Spelling Words

Spelling Words in order of Instruction

Spelling Rules

Most Used English Words (pdf)

Section H

Section J

Section L

Section A-G

you

street

see

will

but

say

sea

and

this

come

bird

all

hand

cool

(you) your

ring

earth

out

live (live)

feed

last

may

kill

fur

not

onto

late

green

him

let

oil

she

today

big

paint

can

good

look

bag

pool

see

time

did

beg

tooth

run

have

bog

teeth

the

chance

six

bug

worm

charge

boy

mother

blue

book

three

are

land

now

little

have

cold

man

ago

are

hot

ten

old

had

hat

bed

bad

over

child

top

red

must

ice

make

play

Section H

day

bring

then

other

apple

eat

tell

house

baby

ate

(sit) sits

five

year

well

author

lot

ball

about

bread

box

law

men

brown

school

ask

man

dog

belong

just

send

for

eats

door

way

(one) lone, alone

ran

fast

floor

get

has

run

food

yes

home

some

was

jump

low

much

that

sleep

soft

call

how

his

wash

(stand) stands

long

her

led

yellow

yard

love

them

lay

	Section I
nine	winter	yet	form
face	stone	thing	far
miss	free	give	gave
(ride) rides	lake	new	alike
tree	lace	letter	add
sick	page	take	brave
got	nice	Mr. = Mister	corn
north	end	after	dance
white	fall	thing	dinner
spent	went	what	doll
foot	back	than	egg
feet	away	its, his, her	fruit
(blow) blows	paper	it’s = it (i)s	looks
block	put	very	pick
spring	each	or	rich
river	soon	thank	zoo
(plant) planted	came	dear	zip
song	Sunday	west	zero
sing	show	sold
sang	Monday	told
sung	moon	best

		Section J
seven	rest	left	life	fill
forget	east	ship	here	along
happy	son	train	car	lost
noon	sun	saw	word	name
think	help	pay	every	room
sister	hard	large	under	hope
cast	race	near	most	same
card	cover	down	made	glad
south	fire	why	say	with
deep	wire	bill	says	mine
inside	tire	want	said	chair
blue	age	girl	work	forgot
post	gold	girls	our	guess
town	read	part	more	hang
stay	read	still	when	meat
grand	red	place	from	mouse
outside	fine	report	form	phone
dark	cannot	never	wind	store
band	May	found	wind	supper
game	may	side	print	through
boat	line	kind	air	toe

		Section K
became	many	lady	poor	shut
brother	city	reach	finish	ease
rain	only	better	hurt	easy
keep	where	water	maybe	bone
start	week	round	across	cloud
mail	weak	cost	tonight	draw
male	first	price	tenth	drink
female	sent	become	sir	garden
eye	cent	class	these	goose
i	mile	horse	those	hop
glass	seem	care	club	hopping
party	even	try	see	knife
upon	without	move	seen	mouth
two	afternoon	delay	felt	oak
twin	Friday	pound	full	peach
twice	hour	behind	fail	pole
twelve	our	around	set	queen
twenty	wife	burn	setting	rope
between	state	camp	stamp	season
they	July	bear	light	sign
would	head	bare	come	space
could	story	clear	coming	wagon
should	open	clean	night	wheat
any	short	spell	pass	window

		Section L
catch	stopping	road	own	third
catcher	walk	rode	before	push
kitchen	talk	ride	know	point
butcher	chalk	March	no	within
black	grant	march	were	body
warm	soap	next	where	field
unless	new	indeed	there	belong
clothe	news	four	here	cheese
clothes	small	herself	dead	earn
clothing	smaller	power	leave	edge
began	smallest	wish	early	feather
begin	war	cause	close	fence
beginning	summer	because	close	funny
able	above	world	flower	going
go	express	country	flour	honey
gone	turn	meet	nothing	letters
do	lesson	meat	ground	orange
done	half	another	lead	pocket
suit	father	trip	led	shoe
track	anything	tripped	lead (pencil)	shoes
watch	table	list	such	stairs
dash	high	people	morning	stream
fell	June	ever	however	talks
fight	right	held	mind	tiny
buy	write	church	shall	words
by	wrote	one	alone
stop	date	once	order

		Section M
trust	paid	took	change	freeze
extra	enter	again	changing	gentle
dress	railroad	inform	few	grow
beside	unable	both	please	holes
teach	ticket	heart	pleasant	hotel
happen	account	month	picture	iron
begun	driven	child	pitch	live
collect	real	children	pitcher	living
file	recover	build	money	monkey
provide	mountain	built	ready	myself
sight	speak	understand	omit	noise
stood	past	follow	anyway	pencil
fix	might	charge	eight	pie
fixed	contract	member	breakfast	pull
born	deal	case	chance	sew
go	all	while	climb	sow
goes	almost	also	coffee	so
hold	bring	return	color	steam
drill	brought	office	contains	thread
army	less	great	day	thunder
pretty	event	Miss	daily	try
stole	off	miss	eagle	tried
income	of	who	fancy
bought	true	die	fly
pay	truth	died	forest

Rules of Pronunciation, Spelling, and Language

RULES EXPLANATION AND INSTRUCTIONAL TIPS

Rule Page 1 (Rules 1—7)

1. The letter q is always followed by u and together they say kw (queen). The u is not considered a vowel here.

2. The letter c before e, i, or y says s (cent, city, cycle), but followed by any other letter says k (cat, cot, cut).
The c is not numbered and the abbreviation for rule 2 is not written in student
notebooks because the letter following c identifies the sound.

3. The letter g before e, i, or y may say / (page, giant, gym), but followed by any other letter says g (gate, go, gust). The letters e and i following g do not always make the g say j (get, girl, give).
The g is not numbered and the abbreviation for rule 3 is not written in student
notebooks.

4. Vowels a, e, o, and u usually say a, è, ö, and ü at the end of a syllable (na vy, me, o pen, mu sic).
This rule helps students pronounce the vowel correctly in unfamiliar vowel- consonant-vowel (vcv) words (re port).

5. The letters i and y usually say I (big, gym), but may say i (si lent, my, type).

6. The letter y, not i, is used at the end of an English word (my).

7. There are five kinds of silent final e’s. (In short words such as me, she, and he, the e says ë, but in longer words where a single e appears at the end, the e is silent.

Rule Page 2 (Rule 8)

8. There are five spellings for the sound er. The phonogram or may say er when it follows w (work).

Page 3 (Rules 9—10)

9. For one-syllable words that have one vowel and end in one consonant (hop), write another final consonant (hop + ped) before adding endings that begin with a vowel. (Referring to rule 9 as the one-one-one rule helps students remember the criteria for applying the rule. This rule does not apply to words ending in x because x has two sounds.)

10. Words of two syllables (begin) in which the second syllable (gin) is accented and ends in one consonant, with one vowel before it, need another final consonant (be gin’ + ning) before adding an ending that begins with a vowel. (Refer to rule 10 as the two-one-one rule. This rule is applied more consistently in American English than in British English.)

Rule Page 4 (Rule 11)

11. Words ending with a silent final e (come) are written without the e when adding an ending that begins with a vowel.

Rule Page 5 (Rule 12)

12. After c we use ei (receive). If we say a, we use ei (vein). In the list of exceptions, we use ei. In all other words, the phonogram ie is used.

Rule Page 6 (Rules 13—16)

13. The phonogram sh is used at the beginning or end of a base word (she, dish), at the end of a syllable (fin ish), but never at the beginning of a syllable after the first one except for the ending ship (wor ship, friend ship).

14. The phonograms ti, si, and ci are the spellings most frequently used to say sh at the beginning of a second or subsequent syllable in a base word (na tion, ses sion, fa cial).

15. The phonogram si is used to say sh when the syllable before it ends in an s (ses sion) or when the base word has an s where the base word changes (tense, ten sion).

16. The phonogram Si may also say zh as in vi sion

Additional Rules (Rules 17—29)

17. We often double 1, f, and s following a single vowel at the end of a one-syllable word (will, off, miss). Rule 17 sometimes applies to two-syllable words like recess. While reading the word (e.g., will) for spelling, students say the extra consonant sound (e.g., w ill).

18. We often use ay to say a at end of a base word, never a alone.
Students just say the sound a.

19. Vowels i and o may say i and ö if followed by two consonants (find, old).

20. The letter s never follows x. The phonogram x includes an s sound (ks).

21. All, written alone, has two l’s, but when written with another syllable, only one 1 is written (al so, al most).

22. Till and full, written alone, have two l’s, but when written with another syllable, only one 1 is written (un til, beau ti ful).
Students also need practice explaining how the addition of these endings changes word meanings and usage.

23. The phonogram dge may be used only after a single vowel that says ã, ë, i, ö, or (badge, edge, bridge, lodge, budge).

24. When adding an ending to a word that ends with a consonant and y, use i instead of y unless the ending is ing.
Students also need practice explaining how the addition of these endings changes word meanings and usage (plurals of nouns: baby/babies; verb tense: try/tried).

25. The phonogram ck may be used only after a single vowel that says a, , i, ó, or ü (back, neck, lick, rock, duck).

26. Words that are the names or titles of people, places, books, days, or months are capitalized (Mary, Honolulu , Amazon River , Bible, Monday, July).
Initially, students need to explain their use of capitals so they do not use them indiscriminately.

27. Words beginning with the sound z are always spelled with z, never s (zoo).

28. The phonogram ed has three sounds and is used to form the past tense of verbs. If the verb ends in the sound d or t, adding ed makes another syllable that says ed (hand ed, land ed, paint ed, plant ed). If the verb ends in an unvoiced consonant, the ending ed says t (looked, liked, jumped, washed). In all other verbs, the ending ed says d (lived, killed, played, belonged).

29. Words are usually divided between double consonants within a base word. For speaking and reading, only the consonant in the accented syllable is pronounced; the consonant in the unaccented syllable is silent (lit’le).
During dictation of words in sections A—H, focus only on having students pronounce both consonants to spell the words correctly. When reading words for spelling, students sound both consonants, but in speaking or reading, they say the consonant only in the accented syllable. When reading words for reading, be sure students read double-consonant words correctly (lit’ le, a count’, o cur’, e fect’, a rive’, of’ i cer).