Spelling Word Lists

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Spelling word lists - I find it useful to have collections of words that can be downloaded. Whether you teach spelling or you're a parent keen to help your child, you are most welcome to download these word lists.

Click here for our Word Family List.

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You'll need Adobe Reader installed on your computer in order to open the files. If you don't have it you can download the latest free version here - (a new window will open so you can download it without leaving this page).

Let's begin with high frequency words.

The first, the 45 most essential words, is a list containing words such as come, went, can, and. These are words that are needed to tackle very simple texts and will enable students to acquire pace and accuracy in their reading. If students can start learning how to spell these words early on, it will really help their spelling progress.

Irregular Words
Please note that many of these words are 'irregular' words. That is to say they do not follow the normal rules of English spelling. For example a word like 'was' should, according to English spelling rules, be spelt 'wos' because of the /o/ sound in the middle of the word.

This means that considerable reinforcement may be needed before they are remembered. So be patient! Even older children may have problems with a few of these words.

Sometimes even two or three words a week is enough.

Word Families
If spelling is a particular problem, I would advise focussing on Word Families first such as ch, sh, oo, ay and dip into these high frequency but trickier word lists gradually - a few at a time. Click here for our Word Family List.

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