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Year 1 English · Key Stage 1 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Year 1 spelling: oo, oa, ow, ue, ew, igh, or and air

This is the second batch of Year 1 vowel spellings. Children learn a wide set of letter groups, including oo, oa, oe, ou and ow, ue and ew, ie and igh, or, ore, aw and au, and the air, ear and are spellings. The idea is the same as before: one sound can be written several ways, and some letters stand for two different sounds, so children have to learn to choose and to check.

Vowel spellings: oo, oa, ow, igh, air and more, explained

These spellings build on the first set. Children now meet many more ways to write sounds they already know. The long o sound can be oa (boat), oe (toe), ow (snow) or o-e (home). The long oo sound can be oo (food), ue (blue), ew (new) or u-e (June). The long i sound can be ie (lie) or igh (high), and the or sound can be or (for), ore (more), aw (saw) or au (author). Words with igh, and with air in hair, use three letters for one sound, which is called a trigraph.

Some letter groups have two sounds, which makes reading and spelling harder. The letters oo make the long sound in food and the short sound in book. The letters ow say one sound in now and cow, and another in snow and own. The letters ie say the long i in lie, and the long e in chief. The letters ear say one sound in dear and another in bear. When reading, children are taught to try one sound, then the other, and see which makes a word that fits.

The curriculum’s guidance gives a few position clues that children find useful. Very few words end in oo, and oa is very rare at the end of a word. The only common word ending in ou is you. When a word ends in the long oo sound, ue and ew are more usual than oo (blue, new). The same spellings, and u-e, can also stand for the “yoo” sound in words such as cube and, in many accents, new. Teachers often add some looser patterns of their own: the sound in out is usually ou in the middle of a word (out, cloud) and ow at the end (now, cow), though ow turns up in the middle of words such as down and town; and aw often comes at the end of a word (saw, paw) while au comes in the middle (author). These are tendencies, not rules, and children meet plenty of words that break them.

The air sound is spelt in more than one way, too. In Year 1, children meet air in hair, ear in bear, and are in bare. The word bear and the word bare sound the same but mean different things and are spelt differently. At this stage children learn the spelling that matches the word they are using, such as a bear in the woods, or bare feet in the sand.

As with the earlier vowel spellings, many choices have no helpful rule. The best way to learn is to see and write the words again and again, to group them by sound and spelling, and to be comfortable with sensible attempts. Schools use different phonics programmes and teach these in different orders, so don’t be surprised if your child is learning some of these a little earlier or later than a friend.

Words your child will hear

Digraph
Two letters that make one sound, such as oa, oo, ow, ue, ew, ie, or and aw.
Trigraph
Three letters that make one sound, such as igh in high and air in hair.
Vowel
A letter such as a, e, i, o or u that stands for a vowel sound, the open sound every syllable needs.
Alternative spelling
A different way of writing the same sound, such as oa, ow and oe for the long o.
Rhyme
Words that end with the same sound, such as boat and coat, or high and sigh.
Syllable
A beat in a word. Boat has one syllable and author has two.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

  • Spell words with oo (/u:/), oo (/ʊ/), oa, oe and ou
  • Spell words with ow (/aʊ/), ow (/əʊ/), ue and ew
  • Spell words with ie (/aɪ/), ie (/i:/) and igh
  • Spell words with or, ore, aw and au
  • Spell words with air, ear, ear (/ɛə/) and are (/ɛə/)

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: one sound, three spellings

Your child wants to write the long o sound in “boat”, “snow” and “toe”. How do they choose between oa, ow and oe?

  1. Say each word slowly and count the sounds. Boat is b, long o, t (three sounds). Snow is s, n, long o (three sounds). Toe is t, long o (two sounds). The vowel sound is the same in each, so the question is which letters to use.
  2. Think about the spellings you know for this sound: oa, ow, oe and the split o-e as in home. All of them are possible, so look for clues.
  3. In boat the sound sits in the middle of the word, between two consonants. Here oa and o-e are both common (boat, home), so this part has to be remembered. Your child might know boat from coat and goat, which rhyme and share the spelling: b-oa-t.
  4. Snow ends with the long o sound, and ow is a common way to finish a word with this sound, as in grow and show. That gives s-n-ow.
  5. Toe belongs to a small group of words with oe at the end. This one is simply learned as a word. Read all three back to check, remembering that “tow” would be a different word.

boat (oa in the middle), snow (ow at the end), toe (oe, learned as a word)

Common mistakes and how to help

Choosing a spelling that sounds right but isn’t the one used, such as “bowt” for boat or “snoe” for snow

Several different groups of letters make the same long o sound. Without having seen a word many times, a child has no way to know which one it uses.

What helps: Praise the sound-by-sound work, then show the right spelling. Use clues such as oa being rare at the end of a word. Collect words in groups, such as boat, coat, soap and toast.

Reading oo, ow or ear with only one sound, such as saying “book” to rhyme with “food”

Children often learn one sound for a letter group first, and keep using it. These groups each have two sounds, and only the word and context tell you which.

What helps: Say, “Try the other sound.” Read the word both ways and decide which one makes a word that fits the sentence. Practise with pairs: food and book, cow and snow.

Mixing up bear and bare, hair and hare

These words sound the same but are spelt differently and mean different things. A child hearing a word cannot work out the spelling from sound alone.

What helps: Link each spelling to its meaning with a picture or phrase, such as a bear in a cave and bare feet. The spelling is learned with the meaning at this stage.

Writing “hi” or “hy” for high

The word high has two sounds, h and igh. A child who hears a long i might write one letter for the whole sound, or use a spelling they know from elsewhere.

What helps: Group words with igh (high, night, light, right) and read them as a family. Point out that igh is a three-letter team for one sound, just as sh is a two-letter team.

How to help at home

  • Hunt the sound around the house. Look for things with a particular spelling, such as oa in coat, soap and toast, or ow in window and bowl. Write the words on sticky notes and stick them on the objects. Seeing them every day helps the spellings stick.
  • Try it both ways. When your child reads a word with oo, ow or ear and gets it wrong, say, “Try the other sound.” Together, read the word both ways and choose the one that makes sense in the sentence.
  • Rhyme families. Build lists of rhyming words with the same spelling, such as night, light, right and fight, or boat, coat and goat. Say the list aloud and write it down, underlining the shared letters.
  • The air detective. Make a list of words with the air sound: hair, chair, stair, care, share, bear. Read them together, then underline the letters that make the sound in each. Talk about which are spelt air, which are are, and which are ear.
  • Dictate a short sentence. Say a short sentence with several of these sounds, such as “Look at the blue moon,” and have your child write it. Accept sensible attempts, then show the right spellings and talk about any that differ.

Related topics

Leads on to

More on spelling – English Appendix 1

Everything in Year 1 English

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