Spelling list – Year 2

Taken from the Department for Education’s English Appendix 1: Spelling.

What will my child learn?	Examples
ge and dge at the end of words. Sometimes spelt as g if the sound comes before e, i and y.	badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge age, huge, change, charge, bulge, village gem, giant, magic, giraffe, energy jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust
The s sound spelt c before e, i and y	race, ice, cell, city, fancy
The n sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words	nock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw
The r sound spelt wr at the beginning of words	write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap
The l sound spelt –le at the end of words	able, apple, bottle, little, middle
The l sound spelt –el at the end of words	camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel
The l sound spelt –al at the end of words	metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal
Words ending–il	pencil, fossil, nostril
The igh sound spelt –y at the end of words	cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July
Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y	lies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries
Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it	copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied
Adding the endings –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it	patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped
Adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable	sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny
The or sound spelt a before l and ll	all, ball, call, walk, talk, always
The u sound spelt o	other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday
The ee sound spelt  –ey	key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley
The o sound spelt a after w and qu	want, watch, wander, quantity, squash
The er sound spelt or after w	word, work, worm, world, worth
The or sound spelt ar after w	war, warm, towards
The z sound spelt s	television, treasure, usual
The suffixes –ment,  –ness, –ful , –less and –ly	–ment: enjoyment, merriment –ness: sadness, plainness, happiness, penniless –ful: careful, playful, plentiful –less: hopeless –ly: happily
Contractions	can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll.
The singular possessive apostrophe	Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s
Words ending in –tion	station, fiction, motion, national, section
Homophones	there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, bare/bear, one/won, sun/son, to/too/two, be/bee, blue/blew, night/knight

Year 2 – Common Exception Words

These are words for children to learn to spell from memory and to read by sight.