Year 5 spelling words

Year 5 lists are full of endings that sound the same but are spelled differently. The good news is that most of them follow a pattern you can explain, so each week has a "how to choose" rule.

Below are ten Year 5 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 5 list, week by week

Year 5 spelling words, weeks 1 to 10 · free to print from phonogramfun.com/learn

What each week teaches

Week 1, -CIOUS and -TIOUS words: Both say "shus". If the root word ends in -ce (vice, space), it's usually -cious.

Week 2, -CIAL and -TIAL words: -cial usually follows a vowel, -tial a consonant. Initial is the classic exception.

Week 3, -ANT, -ANCE and -ANCY: If the -ation version exists (observation, expectation, hesitation), the word usually takes -ant.

Week 4, -ENT, -ENCE and -ENCY: After a soft c (/s/), soft g (/j/) or qu, it's -ent: innocent, decent, frequent.

Week 5, -ABLE and -IBLE: If there's a whole root word (consider, tolerate), it's usually -able. Noticeable keeps its e so the c stays soft.

Week 6, Silent letters: Letters you write but don't say. Most were said out loud centuries ago.

Week 7, EI after C: "i before e except after c" works for the first six. Protein, seize, caffeine and either are the famous exceptions.

Week 8, Adding endings to -FER: Double the r when the stress stays on -fer (referring); don't when it moves (reference).

Week 9, Hyphens: A hyphen joins a prefix to a word starting with the same vowel (co-ordinate, re-enter) and links words that work as one.

Week 10, Challenge words: Long, commonly misspelled words. These are the ten in the app's Year 5 challenge list.

How to practise in ten minutes

1. Three or four words a night, not all ten.
2. Find the tricky part of each word together and say why it's tricky.
3. Cover, write, check, one part of the word at a time.
4. One dictation sentence using two of the week's words.
5. Mix in old words on Fridays: the words that keep coming back are the ones that stick.

Year 5 is a NAPLAN year. The Language Conventions test includes spelling, so short sentence dictations with these words are the best practice.

The years either side: Year 4 spelling words and Year 6 spelling words. For a spelling bee, see Year 5 spelling bee words.

Questions parents ask