Spelling patterns
Spelling rules for plurals and adding suffixes, tricky letter patterns and homophones.
📌 Key points
- Most nouns add -s for plurals. Add -es after s, x, z, ch and sh: boxes, churches, wishes.
- Consonant + y: change y to i and add -es (baby → babies). Vowel + y: just add -s (day → days).
- Many words ending in -f or -fe change to -ves: leaf → leaves, knife → knives (but roof → roofs).
- Short vowel + one consonant: double the consonant before -ing or -ed: hop → hopping, stop → stopped.
- Words ending in silent e usually drop the e before -ing: make → making, hope → hoping.
- “i before e except after c” when the sound is “ee”: believe, field, receive, ceiling (a few exceptions, such as seize).
- Homophones sound the same but have different spellings and meanings: there/their/they're, to/too/two, where/wear.
- Common endings: -tion (station), -sion (television), -cian for jobs (musician), -ous (famous).
- Use Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check to learn tricky words.
📖 Key words
- Plural
- More than one of something.
- Homophone
- A word that sounds the same as another but has a different spelling and meaning.
- Suffix
- Letters added to the end of a word, e.g. -ing, -ed.
- Silent letter
- A letter you write but do not say, e.g. the k in knee.
- Vowel
- The letters a, e, i, o and u.
- Consonant
- Any letter that is not a vowel.
✏️ Worked example
Add -ing to these verbs: swim, smile, play.
- swim: short vowel 'i' + one consonant 'm', so double it: swimming.
- smile: ends in silent e, so drop the e: smiling.
- play: ends in vowel + y, so just add -ing: playing.
- Answer: swimming, smiling, playing.
Say a tricky word slowly in syllables and check each part: Feb-ru-ar-y, Wed-nes-day.
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