Spelling questions are some of the most learnable marks in the 11+. The words that trip children up tend to be the same ones every year — double letters, silent letters, unstressed vowels. The Year 5 and 6 statutory spelling list from the national curriculum is the perfect core list for 11+ preparation.
The Year 5 and 6 statutory spelling words
Cover a column, test, and circle the ones that go wrong. Those become this week's list.
- 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
- equipped
- especially
- exaggerate
- excellent
- existence
- explanation
- familiar
- foreign
- forty
- frequently
- government
- guarantee
- harass
- hindrance
- identity
- immediately
- 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
- sincerely
- soldier
- stomach
- sufficient
- suggest
- symbol
- system
- temperature
- thorough
- twelfth
- variety
- vegetable
- vehicle
- yacht
The rules and patterns behind the tricky words
Double letters
accommodate (double c and double m), committee (double m, t and e), embarrass (double r and double s), necessary (one c, double s), occur, harass (one r, double s). The classic trap is doubling the wrong letter.
Memory aid: necessary — "one collar, two sleeves" (one c, two s's).
Silent letters
muscle (silent c), rhyme and rhythm (silent h), yacht, foreign and sovereign (silent g), government (the n is often not heard), twelfth (the f is often swallowed).
Unstressed vowels
In many words a vowel is barely pronounced, so children guess: definite (not "definate"), desperate, separate, category, cemetery (all e's), average, secretary, vegetable.
Memory aid: there's "a rat" in separate; definite is related to "finite".
ie or ei?
"i before e except after c — when the sound is ee" works for achieve and receive, but there are exceptions: leisure, foreign, protein, seize. Mischievous has no extra i — it's mis-chie-vous, not "mischievious".
-ise, -ice and -ance / -ence
- Recognise, criticise: British English generally uses -ise.
- Practice (noun) and practise (verb), advice and advise.
- Hindrance, nuisance, existence, convenience, conscience — there's no rule for -ance vs -ence, so they must be learned.
Suffixes changing the root
- Disaster → disastrous (the e disappears).
- Marvel → marvellous (British English doubles the l).
- Equip → equipped (double p after a short, stressed vowel).
- Forty loses the u from "four"; pronunciation loses the o from "pronounce".
How 11+ spelling is tested
On GL-style papers, the most common format splits a sentence into lettered sections:
A It was neccessary B to queue outside C the restaurant for D twenty minutes. N no mistake
Answer: A — necessary has one c and two s's.
Children need to scan every word carefully — the misspelling is often a small change in a long word. And remember that sometimes there's no mistake at all.
How to practise spellings
- Look, say, cover, write, check. Still the most effective method.
- Five to ten words a week, grouped by pattern.
- Highlight the tricky part of each word — the part that's usually got wrong.
- Make up memory aids for the stubborn ones. Silly ones stick best.
- Revisit after a few days and again after a week.
- Write sentences using the words, so spelling transfers into real writing.
Elevenplus FC includes spelling and homophone topics and GL-style lettered spot-the-mistake spelling questions, with mistakes tracked for revision. See 11+ SPAG practice.
Frequently asked questions
Which spelling words should my child know for the 11+?
The Year 5 and 6 statutory spelling list from the national curriculum is an excellent baseline, along with the Year 3 and 4 list. 11+ spelling questions often test exactly these kinds of words — double letters, silent letters and unusual endings.
How is spelling tested in the 11+?
Most often through spot-the-mistake questions, where a sentence is split into sections and the child chooses the section containing a misspelt word. Spelling also counts in any writing task and in missing-letter cloze questions.
What's the best way to learn spellings?
Look, say, cover, write, check — little and often. Group words by pattern or rule, learn the tricky part of each word, use memory aids for the hardest ones, and revisit words after a few days and again after a week.