Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 6

SEPARATE has an A sitting in the middle where almost everyone wants to write an E. It is one of the most commonly misspelled words in English — adults get it wrong constantly — and the fix is a single memorable phrase: there is A RAT in sepARATe.

This sixth set of Years 3-4 statutory words from the DfE mixes everyday troublemakers like SEPARATE and PROBABLY with the QU words and a few silent-letter surprises. Several of these are words children will keep misspelling for years unless the trap is pointed out early. The word search gathers all fifteen for one practical practice session.

POTATOES · PRESSURE · PROBABLY · PROMISE · PURPOSE · QUARTER · QUESTION · RECENT · REGULAR · REIGN · REMEMBER · SENTENCE · SEPARATE · SPECIAL · STRAIGHT

Words worth a memory trick

A few words in this set are best learned with a small mnemonic, because the spelling fights against the way the word sounds. SEPARATE is the classic: “there is A RAT in sepARATe” pins the troublesome A in place forever. PROBABLY has the same problem in reverse — children write PROBALY because the middle B is barely audible. Have your child say PROB-AB-LY out loud, three syllables, both Bs clear. STRAIGHT has the silent GH from S46 saying nothing, hiding behind the AI. POTATOES is a tidy trap of its own: most -O nouns add -S for plural, but POTATO, TOMATO and HERO all add -ES (POTATOES, TOMATOES, HEROES). Three words, one rule worth flagging.

The other half of the set rewards spotting old patterns. QUARTER and QUESTION both start with QU saying “kw” — the same QU children met in S09. RECENT has a soft C from B10. REGULAR has the same -AR ending as GRAMMAR from B11. SPECIAL is the -cial pattern from S66 (vowel E before -cial). SENTENCE is the -ence pattern from S63 — and its adjective partner SENTIENT (rare) would use -ent. The whole second half of the set is rule-spotting, not memorisation.

Five to flag clearly

1. SEPARATE has A RAT in it. Find the word. Ask your child to circle the four middle letters: A-R-A-T. There is a rat hiding in the middle, and now the A in the middle is unforgettable. One mnemonic, learned once, used forever.
2. PROBABLY has three syllables. Say it slowly: PROB-AB-LY. The middle B is the trap, because everyone says “prob-ly” in casual speech. Mouth fix: three syllables in school, even if you slip to two at the dinner table.
3. POTATOES needs -ES. Some -O nouns add just S (PIANOS), others add -ES (POTATOES, TOMATOES, HEROES). Tell your child: the food words go with -ES. PIANOS aren’t food; potatoes are. Loose rule, useful hook.
4. STRAIGHT has a silent GH (S46 family). Cover the GH and read STRAIT (also a real word — a narrow channel of water — and a homophone of STRAIGHT). Same trick, same silent GH that haunts CAUGHT, NAUGHT, TAUGHT.
5. QUARTER is one fourth. Ask your child: how many minutes in a quarter of an hour? (Fifteen.) Then check the spelling — QU at the start (S09), AR in the middle (S24’s r-controlled vowels), -ER at the end. Three rules in one word.

Using it well at home or school

As a mnemonic-making starter. Write SEPARATE on the board and unveil “A RAT in sepARATe”. Then challenge the class: invent a memory trick for PROBABLY, REMEMBER, STRAIGHT. (“REMEMBER has THREE Es!” “STRAIGHT goes STRAIGHT, no curves — and no audible GH!”) Children’s own mnemonics outlast borrowed ones, because the brain that made the hook is the brain that remembers.

As a rule-spotting pair task. Pairs spot every grid word that uses a rule from an earlier puzzle. QU words (S09) — QUARTER, QUESTION. Soft C (B10) — RECENT, SENTENCE. -cial (S66) — SPECIAL. Silent GH (S46) — STRAIGHT. -ence (S63) — SENTENCE. After two minutes most of the set has been re-categorised as old learning. The exercise rebuilds the system in front of children’s eyes.

One-to-one at home. For parents teaching at home, run a kitchen vegetable inventory. POTATOES, TOMATOES, plus whatever’s in the fridge. Your child writes the shopping list and labels the plural ending each time: -ES for the food words, -S for everything else. Five real plurals in a real list outlasts twenty drilled ones. Same trick as B07’s thank-you note: real audiences, real spellings.

What comes next

• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 7 — closing the Years 3-4 list with the OUGH family
• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 5 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

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