Updated 29 October 2026

Statutory spelling lists

The two official word lists from the national curriculum for England, in full, with the common exception words for Years 1 and 2.

Years 3 and 4: 100 words, from accident to woman/women. Years 5 and 6: 100 words, from accommodate to yacht.

Both lists are statutory: state schools in England must teach them during Key Stage 2 (Years 3 to 6). They mix words children use often with words they often get wrong.

Jump to:

Year 3 and 4 spelling list
Year 5 and 6 spelling list
Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words

Year 3 and 4 spelling list (100 words)

accident(ally)	actual(ly)	address	answer
appear	arrive	believe	bicycle
breath	breathe	build	busy/business
calendar	caught	centre	century
certain	circle	complete	consider
continue	decide	describe	different
difficult	disappear	early	earth
eight/eighth	enough	exercise	experience
experiment	extreme	famous	favourite
February	forward(s)	fruit	grammar
group	guard	guide	heard
heart	height	history	imagine
important	increase	interest	island
knowledge	learn	length	library
material	medicine	mention	minute
natural	naughty	notice	occasion(ally)
often	opposite	ordinary	particular
peculiar	perhaps	popular	position
possess(ion)	possible	potatoes	pressure
probably	promise	purpose	quarter
question	recent	regular	reign
remember	sentence	separate	special
straight	strange	strength	suppose
surprise	therefore	though/although	thought
through	various	weight	woman/women

Year 5 and 6 spelling list (100 words)

accommodate	accompany	according	achieve
aggressive	amateur	ancient	apparent
appreciate	attached	available	average
awkward	bargain	bruise	category
cemetery	committee	communicate	community
competition	conscience	conscious	controversy
convenience	correspond	criticise	curiosity
definite	desperate	determined	develop
dictionary	disastrous	embarrass	environment
equip (equipped, equipment)	especially	exaggerate	excellent
existence	explanation	familiar	foreign
forty	frequently	government	guarantee
harass	hindrance	identity	immediate(ly)
individual	interfere	interrupt	language
leisure	lightning	marvellous	mischievous
muscle	necessary	neighbour	nuisance
occupy	occur	opportunity	parliament
persuade	physical	prejudice	privilege
profession	programme	pronunciation	queue
recognise	recommend	relevant	restaurant
rhyme	rhythm	sacrifice	secretary
shoulder	signature	sincere(ly)	soldier
stomach	sufficient	suggest	symbol
system	temperature	thorough	twelfth
variety	vegetable	vehicle	yacht

The official list writes 'criticise (critic + ise)' and 'equip (-ped, -ment)'; we have spelled out the forms.

Common exception words for Year 1 and Year 2

Before Year 3 there is no statutory word list. Instead, children learn 'common exception words': everyday words that do not follow the phonics they know yet. The curriculum gives these examples and says schools may use others, depending on their phonics programme.

Year 1 common exception words

the	a	do	to
today	of	said	says
are	were	was	is
his	has	I	you
your	they	be	he
me	she	we	no
go	so	by	my
here	there	where	love
come	some	one	once
ask	friend	school	put
push	pull	full	house
our

Year 2 common exception words

door	floor	poor	because
find	kind	mind	behind
child	children	wild	climb
most	only	both	old
cold	gold	hold	told
every	everybody	even	great
break	steak	pretty	beautiful
after	fast	last	past
father	class	grass	pass
plant	path	bath	hour
move	prove	improve	sure
sugar	eye	could	should
would	who	whole	any
many	clothes	busy	people
water	again	half	money
Mr	Mrs	parents	Christmas

How the lists fit into the curriculum

The word lists are one part of spelling. Each year also has spelling rules to learn, such as adding prefixes and suffixes, homophones (there, their, they're) and the possessive apostrophe. The Department for Education notes that understanding where words come from helps: conscience and conscious are related to science, and familiar to family. See English, Year 1 to Year 6 for the spelling, grammar and handwriting expected each year.

In England, Year 6 pupils take a 20-mark spelling test in May as part of the KS2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test.

Questions parents ask

How many words are on the Year 3 and 4 spelling list?

100. The Year 5 and 6 list also has 100 words. The Department for Education says the 100 words in each list can be taught across the four years of Key Stage 2, alongside other words teachers choose.

Are the Year 3 and Year 4 lists different?

No. There is one list for Years 3 and 4 together and one for Years 5 and 6 together. Schools decide which words to teach in which year, so your child's weekly spellings may come from the list in any order.

Are the spelling lists statutory?

Yes. English Appendix 1 of the national curriculum says the word lists for Years 3 and 4 and Years 5 and 6 are statutory, which means state schools in England must teach them. If your school in the UAE follows the national curriculum, these are the lists it works from; your child's teacher can tell you which words are covered when.

What are common exception words?

Words that do not follow the phonics children have learnt so far, such as 'said', 'was' and 'friend' in Year 1, or 'because', 'people' and 'water' in Year 2. They have to be learnt by sight. The curriculum gives example lists, and notes that the exact words depend on the phonics programme the school uses.

What do the brackets mean, as in accident(ally)?

The list gives the word and a longer form together, so 'accident(ally)' covers accident and accidentally, and 'possess(ion)' covers possess and possession. Words with a slash, such as 'woman/women', are pairs to learn together.

Why do the lists use British spellings?

Because they come from the national curriculum for England. Words such as centre, favourite, programme, recognise, criticise and marvellous use British spelling. In a British-curriculum school, these are the spellings that count as correct.

Sources