Year 2 Common Exception Words Set 5

Here is some good news for tired spellers. If a child can already spell EVERY, ANY, SOME and NO, then most of these fifteen words are already half-learned — because each one is just two smaller words joined together.

This is the final set of Year 2 common exception words from the DfE statutory list. It gathers the compound tricky words: EVERYBODY, SOMETHING, ANYWHERE and their relatives, alongside CHRISTMAS to round out the list. They look long and daunting on the page, but every one is built from familiar parts. The word search is a chance for children to practise spotting those parts — to see EVERY inside EVERYTHING and HERE inside SOMEWHERE — and to mark the end of the Year 2 statutory list, a real milestone.

CHRISTMAS · EVERYBODY · EVERYTHING · EVERYONE · EVERYWHERE · ANYBODY · ANYTHING · ANYONE · ANYWHERE · SOMETHING · SOMEONE · SOMEBODY · SOMEWHERE · NOTHING · NOWHERE

Big words made of small words

This set is built on a single, genuinely useful idea: a long word is much less frightening when you can see the small words it is made from. EVERYBODY is EVERY + BODY. EVERYWHERE is EVERY + WHERE. ANYTHING is ANY + THING. SOMEONE is SOME + ONE. NOWHERE is NO + WHERE. Four starting words — EVERY, ANY, SOME, NO — combine with four endings — BODY, THING, ONE, WHERE — to make thirteen of these fifteen.

This is the spelling principle children met in S43’s compound words puzzle, applied to the trickiest words in the Year 2 list. The big revelation is that learning isn’t fifteen items — it is four starter words plus four endings, and a habit of looking for the join. The starters mostly come from earlier sets (EVERY from B05, ANY from B07, SOME and NO from Year 1). The endings — BODY, THING, ONE, WHERE — are all already familiar from everyday speech. The whole set is a recombination, and naming that openly takes most of the fear out of it.

Five to break apart as they search

1. EVERYTHING splits into EVERY + THING. Have your child draw a line down the middle of the word, separating the two halves. Two small words they already know, side by side. Suddenly EVERYTHING is much less of a word and much more of an arrangement.
2. SOMEWHERE contains HERE. Cover SOME and read WHERE. Cover SOMEW and read HERE. Two words inside one — and HERE has been a tricky word since B02. Words contain other words; spelling rewards looking inside.
3. NOTHING and NOWHERE come from NO. Find both. The NO at the front is the same little word your child has spelled since Reception. The whole set is recombination, not reinvention.
4. ANYONE is ANY + ONE. Ask your child to spot the small words. ANY (from set 4) plus ONE (a Year 1 tricky word). Two old friends, joined up. The whole word is the sum of two parts — and the parts are already learned.
5. CHRISTMAS is the odd one out. Ask your child to find the one word in the grid that doesn’t break into smaller English words. CHRISTMAS comes from CHRIST + MAS (mass, the religious service) — so even the odd one out is technically a compound, but with a base most children don’t recognise. Tell them the story; spelling lessons that include a tiny piece of cultural knowledge stick harder.

Making the most of it

As a split-the-word starter. On the board, write five long words from the grid without spaces, but with their joins marked: EVERY|BODY, SOME|WHERE, ANY|THING, NO|WHERE, EVERY|ONE. The vertical lines do the splitting for children. Then ask: which small words are working together? Two-minute starter, every long word reduced to a familiar pair.

As a compound-builder in pairs. Pairs are given the four starter words (EVERY, ANY, SOME, NO) and the four endings (BODY, THING, ONE, WHERE). They make every legal combination — twelve of which exist as real English words, four of which don’t (NOBODY exists but NEVERBODY does not; EVERYONE exists; SOMEWHERE exists). The act of building from parts is the act of understanding the structure.

One-to-one at home. For homeschooling families, this is the closing milestone of the Year 2 statutory list — your child has now met every word the National Curriculum considers essential through Year 2. To mark it, run a small ceremony: read the full Year 2 list aloud together one last time, let your child tick off each word they know on sight. Wobbly ones get a sticky note on the fridge for a few days more. No test, no pressure. The achievement is the journey — five sets, seventy-five words, the foundation of independent reading in place.

What comes next

• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 1 — the next stage, with longer words like ACCIDENT, BELIEVE and ENOUGH
• Year 2 Common Exception Words Set 4 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

Free for classroom and home use. If you find this useful, linking back rather than reuploading helps keep the site free for everyone.