Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 3

Most children can say FEBRUARY perfectly well. Almost none can spell it, because the way we say it — “Feb-you-ary” — quietly drops a letter the spelling insists on. The first R is the trap, and it catches adults too.

This third set of Years 3-4 statutory words from the DfE gathers several of the words children most often get wrong, and the reasons are varied: silent letters after G, the OUR ending of British spelling, and the gap between how a word sounds and how it is written. There is also a tidy group of EX words to build confidence. The word search brings all fifteen together for focused practice.

ENOUGH · EXERCISE · EXPERIENCE · EXPERIMENT · EXTREME · FAMOUS · FAVOURITE · FEBRUARY · FORWARD · FRUIT · GRAMMAR · GROUP · GUARD · GUIDE · HEARD

The words children write wrong most often

Several words in this set are notorious. FEBRUARY drops its first R in casual speech, so children write FEBUARY. GRAMMAR ends in -AR, not -ER, which everyone gets wrong at least once. FAVOURITE keeps its British U (US English drops it — FAVORITE), and HEARD is HEAR plus a D, with the EAR-says-er pattern from B10. Then there is the silent-letter contingent: ENOUGH ends in GH that says F (a uniquely English horror — TOUGH, ROUGH, COUGH all do it), GUIDE and GUARD have silent Us tucked behind their Gs to keep the G hard (otherwise GIDE would say “jide”), and CAUGHT (from B09) had a silent GH that says nothing at all.

The EX cluster is the cheerful balance. EXERCISE, EXPERIENCE, EXPERIMENT and EXTREME all start with the EX- prefix children met in S62 (out — EXIT, EXTERNAL, EXPLORE). Same prefix, four solid Year 3 words, no spelling surprises beyond the obvious. Children who own EX- from earlier puzzles spell the front of these words effortlessly — and that is exactly the cumulative system the whole series is designed to build.

Five to slow down for

1. FEBRUARY has TWO Rs. Write it on the board and ask your child to point at each R. The first R — the FEB-ROO — is the one nobody says. Tell them plainly: most adults misspell this word. Write it once with both Rs in red and your child will probably never get it wrong again.
2. GRAMMAR ends in AR, not ER. Memory hook: GRAMMAR is the study of language, and language reaches back FAR. Far rhymes with AR. The silly hook is the memorable hook — and GRAMMAR is the one word most adults can’t spell from this set.
3. ENOUGH ends in GH that says F. Find it. Ask your child to read it slowly and notice the F sound. The GH-says-F family is small but vicious — ENOUGH, TOUGH, ROUGH, COUGH, LAUGH. Five words, one strange spelling. Naming them as a closed gang takes the fear out.
4. GUARD has a silent U. Cover the U and read GARD. The U is doing a job: keeping the G hard. Without the U, GARD would be tempting to read as “jard” (like in GIANT or GENTLE). Same trick in GUIDE — without the U, GIDE would say “jide”. The U is the C’s bodyguard from S32 but for Gs, four years later.
5. FAVOURITE has British U. Tell your child: in the US they write FAVORITE, no U. In the UK we keep it. Same word, two flags. (Same trick in COLOUR/COLOR, FLAVOUR/FLAVOR, NEIGHBOUR/NEIGHBOR. A national U.)

A practical way to use it

As a notorious-word call-out starter. Write FEBUARY, GRAMER, FAVRITE, ENUF on the board — four common misspellings. Children correct each one and explain what is wrong. Misspellings already in print are more teachable than rules in the abstract — children see the wrong choice and feel exactly why it is wrong.

As a silent-letter hunt in pairs. Pairs find every word in the grid with a silent letter: ENOUGH (silent GH-saying-F), GUARD (silent U), GUIDE (silent U), HEARD (silent A in the EAR), maybe others. Then they label what kind of silent each one is (totally silent, or doing a job like keeping the G hard). Different kinds of silence make a useful taxonomy — one some adults have never noticed exists.

One-to-one at home. For parents teaching at home, take the calendar challenge: every day in February for one week, your child writes the date in full — “1st FEBRUARY 2026”, “2nd FEBRUARY 2026” — and the spelling has to be correct. Seven mornings, seven correct writings of the trap word. Repetition with a real anchor (today’s date) outlasts repetition with a worksheet anchor (anonymous practice).

What comes next

• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 4 — silent letters that sit on the page doing nothing audible
• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 2 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

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