Year 6 English · Spelling -ant, -ent, -able and -ible · Summary

Year 6 English Spelling -ant, -ent, -able and -ible: summary and key words

Part of the Year 6 English spelling -ant, -ent, -able and -ible chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

Chapter summary

Skill	Method
-ant, -ance, -ancy	Take off -ant from the word you know, then add -ance or -ancy: assistant, assistance, vacant, vacancy.
-ent, -ence, -ency	Take off -ent, then add -ence or -ency: confident, confidence, urgent, urgency.
No clear family	Learn the spelling: important, different, elephant, parent.
-able	After a root word that is a whole word. Drop a silent e first: love, lovable; enjoy, enjoyable.
-ible	After a root that is not a word on its own: vis, visible; horr, horrible. Sensible is an exception.
-ably, -ibly	Drop the e from the adjective, then add -y: reasonable, reasonably; visible, visibly.

I can find a word family, and change -ant to -ance or -ancy
I can change -ent to -ence or -ency, using the family word
I can learn the words that have no clear family, such as important and different
I can add -able to a whole-word root, dropping a silent e first
I can add -ible to a root that is not a word on its own
I know that sensible is an exception to learn
I can make adverbs ending in -ably and -ibly
I can check a spelling in the word family or in a dictionary

word family: a group of words that share a root word, such as assist, assistant and assistance
root word: the word that other words are made from, by adding a prefix or a suffix
suffix: a group of letters added to the end of a word, such as -ance or -able
silent e: an e at the end of a word that is not spoken, such as the e in love
adjective: a word that describes a noun, such as washable or visible
adverb: a word that tells how, when or where an action happens, such as reasonably
exception: a word that does not follow the usual rule, so it must be learned
dictionary: a book that gives the spelling, meaning and origin of words