Spelling
Spotting and correcting spelling errors, understanding common spelling rules and tricky words.
What is Spelling?
Spelling questions in the 11+ test your knowledge of common spelling rules, tricky words and homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). You may be asked to identify the correctly spelled word, spot errors in a passage, or complete a word with missing letters.
Step-by-Step Method
Learn the key spelling rules
i before e except after c (receive, believe). Drop the e before adding -ing (make/making). Double the consonant after a short vowel (run/running).
Know your homophones
their/there/they’re, too/to/two, where/wear/were, its/it’s, your/you’re, hear/here, piece/peace.
Learn common tricky words
necessary, separate, definitely, because, accommodate, embarrass, immediately, beginning, occurred.
Use mnemonics
Create memory aids: “because – Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants”.
Check by writing the word out
If it looks wrong, it probably is. Try writing it a different way and see which looks right.
Worked Examples
Which word is spelled incorrectly: “The children were definately excited about the trip.”
Working
- Check each word carefully.
- “definately” looks wrong. The correct spelling is “definitely”.
- Remember: “definitely” has “finite” in the middle.
Add -ing to “swim”.
Working
- Swim has a short vowel (i) followed by a single consonant (m).
- Double the consonant before adding -ing.
Choose the correct word: “The dog wagged (its/it’s) tail.”
Working
- “its” = belonging to it (possessive).
- “it’s” = it is (contraction).
- Here we mean the tail belonging to the dog.
Common Mistakes
Confusing homophones, especially their/there/they’re and its/it’s.
their = belonging to them, there = a place, they’re = they are. its = belonging to it, it’s = it is.
Forgetting to double consonants when adding suffixes (e.g. writing “runing” instead of “running”).
Short vowel + single consonant = double it before adding -ing, -ed, -er.
Spelling words as they sound (e.g. “seperate” instead of “separate”).
Many English words are not spelled as they sound. Learn the tricky ones by heart.
Top Tips
- Read widely – the more you see words spelled correctly, the easier it becomes to spot errors.
- Keep a personal list of words you find tricky and practise them regularly.
- Break long words into syllables: Wed-nes-day, Feb-ru-ary, gov-ern-ment.
- Use the “look, cover, write, check” method to learn spellings.
Ready to practise?
Put these techniques into action with our free practice papers.
Practise English Questions