Putting the ‘S’ in SPaG A whistle-stop tour

Plurals just add an s (word ends in consonant or e) change y to i add -es -ch,-sh,-x, -s add-es -f changes to v add-es (thief-thieves) change the word completely! (person-people) Just because there is an s there, it does not mean that it needs an apostrophe.

Verb endings present and future tense Add -ing (some nouns): building,climbing, sprawling, vanishing. Drop final -e/ add -ing: exciting, raising, amazing, wrestling. Short vowel/double consonant/ add -ing: stopping, beginning.

Verb endings past tense Add -ed: camped, echoed, stretched, discovered, transformed. Short vowel/double consonant/add -ed: grabbed, planned Change the y to i/add -ed: carried, qualified, satisfied, married. Add -d: arrived, injured, judged, released, replaced, illuminated.

double consonants/short vowels (word ends in consonant or e): actually, generally, physically. add -ly consonant/long vowel: frequently, highly, perfectly, smoothly, thoroughly, importantly. add -ly word ends e (e needed for rest of word): approximately, extremely. remove e/add -ly word ends e (removing won’t change the rest of the word): gently Adverbs

i before e except after c sound ee/put ie believe pierce fierce shriek mischief niece after c: deceive receive ceiling ay sound: eight vein weight

Prefixes Need to know key prefixes advertise, almost. believe. destructive, despite. disappeared, disturbed, discovered. encounter, encourage, ensure. important, exclusive. injured, inspecting, invention, involved. preserve, prevent. produce, together. transformed, transported. uncoiled, unusual. permission, responsible.

Suffixes key suffixes+rules to add beautiful, carefully, colourful, effortless, hopeful, regardless, successful, wonderful, responsible.

Superlatives Add –est to denote the ‘best’ of a group of objects biggest, largest, nastiest, tallest, widest

Comparatives Add –er to make direct comparisons taller, larger, bigger, nastier, wider

Compound Words Some words are made by joining two roots together countryside, headquarters, themselves, throughout

Double consonants Used to protect/create short vowel sounds in words apprehensive, common, different, difficult, excellent, follow, million, opposite, passenger, pollution, press, slippery, still, successful, sunny, permission, currency, common, opportunity.

Silent Letters Many letters are used ‘silently’ in words. castles, climbing, designed, different, environment, hedges, interesting, knowledge, known, should, strength, stretched, surprise, wrestling

Shun sound Shun sound There are five ways of spelling this sound shun ; for the word ‘shun’ -cian ; for words describing jobs -tion ; as a suffix linked to actions -sion ; often for emotive words and adjectives -tian ; physician, musician Completion, direction, generation, destination. pension, expression, division, television, Egyptian, Christian, Dalmatian.

-ive words Usually used as a suffix; often misspelled as -iv, -eve or –ave. It follows the normal suffix rules apprehensive, destructive, expensive

-al words special, digital, festival, individual, original, individuals Can be made in a number of ways. Frequently misspelled at the end of words, where a –y should be used. accuracy, emergency, noisy, ready, sunny ee sounds

These words have the same sound as another, but are spelt differently heard (herd), practice (practise), weight (wait), where (wear, ware) homophones

Common Words These words incorporate a range of spelling rules and sound patterns, including some of those listed above – can you spot them? amongst, anchors, audience, aware, between, breeze, capable, change, complete, crawl, crept, first, future, journey, moment, most, mysterious, perform, press, purpose, realistic, serious, shook, silence, sneeze, symbol, technique, top, tumble, luxury, delicate, ordinary, fibres.