In Year 4 the focus shifts from sounds to meaning. Most of the words are a base word plus a prefix or suffix, so the trick is to spot the base word and keep it whole.
Below are ten Year 4 lists, ten words each, in a sensible order. The challenge list is built into Phonogram Fun; the rest were written for this page. Use them as they are, print them for the fridge, or keep them for weeks when no list comes home. If your school sends its own list, use that: it's the one your child will be tested on.
The Year 4 list, week by week
Week 1 · UN- and DIS- words
undis- unkind
- unhappy
- unlock
- unfair
- untidy
- disagree
- disappear
- dislike
- dishonest
- disobey
Week 2 · MIS- and RE- words
misre- misbehave
- mislead
- misspell
- misplace
- redo
- reappear
- rebuild
- return
- refresh
- replay
Week 3 · -FUL and -LESS words
fulless- careful
- hopeful
- helpful
- peaceful
- beautiful
- careless
- hopeless
- helpless
- useless
- fearless
Week 4 · -LY words
ly- sadly
- quickly
- finally
- usually
- happily
- angrily
- gently
- simply
- basically
- truly
Week 5 · -OUS words
ous- famous
- nervous
- dangerous
- enormous
- jealous
- poisonous
- mountainous
- various
- tremendous
- generous
Week 6 · Homophones
- their
- there
- they're
- hear
- here
- whose
- who's
- knew
- new
- weather
Week 7 · CH saying /k/
ch- school
- chorus
- chemist
- echo
- character
- scheme
- anchor
- stomach
- ache
- Christmas
Week 8 · -TURE words
ture- picture
- nature
- future
- capture
- creature
- furniture
- adventure
- mixture
- temperature
- signature
Week 9 · OUGH and AUGH words
oughaugh- bought
- brought
- thought
- fought
- ought
- caught
- taught
- daughter
- naughty
- distraught
Week 10 · Challenge words
- accommodate
- achieve
- aggressive
- amateur
- apparent
- appreciate
- attached
- available
- average
- awkward
Year 4 spelling words, weeks 1 to 10 · free to print from phonogramfun.com/learn
What each week teaches
Week 1, UN- and DIS- words: Prefixes that mean "not" or "the opposite". The base word never changes, so disappear has one s and two p's.
Week 2, MIS- and RE- words: Misspell has a double s because mis + spell keeps both.
Week 3, -FUL and -LESS words: The suffix -ful has only one l. In beautiful, the y of beauty changes to i.
Week 4, -LY words: Usually just add -ly. Words ending in y change it to i (happily); words ending in -le drop the e (gently); truly loses the e of true.
Week 5, -OUS words: -ous means "full of". Various comes from vary: the y becomes i.
Week 6, Homophones: Words that sound the same but mean different things. Pair each one with a short sentence.
Week 7, CH saying /k/: In words from Greek, ch often says /k/, one of the three sounds of ch (the others are /ch/ in much and /sh/ in chef).
Week 8, -TURE words: The ending -ture is said "cher", even though it looks like "tyoor".
Week 9, OUGH and AUGH words: Here ough and augh both say /aw/. There's much more on ough in The ough words, explained.
Week 10, Challenge words: Long, commonly misspelled words. These are the ten in the app's Year 4 challenge list.
How to practise in ten minutes
- Three or four words a night, not all ten.
- Find the tricky part of each word together and say why it's tricky.
- Cover, write, check, one part of the word at a time.
- One dictation sentence using two of the week's words.
- Mix in old words on Fridays: the words that keep coming back are the ones that stick.
Year 4 sits between the Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN tests, which makes it a good year for building habits: spotting base words, checking endings, and proofreading.
The years either side: Year 3 spelling words and Year 5 spelling words. For a spelling bee, see Year 4 spelling bee words.
Questions parents ask
How many spelling words a week in Year 4?
Commonly 10 to 20, depending on the school. The lists here have 10. If your child's list is longer, split it across the week.
Is there an official Year 4 spelling list in Australia?
No. The Australian Curriculum sets out the spelling skills for each year, and schools choose the words. These lists follow the patterns most schools teach in Year 4.
What spelling should a Year 4 child know?
Year 4 spelling is about adding to words: prefixes like un-, dis- and mis-, suffixes like -ful, -less, -ly and -ous, plus homophones and -ture.