You may have guessed that our words this term all revolve around synonyms!
Enriching vocabulary is incredibly important, especially as pupils transition to secondary school. Encourage your child to use a variety of words, and to find a stronger or more specific word to describe something they see, or how they feel.
Words that function as verbs and nouns:
A spelling list with a grammatical rule this week! Make sure you can spell all these words, but also use them in sentences as both a noun and a verb, as this is always a question that comes up in the test!
e.g. I love the challenge of climbing mountains (noun: easy to spot because it has 'the' in front of it)
I love to challenge myself by climbing mountains (verb: easy to spot because it has 'to' in front of it)
challenge
protest
broadcast
benefit
charge
function
influence
interest
object
damage
Word families: gram
...which derives from Greek and is often associated with words that mean written or drawn.
This week's spellings are words that end in -tious and -cious.
spacious
scrumptious
malicious
ambitious
cautious
ferocious
gracious
superstitious
pretentious
conscientious
But how do we know which to choose?
To help learn the spelling of words ending in either –cious or –tious:
• If the root word ends in ce e.g. space, remove the -ce and replace with -cious. E.g. space – spacious; malice – malicious
• If the root word ends in tion e.g. nutrition, remove the -tion and replace with -tious. E.g. nutrition – nutritious; caution – cautious
There are some exceptions to the above rules e.g. delicious, fictitious, anxious. These exceptions just need to be learnt
Have a look at the BBC Bitesize page:
New spellings are from the statutory word list:
sincerely
privilege
legible
criticise
occupy
hindrance
signature
disastrous
marvellous
necessary
This week, our words involve silent letters!
knight
solemn
autumn
doubt
silhouette
yacht
succumb
wrestle
aisle
mortgage
Make sure you know how to spell these too!
tial
Following on from last week, our words are:
partial
confidential
essential
substantial
torrential
sequential
potential
spatial
martial
influential
cial
This week, our words all have -cial endings, not to be confused with -tial endings!
It's confusing, as they sound the same.
Our words for this week are:
official
special
artificial
social
racial
crucial
facial
beneficial
superficial
antisocial
-cial & -tial endings usually sound the same "shul"
special, confidential, initial, official
If you're wondering why we have these two when one would do, it's all about the French and Latin origins of these words, and the t or c in the original word:
e.g.
potential - from late Latin potentialis, from potentia 'power', from potent- 'being able'
facial - from medieval Latin facialis, from facies
initial - from Latin initialis, from initium 'beginning'
(You don't need to know French and Latin but it's always good to know why spellings and words are the way they are.)
There's a rule about which one to use but, like all rules, there are exceptions.
What's the letter before these -cial words: social, special, beneficial?
What's the letter before these -tial words: essential, substantial, partial?
Rule:
Use -cial after a vowel, like after the vowel 'o' in social, 'e' in special, 'i' in beneficial
Use -tial after a consonant, especially, after 'n' in substantial, essential, and 'r' in partial
***
vowel + cial =
social, special, official, crucial, judicial, artificial, racial, beneficial, superficial, unofficial, facial, glacial, especially, specially, sacrificial, prejudicial, antisocial, multiracial.
especially and specially are very common usage words. They mean the same thing but especially is used more in writing and formally. To remember the spellings try breaking them down e + special + ly = especially, special + ly = specially
exceptions - consonant + cial:
financial commercial provincial
because the root words end in -ce (finance - financial, commerce - commercial, province - provincial)
***
-tial n + tial =
potential, essential, substantial, residential, presidential, influential, differential, confidential, sequential, preferential, consequential, celestial, existential, circumstantial, prudential, torrential, referential, exponential, inconsequential, insubstantial, experiential, quintessential, evidential, deferential, credential
r + tial = martial, impartial, partial
p + tial = nuptial, prenuptial
exceptions - vowels + tial
initial, spatial, palatial
***
The word “controversial” is controversial because it contradicts all the rules and is spelled with “s.”
***
Memorise these seven exceptions:
financial, commercial, provincial, initial, spatial, palatial, controversial
Statutory Words
This week's words are from the Statutory Word List. It is essential that pupils can spell most (Expected Standard) or some (Working Towards) of the words on this list. This doesn't mean only spelling these words correctly though - any words which follow a similar spelling rule or pattern is also expected to be spelt correctly.
So, if you want to achieve Y6 Expected Standard, you need to be able to either spell the statutory word list correctly, or recognise when you may need to check your writing with a dictionary and self-edit!
Please practise as many words as you can from the lists as often as you can. This week, let's focus on:
attached
ancient
average
competition
conscience
correspond
embarrass
especially
exaggerate
cemetery
Homophones!
There are so many homophones (words that sounds the same but have different meanings) in the English language that it's easy to get caught out.
This week, let's try to practise the following:
principal (adjective): chief / main / first / primary
principal (noun): headteacher or leader of a college
principle (noun): a basic idea or rule that explains or controls how something happens or works
precede (verb): to go before something or someone
proceed (verb): to continue as planned, to move forward
their (determiner): of or belonging to them
there (adverb): that place
they're (contraction): they are
stationery (noun): the things needed for writing
stationary (adjective): not moving or not changing
compliment (noun): a remark that expresses approval, admiration or respect
complement (verb): to make something else seem better or more attractive when combining with it
ough
Spellings this week focus on the -ough letter strand.
-ie -ei words
We are looking at words with the -ee- sound (phoneme) which has the -ie or -ei grapheme.
If the sound is -ee-, then the rule is that the 'i comes before the e':
siege
believe
mischievous
achieve
However, if there is the consonant 'c' directly before the grapheme, then it changes to -ei:
receive
receipt
deceive
Watch out! There are also some exception words:
caffeine
seize
(I have also included 'convenience' as this is often mispelled, but is actually a different phoneme)
18.10.18
Compound Adjectives
man-eating
little-used
rock-bottom
wide-eyed
pig-headed
tight-fisted
cold-hearted
stone-faced
green-eyed
short-tempered
w/c 8th Oct
This week, please practise words containing hyphenated prefixes. We hyphenate when the word would look strange or it may be difficult to know how to pronounce it without the hyphen:
co-operate
co-ordinate
co-own
co-author
re-enter
re-educate
re-examine
re-evaluate
re-energise
re-elect
w/c 1st Oct
This week, we look at the -ent / -ence / -ency words...
I will also include 'blind' words in the test: words that follow the same format or rule but were not included in the practise list.
innocent
innocence
decent
decency
excellent
excellence
confident
confidence
existent
existence
w/c 24th September
This week's spellings are words that end in -ant/-ance/-ancy, as opposed to -ent/-ence/-ency (next week!).
observant
observance
expectant
expectancy
hesitant
hesitancy
tolerant
tolerance
relevant
relevance
w/c 17th September:
This week, the rule is all around whether we use -ce or -se.
e.g. practice, spelt with -ce is a noun (doctor's practice, choir practice etc), whereas practise spelt with -se is a verb (we need to practise our spellings etc)
advice
advise
device
devise
licence
license
prophecy
prophesy
practice
practise
w/c 10th September
This week, we are looking at using more ambitious vocabulary in our writing:
aggressive
hostile
awkward
obstinate
desperate
frantic
disastrous
calamitous
marvellous
spectacular