Year 4 English · Spelling patterns in depth · Summary

Year 4 English Spelling patterns in depth: summary and key words

Part of the Year 4 English spelling patterns in depth chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

Chapter summary

Skill	Method
The y in the middle that makes the i sound	gymnast, rhythm, physics, cylinder, syrup, lynx, Olympic, hymn, cygnet. Cycle and hydrant have the eye sound.
The u sound spelt ou, and spelt o	colour, colourful, colourless, tough, rough, youngster; come, love, some, mother, month
Greek and French ch	k sound: anchor, stomach, chaos, character, architect, mechanic; sh sound: moustache, parachute, chandelier, crochet, avalanche
-gue, -que and sc	gue (g sound): plague, fatigue, dialogue; que (k sound): cheque, mosque, opaque, boutique; sc (s sound): scenery, scent, ascend, fascinate, crescent
The ay sound spelt ei, eigh, ey and aigh	ei: veil, reign, beige; eigh: freight, weight, eighteen, neigh; ey: convey, survey, disobey; aigh: straighten, straightforward
Homophones and near-homophones	dessert/desert, stationary/stationery, principal/principle, council/counsel, pair/pear, board/bored, steal/steel, tail/tale, whole/hole, loose/lose, aloud/allowed, rein/rain/reign
Unusual spellings and silent letters	ph (f): alphabet, graph, elephant; wr (r): wrist, wrinkle; kn (n): knuckle, knowledge; gn (n): gnome, foreign; mn (n silent): autumn, column; gh (f or g): laugh, ghost; rh (r): rhyme, rhubarb

I can spell words with y in the middle that make the i sound
I can spell the u sound with ou and with o, and tell which spelling a word uses
I can spell Greek and French words with ch, and say which sound the ch makes
I can spell words ending in -gue and -que, and words with sc
I can spell the ay sound with ei, eigh, ey and aigh
I can choose the right homophone or near-homophone by its meaning
I can spot silent letters and unusual spellings such as ph, wr, kn, gn, mn, gh and rh

vowel letter: one of the letters a, e, i, o or u; y can act as a vowel letter in the middle of a word
consonant letter: any letter that is not a vowel letter, such as b, c, d or y at the start of yes
homophone: a word that sounds the same as another word, but has a different spelling and meaning
near-homophone: a word that sounds almost the same as another word, with a different meaning
silent letter: a letter that is written in a word but is not said, such as the w in wrist
unusual spelling: a spelling where the letters do not make the sound you might expect, such as ph for the f sound