Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 6

RHYTHM has six letters and not a single vowel among them. Two Ys carry the whole word, doing a job the language usually hands to A, E, I, O or U. It is a small reminder that English spelling keeps its strangest surprises for the very end.

This sixth set of Years 5-6 statutory words from the DfE is rich in silent letters and borrowed spellings — the silent letters of SOLDIER and SIGNATURE, the Greek-derived RH of RHYME and RHYTHM, the French shape of RESTAURANT. These are words that reward slow, attentive looking rather than sounding out.

RECOGNISE · RECOMMEND · RELEVANT · RESTAURANT · RHYME · RHYTHM · SACRIFICE · SECRETARY · SHOULDER · SIGNATURE · SINCERELY · SOLDIER · STOMACH · SUFFICIENT · SUGGEST

Words shaped by other languages

Several of these spellings come from English’s habit of importing words and keeping their original clothes. RHYME and RHYTHM both start with RH — a Greek pattern that English preserved (the same RH in RHINOCEROS and RHODODENDRON). The R-then-silent-H signals an old Greek borrowing every time. RESTAURANT has a French ending — AURANT, with the U doing French work. SOLDIER has a silent I from old French (pronounced “SOL-jer”). STOMACH has an Italian Greek origin too (the CH says K, same as in S46’s SCHOOL).

A few words also tie back to Series A patterns. RECOMMEND has a doubled M — same family as COMMITTEE from B17. SIGNATURE uses -ture from S50 (the “cher” suffix). SACRIFICE has a soft C from B10. SUFFICIENT has the -cient ending children met as -tial/-cial in S66 (after a vowel -cial; after a consonant -tial; -cient is the same machinery). RECOGNISE uses the British -ISE ending where US English writes -IZE (RECOGNIZE) — same national split as FAVOURITE, NEIGHBOUR, PROGRAMME from earlier B sets.

Five to look at slowly

1. RHYTHM has no vowels. Find it. Have your child read it letter by letter: R-H-Y-T-H-M. Two Ys, two Hs, one R, one T, one M — six letters, no A E I O U anywhere. Tell them: Y is the secret vowel, doing the I’s job. Same trick as MY and CRY from S02.
2. RHYME and RHYTHM share a start. Both begin RH — the Greek signature. Tell your child: when you see RH at the start of a word, you have met a word with Greek ancestry. RHINOCEROS, RHODODENDRON, RHEUMATIC. A small Greek-immigrant family worth recognising.
3. SOLDIER has a silent I. Cover the I and read SOLDER (a real word — molten metal that joins things). With the I, the word becomes SOLDIER — a serving member of the army. Spell the I, even though the I is barely heard.
4. RESTAURANT has the French ending. Cover REST and look at AURANT. The U does French work — the same U-after-A pattern in BUREAU and PLATEAU from B05. Three different French immigrants, three keeping their old clothes.
5. STOMACH has CH saying K. Cover the STOMA and read CH — it says K, not “ch”. Same trick as SCHOOL from S46. The Greek heritage shows: Greek words that came into English via Latin kept their hard CH.

An attentive way to use it

As a “what language did this come from” starter. Three columns on the board: GREEK, FRENCH, OTHER. Pairs sort the grid words by origin where they can guess: RHYME, RHYTHM (Greek), RESTAURANT, SOLDIER (French), STOMACH (Greek via Latin). Tell them the answers, and the pattern becomes visible: spellings that look strange are often spellings inherited from other languages, kept on purpose because that is how English works.

As a silent-letter detective pair task. Pairs find every silent letter in the grid. SOLDIER (silent-ish I), SIGNATURE (silent G the way GH was silent in earlier sets — though actually this G is heard, depending on accent), RECOGNISE (the G is also marginal — “REC-og-nise” or “REC-on-ise” depending on speaker), SUGGEST (one G silent, one heard). Some silences are absolute, some are flexible by accent. Naming both is honest — and it teaches children that pronunciation is regional, but spelling is national.

One-to-one at home. For home educators, take this set to the cinema or a film at home. Watch the credits roll: SOLDIER films, RESTAURANT scenes, MUSICAL credits ending in SIGNATURE. Have your child write down every grid word they spot in a film or its credits. Most modern films include several. Real-world reading of Year 6 vocabulary outlasts a hundred drills.

What comes next

• Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 7 — the final set, closing the primary spelling curriculum
• Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 5 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

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