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Years 3 and 4 English · Key Stage 2 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Years 3 and 4 spelling words: accident to difficult

The National Curriculum sets out a statutory spelling list for Years 3 and 4: words that children use often in their writing and often spell wrongly. This page covers the first 25 entries in alphabetical order, from accident to difficult. The aim is that these spellings become automatic, so a child’s attention can go to what they want to say rather than how to spell it.

Spelling words: accident to difficult, explained

The list is statutory, which means schools must teach it, but the order, pace and method are the school’s choice. Many schools spread it across the two years and teach a few words each week, so your child may not meet these 25 in one block. The words on this page are accident(ally), actual(ly), address, answer, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle, breath, breathe, build, busy and business, calendar, caught, centre, century, certain, circle, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different and difficult.

The curriculum guidance suggests linking each spelling to its sounds and letters, even when they are unusual, and to related words. So children learn to find the tricky part of each word and learn it on purpose. In answer the w is silent. In build the u is silent. In caught the letters augh stand for a single sound, and in busy the u says an “i” sound. Pinpointing the surprise and learning that gives a child something definite to remember, which tends to help more than copying the whole word again and again.

Word relationships do a lot of the work. Business is busy plus ness, with the y changed to i, the same rule children met in Year 2 with words like happiness. Bicycle is bi-, meaning two, plus cycle. Accidentally is accidental plus ly, which is why it contains -ally and not -ly alone, and actually is actual plus ly. Different and difficult both start with di and then a double f. Century has a c that says “s”, like centre and certain, and circle also begins with a soft c.

A few of the words are pairs that sound close but are spelt differently. Breath is the noun, as in “take a deep breath”, and has a short vowel sound. Breathe, with the extra e, is the verb, as in “breathe in slowly”, and the vowel sound is long. Centre ends in -re, which is the British spelling, while American books and many screens use -er. Calendar ends in -ar, which is easy to get wrong because the last syllable sounds like “der”.

In class, teachers often use a spelling voice, saying the word as if each letter is sounded, such as “bus-i-ness” or “ans-w-er”. They use look, say, cover, write and check, and they put the words into sentences so that children know what they mean as well as how they look. Short and frequent practice, with a return to the same words a few days later, helps spellings stay in long-term memory.

Words your child will hear

Statutory
Required by law. Every school must teach the words on the statutory list.
Syllable
A beat in a word. Different has three beats if you say each one: dif-fer-ent.
Root word
The base of a word before anything is added. Busy is the root of business.
Suffix
Letters added to the end of a word, such as -ness in business or -ly in actually.
Silent letter
A letter that is written but not heard, like the w in answer or the u in build.
Spelling voice
Saying a word aloud as it is written, so every letter can be heard, to help it stick.

What the National Curriculum says

In Years 3 and 4, pupils should be taught to:

  • Spell these words from the statutory word list for years 3 and 4: accident(ally), actual(ly), address, answer, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle, breath, breathe, build, busy/business, calendar
  • Spell these words from the statutory word list for years 3 and 4: caught, centre, century, certain, circle, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult

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

Try it: learning three tricky words

Your child keeps writing “accidently”, “busines” and “breath” when they mean the verb. How can they fix each one?

  1. Accidentally: break it into the word accident plus al plus ly, and say it in a spelling voice, “ac-ci-den-tal-ly”. Accidental is the adjective, and adding ly makes the adverb. That is why the spelling has -ally, with the extra letters al that are easy to leave out.
  2. Business: start with busy, change the y to i, and add ness. Busi plus ness gives business. Say the word as “bus-i-ness” to hear the i that is hidden in the usual pronunciation.
  3. Breath or breathe: decide whether the word names a thing or an action. In “Take a deep ___” it is a thing, so write breath. In “Please ___ in slowly” it is an action, so the verb needs the extra e: breathe.
  4. Cover, write and check each word. Come back to the same three the next day and again at the end of the week, using each in a sentence.

accidentally (accident + al + ly), business (busy + ness, y changed to i), and breathe for the verb, breath for the noun.

Common mistakes and how to help

Writing “accidently” or “actualy”, leaving out the -al

In everyday speech people run the sounds together, so “accidently” is how it is often said, and children write what they hear.

What helps: Show that the adverb is built from the adjective: accidental plus ly, actual plus ly. Say each part in a spelling voice and write the root word first.

Leaving out silent letters, as in “anser” or “bild”, or swapping letters, as in “beleive”

The sounds give no clue that the w in answer or the u in build are there. In believe, ie and ei look so alike that children easily swap them.

What helps: Highlight the silent letter in colour and say the word in a spelling voice. For believe, many children use the trick that there is a lie in believe: be-lie-ve.

Using breath and breathe interchangeably

The words look nearly identical, differing only by the e on the end, so it is easily lost or added when a child is writing quickly.

What helps: Ask “is it a thing or an action?” and listen for the long sound in breathe. Write them as a pair, “a breath, to breathe”, and keep the pair together.

Spelling centre as “center” or calendar as “calender”

Children see the American spelling in books, games and on screens, and calendar ends with a sound like “der”.

What helps: Explain that centre uses the British -re ending, the same as theatre and metre. For calendar, say the last part as “dar” in a spelling voice, and look at the word on a real calendar at home.

How to help at home

  • Spelling voice. Say each tricky word as it is written: “ans-w-er”, “b-u-ild”, “bus-i-ness”. Then cover it and write it. Exaggerating the silent letters makes them memorable and takes about a minute per word.
  • Build a word family. Take busy and write busier, business and busily. Do the same with cycle, bicycle and tricycle. Seeing how related words are built makes each spelling easier to trust.
  • Use the family calendar. Ask your child to write what is happening each day this week, using words from the list where they fit, such as decide, describe, complete and different. Real writing makes the words purposeful.
  • Three-word stories. Pick three words, for example caught, circle and arrive, and ask for a short story that uses all three. Check the spellings together, then swap and see if they can find mistakes in yours.
  • Little and often. Choose four words at a time and practise them for five minutes. Test them again the next day and a week later. Swap in new ones as soon as the old ones feel easy.

Related topics

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More on spelling – English Appendix 1

Everything in Years 3 and 4 English

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