Common Exception Words and Spelling Lists
The UK national curriculum for years 1 to 6 (year 1 to year 6) specifies a series of lists of what they call “Common Exception Words” for years 1 and 2 and spelling lists for years 3 to 6
Here are the lists
Year 1 List Common Exception Words List
push put full pull my by your our you he we me she be one once so no go has his is was to do today said says were some love come there where house friend school they ask the a I are of here
Year 2 List Common Exception Words List
door floor poor because find kind mind behind child children wild climb most only both old cold gold hold told every improve sure sugar eye could should would who whole any many clothes busy people water again half money Mr Mrs parents everybody even great break steak pretty beautiful after fast last past father class grass pass plant path bath hour move prove
Year 3 / 4 List Spelling Words List
accident accidentally actual actually address answer appear arrive believe bicycle breath breathe build busy/business calendar caught certain circle complete consider continue decide describe different difficult disappear early earth eight/eighth enough exercise experience experiment extreme famous favourite February forward(s) fruit grammar group guard guide heard heart height history imagine increase important interest island knowledge learn length library material medicine mention minute natural naughty occasion occasionally often opposite ordinary particular peculiar perhaps popular position possess possession possible potatoes pressure probably promise purpose quarter question recent regular reign remember sentence separate special straight strange suppose surprise therefore though/although thought through various weight woman/women strength centre century notice
Year 5 /6 List Spelling Words List
accommodate accompany according achieve aggressive amateur ancient apparent appreciate attached available average awkward bargain bruise category cemetery committee communicate community competition conscience conscious controversy convenience correspond critic/criticise curiosity definite desperate determined develop dictionary disastrous embarrass environment equip/equipped/equipment especially exaggerate excellent existence explanation familiar foreign forty frequently government guarantee harass hindrance identity immediate immediately individual interfere interrupt language leisure lightning marvellous mischievous muscle necessary neighbour nuisance occupy occur opportunity parliament persuade physical prejudice privilege profession programme pronunciation queue recognise recommend relevant restaurant rhyme rhythm sacrifice secretary shoulder signature sincere/sincerely soldier stomach sufficient suggest symbol system temperature thorough twelfth variety vegetable vehicle yacht
What are these lists lists of?
As far as I can tell, frankly it is anyone’s guess. You might think it was obvious. The titles of the year 1 and year 2 lists say they are “Common Exception Words”, and in the context of the phonics approach to learning to read English, they are presumably supposed to be exceptions to the regular phonics rules.
However, as I discussed in my article here …
that aint necessarily so. You could look at it, in some cases at least, like you just missed out some of the rules or words sets from your phonics system. And I tend to think that in some cases that it is an easier way to think about it.
For example some, come and love from the Year 1 Common Exception Words list are all words that have an “o” before a consonant and an “e” after a consonant producing an “uh” sound (the same as the sound that the “u” makes in umbrella). The same pattern occurs in all these words and their derivatives: money, honey, love, loved, lover, above, shove, dove, cover, glove, some, come, done, none, one*, govern, government, other, another, mother, brother. For my money, this set of words is too big to be helpfully thought of as “an exception”. It is easier (and that is the point, really) to learn this set of words as a set of words, which all follow this same pattern.
*The pronunciation of the word “one” does of course depend on regional accent, more about which is also in the linked article above.
But in any case …
Regardless of the justification for choosing these particular lists of words, given that children in the UK in years 1 to 6 are expected to be able to read and spell these words in particular with extra special fluency, it is useful to have a place to catalogue, categorise, arrange and present this set of words in a visually appealing way.
This turns out to be a good case study for the Thortspace mind-mapping software.
