Spelling list – Year 5 and6

Your child’s school will have decided which of these spellings will be taught in year 5 and which will be taught in year 6. Ask your child’s teacher to find out when your child will learn these spellings.

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

What will my child learn?	Examples
Endings spelt –cious or –tious	vicious, precious, conscious, delicious, malicious, suspicious, ambitious, cautious, fictitious, infectious, nutritious
Endings spelt –cial and –tial	official, special, artificial, partial, confidential, essential
Words ending in –ant,  –ance/–ancy,  –ent,  –ence/–ency	–ant: observant, expectant, hesitant, tolerant, assistant, –ance: observance, tolerance, substance, confidence, assistance, –ancy: hesitancy –ent: innocent, decent, frequent, confident, obedient, independent, –ence: innocence, obedience, independence –ency: decency, frequency
Words ending in –able and –ible	–able: adorable, applicable, considerable. tolerable, changeable, noticeable, dependable, comfortable, understandable, reasonable, enjoyable, reliable -ible: forcible, legible
Words ending in –ably and –ibly	-ably: adorably, applicably, considerably, tolerably -ibly: possibly, horribly, terribly, visibly, incredibly, sensibly
Adding suffixes to words ending in –fer	-referring, referred, referral, reference, referee -preferring, preferred, preference, -transferring, transferred, transference
Hyphens	co-ordinate, re-enter, co-operate, co-own
Words with ei after c	deceive, conceive, receive, perceive, ceiling
Words containing ough	ought, bought, thought, nought, brought, fought rough, tough, enough cough though, although, dough through thorough, borough plough, bough
Words with ‘silent’ letters	doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight
Homophones	advice/advise device/devise licence/license practice/practise prophecy/prophesy farther: further / father: a male parent guessed: past tense of the verb guess / guest: visitor heard: past tense of the verb hear / herd: a group of animals led: past tense of the verb lead / lead: present tense of that verb morning: before noon / mourning: grieving for someone who has died past: noun or adjective referring to a previous time / passed: past tense of the verb ‘pass’ precede: go in front of or before / proceed: go on principal: most important / principle: basic truth or belief profit: money that is made in selling things / prophet: someone who foretells the future stationary: not moving / stationery: paper, envelopes etc. steal: take something that does not belong to you / steel: metal wary: cautious / weary: tired who’s: contraction of who is or who has / whose: belonging to someone

Year 5 and 6 – Common Exception Words

These are a mixture of words pupils frequently use in their writing and those which they often misspell.