KS2 English textbook

Chapter 1: Spelling -cious, -tious, -cial and -tial

Strand Spelling
Level Year 6
Practice 111 questions with step-by-step solutions

National Curriculum for England, Key Stage 2 English, Year 6. Content: Spell the ending -cious after a root word ending in -ce, e.g. grace, gracious (Y5-6 spelling), Spell the ending -tious after a root word ending in -tion, e.g. ambition, ambitious (Y5-6 spelling), Spell the sound /sh/ followed by /ul/ as -cial after a vowel letter, e.g. official, special (Y5-6 spelling), Spell the same sound as -tial after a consonant letter, e.g. essential, confidential, and learn the exceptions (Y5-6 spelling), Learn words that do not follow a root-word rule, and check the spelling in a dictionary (Y5-6 spelling).

Open Year 6 chapter

By the end of this chapter you will be able to

Find the root word, and use -cious after -ce and -tious after -tion
Use the letter before the ending to choose -cial or -tial
Learn the exceptions, such as initial and commercial, and the words delicious and suspicious
Check a spelling in a dictionary, and explain the rule in one sentence

You should already know

Adding suffixes to root words, and spelling the new word (Year 4 spelling, Chapter 3 of the Year 4 book)
Root words and the meaning of a word (Year 4 spelling)

Where this leads

Spelling -ant, -ent, -able and -ible (Chapter 2 of this book)
Root words, prefixes and the statutory word list (Chapters 3 and 4 of this book)

Lessons in this chapter

Read the whole chapter on one page (good for printing).

Practise with real exam questions

The DfE publishes every past KS2 test, with mark schemes, for free.

KS2 English past papers