GRADE 3 SPELLING RULE WORD LISTS

ear, air, ire

ear / desire / impaired
air / weary / inspired
fire / fairest / fearlessly
hear / enquire / impairment
chair / clearing / requirement

/ee/ sound ei after c (i before e except after c rule)

ceil / deceit / receiving
receive / conceive / deceitful
ceiling / perceive / perceiving
deceive / conceit / conceited

/ay/ sound spelt ei or eigh

rein / neigh / weighed
vein / weight / reining
veil / sleigh / eighteen
eight / reindeer / neighbourly

short vowel /u/ with o spelling

won / worry / Monday
month / wonder / wonderfully
tongue / monkey / nothingness

oi_e and ou_e when /s/ or /z/ sound is at the end of the word

mouse / noise / invoice
house / blouse / rehouse
voice / grouse / inhouse
choice / ounce / greenhouse
poise / pounce / fieldmouse

/ue-oo/ spelt ou

youth / troupe / wounded
through / coupon / youthful
wound (injury) / routine / groupings
group / throughout / routinely
mousse / Goulash / acoustic

Diagraphs kn, gn

know / knife / kneeling
gnu / knight / gnashing
knew / known / knighthood
gnaw / gnash / unknown
knee / gnome / kneecap
knit / knock / knowingly
knob / knead / unknowingly

Prefixes de, pre, in, con

indoors / instead / preferred
convoy / control / installed
pretend / prevents / constructed
detect / prefix / introducing
deflect / destruct / deconstruction

ph and gh for /f/ sound

laugh / laughter / draughty
cough / enough / diagraph
phone / pamphlet / elephant
tough / phonics / microphone
phrase / graphics / pharmacy

er and est (teach with superlatives and comparatives)

  • double the consonant after a short vowel (bigger, fittest)
  • on words that end with e, remove the e before adding the suffix (nicer, largest)
  • words that end with y, change the y to i before adding suffix (happiest, angrier)

harder - hardest / fitter - fittest / angrier - angriest
smaller - smallest / nicer - nicest / easier - easiest
longer - longest / softer - softest / happier - happiest
fuller - fullest / larger - largest / noisier - noisiest
louder - loudest / floppier - floppiest / nosier - nosiest
bigger- biggest / sincerer - sincerest / cosier - cosiest

homophones

court - caught / bored – board / groan – grown
night – knight / wail -whale / wood – would
their – there – they’re / ate – eight / aloud – allowed
your – you’re / wait – weight / disgust – discussed
you - ewe / waist – waste / lessen - lesson

suffixes tion, ful, sive, less, ous, tive, ate

nation / relate / interpretation
ration / relation / respectful
bashful / successful / imperative
passive / intrusive / reiterate
harmless / bottomless / conversation
native / enormous / colourfully
porous / gorgeous / cautiously
jealous / responsive / interpretively

Vowels after w

  • /or/ spelt with ar or al (walk, wart)
  • /o/ spelt with a (want, wash)
  • /u/ spelt with o (worry, wonder)
  • /er/ spelt with or (worthwhile, worm)

walk / worry / wonderful
wart / wonder / worrying
want / worthwhile / unwanted
wash / warmer / washable
won / washing / wanderer
work / wanted / waddling
worm / wander / swaddling

s for /sh/ sound(sugar, sure)

sure / pressure / insurance
sugar / surely / assurance
issue / censure / reassured
tissue / unsure / reassurance

tch after short vowel for the /ch/ sound

itch / hatch / stretches
witch / clutch / watchful
stitch / twitching / watchfulness
watch / scratches / twitchiness

contractions

I’ve / doesn’t / would’ve
we’ve / we’re / couldn’t
she’s / you’re / wouldn’t
wasn’t / they’re / shouldn’t
haven’t / they’ve / should’ve

possessive apostrophes, including ‘its’ exception (girl’s –singular vs girls’ - plural)

singular / plural
girl’s / girls’
boy’s / boys’
person’s / peoples’
bunny’s / bunnies’
leaf’s / leaves’
author’s / authors’
researcher’s / researchers’

ch for /k/ Greek origins

ch for /sh/ French origins

echo / scholar / technical
school / machine / character
ache / charade / chemistry
anchor / brochure / chandelier
chaos / chorus / chaperone
scheme / choir / orchestra
chef / stomach / technology