Words Ending in -ng and -nk Word Search

Hum the end of the word RING with a hand on your throat. Feel where it buzzes — right at the back, almost in the throat itself. The -ng sound is made further back in the mouth than nearly any other sound in English, and that hiding place is exactly why children so often leave its G out of their spelling.

This word search contains fifteen words: eight ending in -ng (RING, SING, KING, LONG) and seven ending in -nk (THINK, BANK, DRINK, PINK). It is designed for Year 1 and Year 2 pupils covering these endings from Phase 3 of Letters and Sounds, and for first grade readers in the US. Words run left-to-right and top-to-bottom only.

RING · SING · KING · LONG · SONG · HANG · BANG · WING · THINK · BANK · DRINK · PINK · SINK · WINK · LINK

The sounds at the back of the mouth

Children say RING and THINK perfectly in speech — the trouble only starts at the pencil. Because the -ng sound is a single sound made by two letters, and because it lives so far back in the mouth, children hear “rin” and write RIN. The spelling fix is knowing the pattern exists; the hearing fix is the hum test above, which makes the back-of-mouth buzz physically findable.

The -nk ending is -ng’s close cousin with a kick: say DRINK slowly and you will hear the back-of-mouth sound followed by a sharp little /k/. That kick is the reliable way to tell the two endings apart — SING flows to a stop, SINK ends with a click. A child who can feel for the kick never has to guess between the spellings.

Five words to practise

1. SING is a word that does what it says. When your child finds it, sing it — one note, the word held long. The -ng is the only part of a word you can sustain musically, which is its own little proof that it isn’t a plain N.
2. RING, KING, SING and WING are a family. Ask your child to find all four, then crown the set: which -ing word would a KING wear? Family plus a silly question equals four spellings for the price of one.
3. WINK is a challenge. Ask your child to wink when they find it. Half of any class cannot wink without scrunching both eyes, and the giggles weld the word into memory.
4. BANG gets exactly one clap. Rule: when anyone finds BANG, one single clap, no more. Restraint is half the fun, and the word’s meaning arrives through the hands.
5. THINK comes with a pose. Chin on fist, frown of concentration. Then the listening question: is there a kick at the end? Yes — /k/ — so it is -nk. They have just used the test on a real word.

Three ways to anchor the endings

As a hum-and-feel warm-up. Hands on throats, the class hums the ends of NET, then RING. The buzz moves from the front of the mouth to the back — children can feel it travel. Two words, one hand, and the invisible difference between /n/ and /ng/ becomes a physical fact before the puzzle begins.

As a kick-detector sort in pairs. Pairs read each found word aloud and listen for the kick: flowing stop means -ng column, sharp /k/ click means -nk column. Fifteen words, fifteen verdicts, and by the end the pair owns a test they can run on any word forever — THANK, STRONG, TRUNK, all of them.

One-to-one at home. For parents teaching at home, play sing-the-spelling: pick four -ng words and chant each one’s letters to a made-up tune — R-I-N-G, sung, not said. Spellings set to music use a different memory route entirely (every adult who can still spell B-I-N-G-O knows this). Two minutes at bath time, and the silent G stops going missing.

What comes next

• Words ending in -le word search — the series’ first two-syllable words
• Diphthongs: ou and ow word search — the previous puzzle in this series
• All spelling word searches — the full series from foundation phonics to Year 6

Free for personal, classroom and home-school use. If you share this resource, please link back rather than reupload — it helps keep the site free for everyone.