Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 3

FORTY quietly drops the U that FOUR insists on. We count four, fourteen, and then — without warning — forty. It is the kind of small inconsistency that catches careful spellers off guard precisely because they are paying attention.

This third set of Years 5-6 statutory words from the DfE gathers a number of the most reliably misspelled words in English — EMBARRASS, ENVIRONMENT, EXAGGERATE — alongside a few that defy expectation, like FORTY and FOREIGN. These are words where slowing down and looking closely makes all the difference, which is exactly what a word search invites.

DETERMINED · DEVELOP · DICTIONARY · DISASTROUS · EMBARRASS · ENVIRONMENT · EQUIPMENT · ESPECIALLY · EXAGGERATE · EXCELLENT · EXISTENCE · EXPLANATION · FAMILIAR · FOREIGN · FORTY

Words that reward looking twice

EMBARRASS has a double R and a double S. Adults misspell it constantly, dropping one of the doublings. EXAGGERATE has a double G that almost nobody hears. EXCELLENT has a double L. ENVIRONMENT has a silent N in the middle (“en-VYE-ronment” is how most people say it, but the spelling keeps the N). FOREIGN has an unexpected EI that says “uh” — short, almost silent. And FORTY has dropped the U from FOUR for reasons no rule explains.

Several words here follow rules from earlier puzzles. DISASTROUS uses the -ous suffix from S49 (DISASTER + -ous, with the E dropping — the S33 rule still on duty). EXPLANATION uses -tion from S47. EXISTENCE uses -ence from S63 (and its adjective partner EXISTENT uses -ent from S64). EQUIPMENT is built on the -ment suffix from S39. ESPECIALLY is SPECIAL (B14, S66 -cial family) plus -LY (S40). The whole second half of the set is rule-spotting, not memorisation — which is exactly the system Series A has been quietly building toward.

Five to dwell on

1. EMBARRASS has a double R and a double S. Find it. Have your child circle both doublings: RR and SS. Memory hook: “embarrassment is doubly embarrassing” — two doublings, both essential. Adults get this one wrong constantly.
2. EXAGGERATE has a double G nobody hears. Say it slowly: ex-AG-er-ate. Most people say “egg-zaggerate” with no audible double. Tell your child: trust the spelling, not the speech. Same trick as PROBABLY from B14.
3. FOREIGN has EI that says nothing much. Cover the EI and ask your child to read FORN — which is roughly how the word is said. The EI is a fossil from French — same family as REIGN (B14) and EIGHT (B10). Three words, one inherited spelling.
4. FORTY dropped the U from FOUR. Write FOUR and FORTY side by side. Same number-family, different spelling. Tell your child: this is the only sensible explanation — the U was lost centuries ago and never returned. FOUR has it, FORTY doesn’t, FOURTEEN keeps it. Pure history, no logic.
5. DISASTROUS uses S49’s -ous rule. The base DISASTER drops the E before -OUS. Same rule that made GLORY into GLORIOUS in S49. Old toolkit, Year 6 vocabulary.

A reflective way to use it

As a misspelled-word court starter. Project five common adult misspellings on the board: EMBARASS, EXAGERATE, ENVIRONMENT (correct, but ask if it looks right), FORIEGN, FOURTY. Class judges each one and corrects where needed. Some genuinely correct words look wrong to children at first glance — and that’s the point. Trust the page, not the ear.

As a rule-rebuilding pair task. Pairs find every grid word that uses a Series A rule: DISASTROUS (-ous, S49), EXPLANATION (-tion, S47), EXISTENCE (-ence, S63), EQUIPMENT (-ment, S39), ESPECIALLY (-cial + -ly, S66 + S40), DETERMINED (-ed no change, S31). Six words from one grid using six rules from Series A. The exercise proves Year 6 vocabulary is built on foundations children laid years earlier.

One-to-one at home. For home educators, take this set into editing practice. Find a short news article or magazine column online and have your child read it carefully, hunting for any of the puzzle words in real use. (EMBARRASS, ENVIRONMENT, EQUIPMENT, EXCELLENT and DETERMINED turn up in published writing constantly.) For each find, your child writes the sentence into a notebook and circles the target word. Reading with a spelling target on turns reading into editing — the deepest form of attention to words.

What comes next

• Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 4 — prefix-built words and silent letters
• Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 2 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

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