Spelling Stars
Primary 5 spelling words: commonly misspelt
- because
- beautiful
- believe
- business
- definitely
- different
- disappear
- embarrass
- environment
- especially
- favourite
- friend
- government
- grammar
- immediately
- knowledge
- necessary
- occasion
- particular
- possession
- probably
- queue
- receive
- recommend
- rhythm
- separate
- surprise
- tomorrow
How to practise these words
Almost every word here goes wrong in one particular place, and finding that place is the whole of the work. Ask your child to write the word, then compare it with the correct spelling and underline the single letter or pair of letters that differs, rather than rewriting the word five times. "Separate" is usually written with an e in the middle, "definitely" with an a, and "government" loses the n that nobody says. The double letters are their own group: "embarrass", "possession", "recommend" and "necessary" are mostly a question of remembering which letter doubles and which does not. Six words an evening is enough for a list like this, and a word your child gets right twice in a row can be dropped for a fortnight.
Where these words come from
These are words that appear on almost every published list of common spelling errors, cross-checked against the public-domain Fry frequency list so that each one is common enough to be worth the effort. None of them comes from a school's own spelling programme.