KS2 Spelling and Word Building

English spelling looks arbitrary until you see the patterns underneath it, and Year 6 is where those patterns are supposed to click. Why impossible and not unpossible? Because im- is the form the prefix takes in front of p, b and m, which is also why it is impatient and immature. Why leaves and not leafs? Because a whole family of words ending in f behaves that way — half and halves, knife and knives, wolf and wolves. These ten questions work through the rules that cover the most ground: two prefixes, two suffixes that change a word from one class to another, the plural rule for words ending in a consonant plus y and the one for words ending in f, the -e that disappears when -ment is added to argue, and the -le that becomes -ly in gently. The last three are the pairs that catch people out for life rather than just at eleven: their against there, affect against effect, and practise against practice, where British English uses the s for the verb and the c for the noun exactly as it does with advise and advice. Each explanation says whether a wrong option is a word that does not exist or a real word doing a different job. Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Choose the right negative prefix for a word, and know that mis- means wrongly rather than not
• Add a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun, and tell it apart from an adverb or a comparative
• Apply the plural rules for words ending in a consonant plus y and for words ending in f
• Spell argument and gently correctly by knowing which letter is dropped before the ending
• Use their, there and they're in the right places
• Choose between affect and effect according to whether a verb or a noun is needed
• Use practise for the verb and practice for the noun in British English

I need to ______ the piano every single day. — practise. In British English the spelling depends on the job the word is doing: practise with an s is the verb, practice with a c is the noun — the same pattern as advise and advice.