Free Printable Year 5 Spelling List & Practice Tips
In Year 5, students will begin to spell more difficult words with more precision. They'll learn to spell words with silent letters, recognize homophones, begin to use additional prefixes and suffixes, and even begin to use morphology and etymology in their spelling. In Year 5, your kid will be able to spell increasingly difficult words with greater accuracy.
What will Your Child Learn?
The National Curriculum expectations for spelling in Year 5 (age 9–10) are given below.
Using more prefixes and Suffixes
Suffixes are morphemes (groups of letters that have their own meaning) that are appended to the end of a root or root word to alter its meaning. Prefixes are morphemes that are appended to the beginning of a word.
In Years 5 and 6, your child will study a variety of prefixes and suffixes that can be used to spell longer words and change their meaning.
Spelling some words with ‘silent’ letters
Some words contain letters that were pronounced hundreds of years ago but no longer exist in modern English. For example, there used to be a 'k' sound before the 'n' in 'knight.' Because the pronunciation has changed but the spelling hasn't, the term now has a silent letter that can't be predicted based on how it sounds. This type of word is typically difficult to spell.
Some of these words will be taught to your child in Years 5 and 6, including:
doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle.
Knowing the homophones and other confusing word’s difference
Homophones are words that have various spellings and meanings but are pronounced the same (or nearly the same) way. In children's writing, they are frequently mixed together. In Year 5 and 6, your child will learn the distinction between:
Aisle/isle, aloud/allowed, altar/alter, ascent/assent, bridal/bridle, cereal/serial, compliment/complement, descent/dissent, desert/dessert, draft/draught, farther/further, guessed/guest, heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, steal/steel.
Using morphology and etymology in spelling
Morphemes are the smallest units of grammar and syntax, as well as the smallest units of meaning. In English, every word is made up of one or more morphemes. The study of these morphemes is known as morphology. A morpheme is a single root word, such as "cat" or "happy." A morpheme can be a root (the building block of a word) or a prefix or suffix that attaches to a root. Each morpheme has its own meaning, yet they frequently combine and collaborate to form words.
When a word isn't spelled with the most obvious group of letters to match the sounds, knowing the origins of words can help. Knowing that science, awareness, and conscience all have the same Latin root.
The study of word origins is known as etymology. This includes their origins, as well as how their form and significance have evolved over time. This is important for spelling words that come from different languages, as well as terms that use letter groupings that aren't the ones we're already used to.
Checking spellings in a dictionary
In Years 5 and 6, your child will continue to use an age-appropriate dictionary to check the spellings of their words.
Using a thesaurus
In Year 5, your child will begin to use a thesaurus to investigate word meanings and find synonyms for various words.
How to Help Your Child at Home?
There are many ways you can help your Year 5 child with spelling. Here are our top suggestions.
1. Help with spelling homework
If your child is finding it difficult with a spelling list that he/she has been asked to learn, here are some ideas to help:
Remind your child to proofread their work for spelling mistakes on a frequent basis. They must have a sense of whether a word is correct or not. They could highlight words they aren't sure about and then look them up in a dictionary.
Use a lot of pronunciation. Encourage students to say Wed-nes-day as they write on Wednesday. Many words have sounds that aren't usually clearly articulated (such as words ending in -ed), and over-emphasizing these while writing them out will help your child remember the spelling.
Make a list of the terms that your youngster needs to remember how to spell. The process of writing the words by hand helps children remember the spelling and encourages them to consider the letters that reflect the sounds in the word. It's not as effective to type the words onto a computer or iPad.
Ask your youngster to highlight the problematic parts of a word to draw their attention to them. Show them that it contains the letter 'ai' in the middle and encourage them to write the word, then highlight or underline this section to assist them in remembering. For primary-aged students, few resources are more motivating than a highlighter pen!
2. Play spelling games
Playing games can assist children in learning to spell in a fun way. Allow them to watch videos on 'How can I teach my child with grammar, punctuation, and spelling?' to see some fun and simple activities like the ones listed below.
Traditional games like hangman, as well as online games like Word worm, can be stimulating. It's also a lot of fun to make up crazy statements. Encourage your youngster to make up a silly statement using as many words from their spelling list as they can.
For instance, your youngster may be required to learn the phrase "room took hoop foot book." They may make up a silly statement like "The boy carried his book across the room but fell over a hoop." Why not make drawings to go along with the sentences?
3. Find the right resources
Learning to spell takes time, and understanding English's complicated spelling system takes even longer. Each child is unique; some children learn to spell quickly while others take longer. Vedantu provides some spelling activities to help them at various levels.
Year 5 and 6 spelling word list
Conclusion
Teaching spellings to the children, especially for the ones aged 9–10, is an interesting method. Being a teacher/parent/guide, we can make them much involved with the concept by explaining the concept mapping with real-time examples or giving activities to perform.
For example, you may ask your child to pick a word of their choice and ask them to spell it and write it as well for their ease in remembering it. You can also teach them how to spell a word based on the sounds they produce.
FAQs on Year 5 Spelling Words: Build Confidence and Vocabulary
1. What are the key spelling expectations for a Year 5 student as per the curriculum?
In Year 5, students are expected to move beyond basic phonetic spelling and master more complex word structures. Key expectations include correctly spelling homophones (e.g., their/there/they're), words with silent letters (e.g., knight, doubt), and accurately applying rules for prefixes and suffixes. The curriculum also requires learning statutory word lists, which include many 'common exception words' that don't follow typical spelling patterns.
2. What does a typical Year 5 spelling test involve?
A typical Year 5 spelling test assesses a student's ability to apply learned spelling rules and recall specific vocabulary. The format usually involves a teacher reading a word aloud, providing a sentence for context, and then repeating the word. Students must then write the correctly spelled word. These tests often feature a mix of words related to a specific spelling pattern taught that week alongside several common exception words.
3. How does mastering Year 5 spelling improve overall writing and communication skills?
Mastering spelling directly boosts a student's confidence and frees up their mental energy when writing. When a child isn't struggling to spell common words, they can concentrate on higher-level aspects of writing, such as sentence structure, expanding their vocabulary, and organising their ideas logically. This leads to more fluent, clear, and persuasive writing, which is crucial for effective communication in all subjects.
4. Why does the curriculum place importance on 'common exception words' in Year 5?
The curriculum focuses on common exception words because they are high-frequency words that appear often in reading and writing but do not follow standard phonetic rules. Words like 'friend,' 'because,' or 'people' cannot be sounded out correctly. By learning these words specifically, students avoid common errors, improve their writing accuracy, and build a reliable foundation for more complex literacy skills, ensuring their written work is fluent and easily understood.
5. What is the difference between learning spelling rules and just memorising word lists?
While memorising lists can help for a test, learning spelling rules provides a long-term skill. Understanding rules, such as how to add suffixes like '-ing' or '-ed', or knowing the 'i before e, except after c' rule, allows a student to correctly spell thousands of words they may not have seen before. Memorisation is limited to the specific words on a list, whereas understanding the structure and patterns of English words is a more powerful and sustainable strategy for becoming a confident speller.
6. What are some effective strategies to practise Year 5 spelling words at home?
To effectively practise spelling, students can use several engaging methods beyond simple repetition. Some helpful strategies include:
- Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check: This classic method reinforces visual and motor memory of the word.
- Word Dissection: Breaking down longer words into smaller syllables (e.g., 're-mem-ber') makes them less intimidating to spell.
- Root Word Analysis: Identifying the root word and its prefixes or suffixes (e.g., 'un-help-ful') can clarify its spelling.
- Mnemonics: Creating a silly, memorable phrase for tricky words, like 'Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants' for 'because'.
