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Year 2 English · Key Stage 1 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Year 2 homophones and tricky words: a guide for parents

Phonics gets children a long way with spelling, but English has plenty of words that refuse to behave. In Year 2 children learn to spell homophones, which sound the same but are spelt differently and mean different things, near-homophones, which sound almost the same, and common exception words, whose spelling has to be learned rather than sounded out. These words turn up in nearly everything a child writes.

Homophones and tricky words, explained

Homophones are words that sound exactly the same but have different spellings and meanings: see and sea, here and hear, night and knight, to, too and two. A spelling check can’t help a child here, because every version is a real word. The only way to choose correctly is to think about what the word means in the sentence, so homophones are best practised inside a sentence rather than as a list of words on their own.

Near-homophones sound very similar but not identical, and they are easy to muddle when said quickly. Quite and quiet are the classic pair: quite has one syllable, quiet has two. Children learn to say each word carefully, listen to the difference and then link each spelling to its meaning. Schools choose which pairs to teach in Year 2, and there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, to/too/two and night/knight are common choices.

Common exception words are the other half of this topic. They are everyday words where some or all of the spelling doesn’t follow the phonics your child has been taught, such as because, could, people, water, again, busy and Christmas. The National Curriculum’s spelling appendix gives a Year 2 list, and schools and phonics programmes adapt it a little, but it typically includes words like door, floor, find, kind, child, children, climb, most, only, both, old, every, great, break, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, path, hour, move, sure, sugar, eye, should, would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, half, money, Mr, Mrs and parents. A few, such as fast and path, only count as exception words in accents where the a sounds like the a in car.

The teaching trick for these words is to find the tricky bit. Children say the word, work out which letters behave as expected (the b and c in because) and which part surprises them (the au, and the s that sounds like z, followed by an e). They then use a routine: look at the word, cover it, write it from memory and check it. Memory tricks, such as noticing that hear has an ear in it, help the spelling stick for good.

Words your child will hear

Homophone
A word that sounds the same as another but has a different spelling and meaning, like sea and see.
Near-homophone
A word that sounds almost the same as another, like quite and quiet.
Common exception word
A common word whose spelling doesn’t follow the usual phonics rules, such as could or people.
Tricky bit
The part of a word that is spelt in an unexpected way.
Meaning
What a word tells us in the sentence, which is the clue to which homophone to pick.
Syllable
A beat in a word: quiet has two, quite has one.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 2, pupils should be taught to:

  • Spell homophones and near-homophones
  • Spell common exception words

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

A worked example: choosing the right word

Choose the right words: We walked down to the (see / sea) and I could (here / hear) the waves.

  1. Read the whole sentence and decide what each gap needs. The first gap needs a place where there are waves. The second needs a word for using your ears.
  2. Sea or see? The sea is the big body of salty water, and it is something you walk down to. See is what you do with your eyes. A trick to try: sea has the same ea as in beach, a word that goes with it. So the first gap is sea.
  3. Here or hear? Here is about a place, and it hides inside there and where, which are also about places. Hear is what you do with your ears, and it has ear inside it. Waves are heard, so the second gap is hear.
  4. Last, check could. It is a common exception word, so we can’t sound it out. The tricky bit is the oul: the ou doesn’t make its usual sound, and the l is silent. A silly memory phrase helps, such as “Oh you lucky duck” for o-u-l-d. Then cover the word, write it from memory and check it.

We walked down to the sea and I could hear the waves.

Common mistakes and how to help

Using there, their and they’re as if they were the same word

They sound identical, so a child writes whichever one comes to mind first and a spell check treats all three as correct.

What helps: Link each to a job. There is a place (it hides the word here inside it). Their means belonging to them. They’re is they are, with the apostrophe marking the missing a. Practise in sentences.

Writing to when the word should be too or two

To is by far the most common of the three, so children over-use it. Too and two sound the same, so sound gives no clue.

What helps: Tie each spelling to its meaning. Two is a number (it starts like twin and twice). Too means also or more than enough, and a handy trick is that it has one o too many. Everything else is to.

Spelling exception words exactly as they sound, such as becos, cud or peeple

Phonics works for most words, so children trust it. For these words, sounding out gives a wrong but sensible-looking spelling.

What helps: Say the word, then find the tricky bit together. Highlight just that part and practise it, rather than rewriting the whole word many times.

Mixing up near-homophones such as quite and quiet

Said fast, quite and quiet sound alike, so the difference seems small. Children may not know there are two different words.

What helps: Say them slowly: quite (one beat) and qui-et (two beats). In quiet the e comes straight after the i and makes the second beat. In quite the e is at the end and is silent. Make up a sentence for each so the meaning is anchored.

How to help at home

  • Draw the pair. Pick a homophone pair, such as night and knight, and ask your child to draw a picture for each and write the right word underneath. The picture ties each spelling to a meaning.
  • Spot the tricky bit. Take a common exception word from your child’s spelling list. Say it, then ask: which letters are what you expect, and which part is tricky? Underline just that part in colour.
  • Look, cover, write, check. Choose two or three words each time, not a whole list. Your child looks at the word, covers it, writes it from memory and checks it. It takes under five minutes, and because your child has to recall the word from memory, it does more than copying it out several times.
  • Sentence challenge. Say a short sentence containing a homophone, such as “The sea was calm”, and let your child write it. Then swap: say the other word and ask them to make up a sentence that shows its meaning.
  • Spelling in real writing. When your child writes a note, a card or a shopping list, gently point out one tricky word to check, rather than correcting everything. A short list of tricky words they use often is more useful than a long one.

Related topics

Builds on

Leads on to

More on spelling – English Appendix 1

Everything in Year 2 English

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