Some words cannot be sounded out the way they look. Their spelling has to be learned by heart, and we call these tricky words. One of the best ways to learn a tricky word is the look, say, cover, write, check routine. It trains both your eyes and your hand to remember the exact letters in the exact order.
If a letter is wrong, do not just erase it. Look hard at that one letter, then try the whole word again from the start.
Choose six tricky words from this pack. For each word, look at it carefully, cover it, then write it from memory in the first column. Uncover the word, check your writing, then write it correctly one more time in the second column.
| Word to learn | Write it from memory | Write it correctly |
|---|---|---|
| because | ||
| friend | ||
| beautiful | ||
| said | ||
| would | ||
| could |
Some tricky words are worth an extra memory trick because they turn up so often in your writing. Here are two tricks that work well.
A mnemonic (say it "nem-on-ik") is a saying that helps you remember spelling. Take the tricky letters and turn them into a silly sentence, one word for every letter. Silly sentences are easier to remember than the plain spelling ever is.
Another trick is chunking: break a long word into smaller pieces, or spot a smaller word hiding inside it.
Chunking works well for beautiful: split it into beau-ti-ful, three small chunks instead of one long word. Friend hides a smaller word at the end, fri-END, so remember that a true friend stays with you right to the end. Could, would and should all share the same tricky middle, o-u-l-d, with a silent l you cannot hear, only the first letter or two changes between the three words.
Match each tricky word to the memory trick that helps you remember it. Write the matching letter in the box.
Their, there and they're sound exactly the same when you say them out loud. Words like this are called homophones, but each one is spelled differently and means something different.
Their shows something belongs to more than one person, it is a possessive word, for example "That is their cubby house." There points to a place, or starts a sentence about something existing, and it has the word "here" hiding inside it, both there and here talk about place, for example "Put your bag over there." They're is short for "they are", the apostrophe stands in for the missing letters, for example "They're building a sandcastle."
Choose the word that correctly completes each sentence. Circle the letter of your answer.
1. The children left ___ bags on the bus.
2. ___ going to the beach after lunch.
3. Put the box down over ___.
4. ___ dog buried a bone in the garden.
5. Look, ___ is a rainbow in the sky!
Each sentence below has one tricky word spelt wrong. Find the misspelt word and write it correctly on the line.
1. I stayed home becos I felt sick.
2. My best frend is coming over today.
3. The sunset over the beach was so beutiful.
4. She sed she would be a little late.
5. We shud pack an umbrella, just in case.
Challenge: write your own sentence for each tricky word below. Use the word correctly and spell it correctly. Try using one of the memory tricks from this pack before you start.
1. because
2. beautiful
3. their
4. they're
For the parent or supervisor: set this page aside before handing over the worksheet.
Same Year 3 English outcomes, printed on A4 with a parent answer sheet, rebuilt around whatever your child is into this week - dinosaurs, Minecraft, horses, you name it.
Make your own printableThis is a fixed example. Sprout writes a fresh, personalised worksheet pack around your child every time - the example is the ad, the product is the personalisation.