent ‘e’ (- VCe)
3 in words of more than one syllable endings beginning with ‘- i -’ often
have the short vowel sound despite the long vowel silent ‘e’ pattern
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4 these endings are ‘-ine’, ‘-ive’, ‘-ice’ and ‘-ite’ but we say (urin) engine,
active, office, opposite
5 when attaching the final stable syllable ending ‘-ate’ we must DROP
silent ‘e’ and attach the ending ‘urin - ate’, ‘indoctrinate’
used
use, yours
1 identify the baseword ‘use’
2 teach the long and short vowel sounds of ‘U’
3 when we hear the long vowel sound in words it is usually denoted by the
silent ‘e’ pattern (VCe), as in use, abuse, ruse, muse, fuse, amuse, refuse
4 the meaning of ‘use’ is to put something to a purpose whereas ‘yours’ has
a different sound and means that something belongs to you – your book,
your school
usually
usheley, useally, usally, uselly, usaly, uselly, usley
1 identify the baseword ‘usual’
2 overarticulate and syllabify the word for spelling (u - su - al)
3 an ‘s’ between two vowels usually has the (- z -) sound – usual, miser, praises
4 the final ‘- ly’ is an adverbial ending and we simply ADD it after final ‘-l’
in multisyllabled words as in usual - ly, actually, finally, totally
vandalising
vandalsting
1 identify the baseword ‘vandal’ and syllabify for spelling (van - dal)
2 to attach the suffix ‘-ise’ meaning ‘to make’ simply ADD it to the
baseword vandal - ise, magnetise
3 when attaching final stable syllable ‘-ing’ to words ending in silent ‘e’ we
must DROP silent ‘e’ – vandalis - ing, magnetising
vanquished
vaqhished
1 articulate the word carefully for spelling (van - quish - ed)
2 after the letter ‘q’ we must always put ‘u’ to make the (kw-) sound, as in
‘van - quish’
very
verry, verey
1 when a vowel is followed by two ‘r’s it usually has its short sound, as in
error, arrow, mirror, barrow, carry, curry, berry
2 you must learn the word ‘very’ as an exception; it only has one ‘r’
3 use the family of words to remind you: very, verily, veritable from the
Latin ‘verus’ with the long vowel sound meaning true
4 ‘Verey’ with the long vowel sound is a coloured light fired from a pistol
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vertical
vertal
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (vert - i - cal)
2 ‘-al’ is an adjectival ending as in vertical, central, local
vicious
vishus
1 this word comes from the baseword ‘vice’, meaning bad habits or
immorality
2 articulate the word clearly and syllabify for spelling (vic - i - ous)
3 the consonant ‘c’ has its soft sound (s) when followed by ‘e’, ‘i’ and ‘y’
4 ‘-cious’ is the most common way of spelling the (-shus) sound at the end
of words, as in vic - ious, precious, atrocious, delicious
view
veiw
1 we use ‘-ew’ at the end of one-syllabled words for the long vowel (U)
sound, e.g. few, crew, new, yew
2 because this word comes from the word ‘vision’ or sight the silent ‘i’ is
retained in ‘view’
villa
villar
1 this is a Latin word ‘villa’ meaning a country house and also has the same
spelling and meaning in Spain; in Italy it was often a castle. Italian words
frequently end in ‘a’, e.g. ricotta, pasta, Bologna
2 ‘vill’ historically is a house or manor; a village is a small collection of
houses smaller than a town lived in by villagers
villain
villin
1 cue articulate this word for spelling (vill - ain)
2 the villain is the evil character in romantic stories who is ‘usually “slain”
by the hero’
virtual
virtul
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (vir - tu - al)
2 the word is an adjective based on the word ‘virtue’, DROP silent ‘e’ and
add ‘-al’
3 ‘-al’ is an adjectival ending: virtu - al, centr - central; actual, local
visitor, visited
vistert
1 identify the baseword ‘visit’
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2 the ending ‘-or’ is a Latin suffix meaning ‘the one who’ or ‘that which’
after words ending in ‘-it’, ‘-ct’, ‘-ate’ or ‘-ess’, as in visit - or, doctor,
actor, tractor, indicator, possessor
3 after the regular verb ‘to visit’ to make the past tense we simply ADD
vowel suffixes ‘-ed’ as in visit - ed and ‘-ing’ for visit - ing
voice
voise
1 ‘- oi -’ is a diphthong in this word it makes the (- oy -) sound
2 the ‘oi’ diphthong is used at the beginning and in the middle of words as
in voice, oil, boil, coil, foil, choice, joint, spoil, toil
3 the consonant ‘c’ has its soft sound when it is between two vowels and
the final silent ‘e’ also keeps it soft
4 the misspelling ‘voise’ would have the ‘z’ sound, as in (voize)
waist
wast
1 to make the long vowel (A) sound ‘ai’ is frequently used in the middle of
single-syllabled words: (w - ai - st), raid, vain, main, rain, train, wait
2 note the long vowel pattern (- VVC -)
3 the misspelling ‘wast’ has the short vowel pattern (- VCC)
wait, waiting
wate, wating, waitting
1 to make the long vowel (A) sound ‘ai’ is frequently used in the middle of
single-syllabled words: (w - ai - t), raid, vain, main, rain, train, waist
2 try to remember the ‘ai’ digraph by ‘there I am in the waiting room’
3 teach the two vowel rule, e.g. ‘when two vowels go walking the first one
does the talking and usually says its own name’ (- ai -)
4 when attaching suffixes to verbs with consonant endings simply ADD
‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’, e.g. wait - ed, wait - ing, raiding - raided
5 in words with the long vowel pattern (- VVC) there is no need to double
the final consonant when suffixing
Wales
whales, wale
1 these spellings are all homophones each with a different meaning
2 Wales is a country that is one of four in the United Kingdom; its people
are Welsh and they were originally Celtic in origin and the Ancient
Britons are thought to have fled there in the west of the British Isles
3 a ‘whale’ is a large sea mammal – cue articulate by aspirating the (wh-) to
sound like the rush of the sea
4 a ‘wale’ is a raised mark left on the skin by the blow of a lash; it is also
called a ‘weal’
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want
whant, wan’t, wont, won’t
1 former Prime Minister John Major pronounced this perfectly for spelling
with the short vowel sound (- a -)
2 this word has the short vowel pattern (- VCC): want, pant, cant, rant
3 we only use apostrophes when there are missing letters, e.g. when ‘I will
not’ is shortened to ‘I won’t’ or ‘I cannot’ becomes ‘I can’t’
warm, warms
worm, worms
1 whenever ‘-ar’ and ‘-or’ are preceded by the consonant ‘w’ they will
change their usual sounds to (- or - ) and (- ur -)
2 think of ‘wa-’ words as a group of words with the vowel making the
(-or-) sound before consonants ‘r’ and ‘l’
3 call them ‘war’ words, e.g. war, warm, wall, walk, ward, warp
4 in front of other consonants the vowel sound changes to short vowel
(- o -), e.g. wasp, watch, what
5 treat ‘wo-’ words as another group making the (wur-) sound before
consonant ‘r’, e.g. work, word, worm, worst, whorl and the short vowel
(- i -) sound in ‘women’
washes
whashes
1 it is usually the question words that begin with the ‘wh-’ digraph; treat
them as a group – why, what, who, when, which, where, whence, whither,
whether?
2 most other common words begin with ‘w-’ alone, e.g. wash, were, will,
wit, want
3 the exceptions are usually words deriving from Old English: wheel,
whelk, whey
4 cue articulate the word for spelling with the short vowel ‘a’ to fit the
short vowel syllable pattern (- VCC)
wasn’t
was’ent
1 this is the shortened version of the words ‘was not’
2 to indicate the missing letter ‘o’ we use an apostrophe, e.g. wasn’t,
doesn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, didn’t, won’t
waste
wast
1 articulate this word clearly for spelling (w - aste)
2 note the long vowel (A) sound in this single-syllabled word ‘waste’
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3 we need the silent ‘e’ pattern (- VCe) or (- VCCe) at the end of onesyllabled words to denote the long vowel sound, e.g. waste, paste, rate,
write, mate, spite, rote
watch, watching
wacth, wach, wathing, waching, wactching, wocht
1 cue articulate the word for spelling (wat - ch) with the short vowel ( A )
2 after consonant ‘w’ vowels ‘a’ and ‘o’ may also change their sounds
3 ‘wa-’ becomes (wo - ) with the short vowel (- o -) sound in watch, was,
wasp, what
4 because the consonant digraph ‘ch’ makes one sound it acts as a single
consonant and so after a short vowel sound we add ‘t’ to hold in the
vowel, as in watch, witch, pitch, fetch, match, satchel, hatchet, stretcher,
kitchen
5 there are some common exceptions to learn; try to bind them all into two
sentences, e.g. rich, such, much, which, attach, detach, sandwich,
duchess, ostrich
water
warter, woeter
1 this word is from the Old English word ‘waeter’
2 the consonant ‘w’ will frequently make vowels ‘a’ and ‘o’ change their
sounds as in (wor - ter) and ‘work’ (wirk)
3 you just have to learn this special spelling by referring to the O.E. spelling
and practising writing the correct spelling as a whole joined writing unit
4 try to think of your own ‘funny’ or cue to this word
we
whe
1 words with the ‘wh-’ consonant digraph are usually question words, e.g.
why, when, who, what, where, etc.
2 otherwise use consonant ‘w’ alone as in we, well, weak, week, weep,
wore, will
3 there will be some exceptions and they are usually derived from Old
English and less common words such as whey, whelp, whelk – then you
need to aspirate the (- wh -) sound
weapons
weopons
1 cue articulate this word for spelling (wea - pon) or (weap - on)
2 the spelling is based on the Old English ‘waepon’, ‘ae’ says (e)
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wear, wearing
were, wereing
1 identify the basewords ‘wear’ and ‘were’ in the correct and incorrect
spellings
2 note the different medial vowel sounds in the two words (- ear) and (- er -)
3 find the word ‘ear’ in ‘wear’, pear, sear, Lear, near, fear, tear
weather
wheather
1 remember it is usually question words that begin with the consonant
digraph ‘wh -’ and most other common words just begin with ‘w-’
2 ‘- ea -’ is our third choice for the short vowel (- e -) sound in words as in
weather, and past tenses ‘lead’ and ‘read’
3 some clues might be that weather is concerned with ‘heat and cold, wet
and dry’
4 the short vowel pronunciation is based on the Old English word ‘weder’
Wednesday
wednesdy
1 cue articulate this word for spelling (Wed - nes - day)
2 although it is commonly pronounced (Wensday) in Suffolk it is still
pronounced with the nasal stop – try it: (Wed’nsday)
3 the original name for this fourth day of the week is from the Norse god
‘Wodin’s day’ and the Old English ‘Wodnes daeg’
4 days of the week like gods must have capital letters for their names
week, weekend
weak, weeken
1 ‘week’ and ‘weak’ are homophones
2 you need some clues to remind you which to use, e.g. long vowel (- ee -)
is our first choice and is used in the most common words: week, cheek,
seek, feed, see, weed
3 a week is a period of seven days – two ‘ee’s in seven and two in week
4 ‘weekend’ is a compound word made from the two words ‘week’ and
‘end’
5 articulate the word clearly and syllabify it for spelling (week - end); note
the end blend ‘-nd’
weight, weighed, weights
wait, weigh, weaight, waid, wights
1 identify the baseword ‘weight’ and its homophone ‘wait’
2 this word comes from the Old English ‘wegan’ meaning to carry
3 there are only a few words that end in the ‘-eigh’ for the long (A) sound
in words; learn the graphemes as a joined writing unit
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4 learn the ‘-eigh’ words as a family group: weigh and weight, eight and
eighteen, neigh and neighbour, freight and speight
weird
weard, werid, wierd
1 look up the meaning of the word ‘weird’
2 to help you with the weird spelling ‘- ei -’ think of ‘evil witches’
3 it comes from the Old English word ‘wyrd’, meaning fate
4 we also use ‘ei’ after ‘c’ to keep the ‘c’ soft in ceiling, receipt, receive,
conceit
went
whent, when
1 remember it is usually question words that begin with the consonant
digraph ‘wh -’ and most other common words just begin with ‘w-’
2 articulate the word clearly for spelling (w - ent)
3 check the clear articulation of the end blend ‘-nt’ and practise writing it
as a joined unit in went, bent, rent, tent, meant, sent
were, weren’t
where, wernt
1 remember it is usually question words that begin with the consonant
digraph ‘wh -’ and most other common words just begin with ‘w-’
2 the Old English word was ‘waeron’ with the long vowel sound
3 perhaps we originally pronounced it with the long sound so silent ‘e’ was
added to ‘were’ as in ‘here’
4 weren’t is the shortened form of ‘were not’
5 we add an apostrophe to indicate there is a letter missing: weren’t,
doesn’t, can’t, won ‘t, hasn’t
we’re
were
1 the word ‘we’re’ is the shortened form of the words ‘we are’
2 we put in an apostrophe to show there is a missing letter: we’re, can’t,
here’s
when
whin, wen
1 use the ‘wh-’ digraph’ in all the ‘wh-’ question words, e.g. when, why,
where, which, who etc.
2 to help you, aspirate the ‘wh-’ sound as a Scot might (hw-)
3 note the different sound of the vowels in ‘-in’ and ‘-en’
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where, where’s
were, wear, we’re, we, weres
1 use the ‘wh-’ digraph’ in all the ‘wh-’ question words, e.g. where, when,
which, who, why etc.
2 to help you, aspirate the ‘wh-’ sound as a Scot might (hw-)
3 where’s is the short form of ‘where is’; we use the apostrophe to show
there is a letter missing: where’s, who’s
4 the ‘-ere’ is the long vowel pattern (- VCe) with the silent ‘e’ denoting
the long vowel sound in where, here, there
5 he verb ‘to wear’ as in to wear clothes is a homophone unless you make
‘where’ sound more like ‘here’
which
witch, whitch, wich
1 ‘which’ is one of the question words that starts with the ‘wh-’ digraph
2 learn them as a family group: where, why, who, which, when etc.
3 aspirate the ‘wh-’ digraph in question words as a Scot might to remind
you
4 because the consonant digraph ‘ch’ makes one sound it acts as a single
consonant and after a short vowel sound we add ‘t’ to hold in the vowel
as in witch, watch, pitch, fetch, match, satchel, hatchet, stretcher, kitchen
but ‘which’ is an exception
5 there are some common exceptions to learn; try to bind them all into two
sentences, e.g. which, rich, such, much, attach, detach, sandwich,
duchess, ostrich
whilst
wilst
1 identify the baseword ‘while’
2 ‘wh-’ is a one of six consonant digraphs and is usually associated with
words in Old English; this one is from O. E. ‘hwil’
3 aspirate it as in the Old English manner (hw - ile)
4 when attaching the ending ‘-st’ we must DROP silent ‘e’ as in ‘whilst’
whisper
wisper
1 this is another word with an Old English origin ‘hwisprian’
2 aspirate (wh - isp - er) as the Old English might well have done
white
whoight, whiete, wite
1 this is another word from Old English ‘hwit’
2 aspirate the consonant digraph ‘wh-’ and note the long vowel pattern
(- VCe) denoted by silent ‘e’: ‘-ite’ as in white
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who’s, whose
whos, who
1 who’s is the shortened form of the words ‘who is’
2 we use the apostrophe to indicate that there is a letter missing in who’s,
he’s, can’t, haven’t, hasn’t
3 the spelling ‘whose’ is the possessive case of who or which, e.g. whose
books are these
4 note the long vowel sound of (O) denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern (VCe) in wh- ose, those, rose, nose
wicked
wiked
1 articulate clearly and syllabify for spelling (wick - ed)
2 after a short vowel sound we must use ‘-ck’ in multisyllabled words to
keep the short vowel pattern and represent the (- k -) sound, e.g. wicked,
cricket, pocket, packet
wickets
wickits
1 overarticulate and syllabify for spelling (wick -ets)
2 after a short vowel sound we must use ‘-ck’ in multisyllabled words to
keep the short vowel pattern and represent the (- k -) sound, e.g. wicket,
cricket, pocket, packet
3 ‘-ets’ is a legal ending for English multisyllabled words but not ‘-its’
wild, wildebeest
wiled, wilderbest
1 the word comes from the Old English ‘wilde’ and somewhere has lost its
silent ‘e’ to denote its long vowel sound ‘child’ from ‘childe’ is the same
2 alternatively we may originally have pronounced it with the short vowel
sound as the South Africans do in ‘wildebeest’ or ‘vildebeest’
3 articulate this word and syllabify for spelling (wild - e - beest)
4 this is the South African name and spelling for a gnu and ‘beest’ is the
word for an ox
wiry
wirery
1 identify the baseword ‘wire’
2 note the long vowel (- I -) sound denoted by the silent ‘e’ pattern
(- VCe)
3 when attaching final ‘y’ to words to make the long (-ee) sound at the end
of words we DROP silent ‘e’, e.g. wir - y, scary, fury
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with
whithe
1 articulate this word clearly for spelling (w - ith)
2 note the unvoiced consonant digraph at the end of the word ‘-th’
3 if we add the silent ‘e’ to this word we would have to say it with the long
vowel sound (w - ithe) and this makes the digraph voiced
4 think of the word ‘wit’; that also is a ‘w’ word as well as witch, win, will
wizard
wizerd
1 overarticulate and syllabify this word for spelling (wiz - ard) and liz
- ard
2 it comes from the Middle English word ‘wys’ meaning wise and the suffix
‘-ard’
3 the misspelling ‘-erd’ is not a legitimate suffix; you may be confusing it
with ‘- herd’ in shepherd or sheep herder
wobbling
walbling
1 identify the baseword ‘wobble’
2 note the short vowel pattern (- VC) and sound in the first syllable
(wob - l)
3 ‘-le’ is the most common spelling of the (-ul) sound at the end of words
4 before adding final stable syllable ‘-le’ we must DOUBLE the preceding
consonant to keep the short vowel sound and pattern (- VCCle), as in
wobble, bubble, little, settle, nettle, kettle, rabble
5 before attaching vowel suffixes ‘-ed’ and ‘-ing’ we must DROP the silent
‘e’, e.g. wobbl - ed, wobbl - ing, bubbled, settled, settling
woke
woek
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (w - oke)
2 note the common long vowel sound and pattern denoted by silent ‘e’
(- VCe), as in woke, bloke, ripe, wipe, knife, safe, life
wonderful
wonderfull
1 identify the basewords in this compound word: ‘wonder’ and ‘full’
2 teach the ‘all, well, full, till drop rule’; they each drop a final ‘l’ when they
are added to another word because they are no longer one-syllabled
words, e.g. wonder + full = wonderful, awful, beautiful, helpful, fulfil;
always, until, welcome
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won’t
wont
1 the word won’t is the shortened form of ‘will not’
2 we use an apostrophe to show letters are missing: won’t, don’t, can’t,
shan’t
Woolwich
Woolich
1 cue articulate this word to remind you of the spelling of the name of this
town (Wool - wich)
2 place names frequently have ‘-wich’ or ‘wick’ in them, which means a
village or a town, e.g. Woolwich, Norwich, Berwick, Lerwick, Alnwick
world
wrold
1 articulate the word clearly for spelling (wor - ld)
2 note that ‘wor-’ regularly has the sound (wer-) or (wur-) in world, word,
work, worst, worth
3 ‘w’ before vowel ‘o’ and ‘a’ changes their usual sounds to (ir) work and
(or) war
wouldn’t, would’ve
wouldnt, would of
1 wouldn’t is a shortened form of the words ‘would not’
2 would’ve is a shortened form of the words ‘would have’
3 we use the apostrophe to show there are letters missing
4 ‘would of’ is not English and does not make sense; it should be ‘would
have’
written
writen
1 identify the baseword ‘write’
2 note the long vowel pattern (- VCe) and sound denoted by silent ‘e’
3 when making the past tense note the short vowel (- i -) sound in
(writ - ten)
4 after the short vowel sound we must DOUBLE the consonant to preserve
the short vowel pattern (- VCCV - ) and sound ‘writ - t - en’, bitter,
patter, butter, potter
© 2017 Diane Montgomery