Which rule am I in? spelling patterns

What do 11+ spelling questions test?

Not spelling in general — a handful of patterns the paper returns to. Plurals that break the ordinary rule, prefixes, suffixes, and words that sound identical and are spelled differently.

By Year 5 your child almost certainly knows these rules. The difficulty is knowing which rule they are in, and that is what costs the marks.

Four questions, in this order

Naming the question is genuinely half the answer. A child who says "this is a suffix" has already narrowed twenty rules to two.

The plurals that break the pattern

Three groups, and only the third is really a memory job.

Words that change inside rather than taking the ordinary ending: tooth becomes teeth and mouse becomes mice, where the vowels change and nothing is added on the end. Child becomes children, which belongs with them as an irregular plural but does take an ending of its own, -ren.

Words English borrowed. A Latin word ending in -us often takes -i: fungus, fungi. A Greek word ending in -is swaps to -es: crisis, crises. Oasis, oases.

Words that do not change at all: sheep, deer, salmon, aircraft, species. One sheep, four sheep.

These cannot be worked out from a rule and have to be learnt — but there are far fewer than most people expect, and the papers use the same handful over and over.

The diagram takes three of those words and shows what happens to each: a vowel change, an irregular ending, and a plural that is spelled exactly like the singular.

Prefixes leave the root alone

This is the distinction that decides most of the rest.

A prefix goes on the front and the root is untouched: possible is still spelled possible inside impossible; necessary is still necessary inside unnecessary.

A suffix goes on the end, and the root may change or may stay exactly as it was: happy becomes happiness and travel becomes travelling, but kind becomes kindness and help becomes helpful with nothing altered.

One further wrinkle worth knowing: the prefix itself sometimes changes shape to suit the word that follows. In- becomes im- before a p — impossible, impatient — and il- before an l. The root still does not change, which is the part that matters.

Where do pupils lose marks?

Not naming the family, and applying the ordinary rule to a word that breaks it.

Changing the root after a prefix, which produces spellings like unecessary.

Answering a homophone question by sound. If two words sound the same, sound cannot decide it — only meaning can, which is why that question stops your child rather than speeding them up.

Try it yourself

For each one, name which of the four questions you are in before you answer.

1. What is the plural of crisis?
2. What is the plural of aircraft?
3. Spell the word meaning 'not possible' using a prefix.
4. Add -ing to travel.
5. Which is correct: five deers or five deer?

Show Answers

How much practice does this type need at home?

Ten minutes twice a week, and sorting beats copying. Give your child six words and ask which of the four families each belongs to before spelling any of them.

That builds the skill the paper actually tests, and it works on words your child has never seen — which writing out a list of twenty does not.