# Year 5 Spelling Words: 100 Words by Spelling Pattern > Year 5 spelling words by pattern: -able and -ible, -tion and -ment, word families and tricky plurals, matched to the Australian Curriculum. Free list. ## Year 5 spelling words, grouped by pattern There is no official Year 5 spelling list in Australia. The Australian Curriculum describes what Year 5 students learn about spelling, and schools choose the words. These 100 words fit the Year 5 patterns: building new words from ones students already know, the endings that change a word's job, and the plurals and look-alike words that trip up even confident writers. By Year 5, most students can sound out almost anything. What goes wrong is meaning: suitable or suitible, affect or effect, practice or practise. So the groups here are about how words are built, and each one comes with the rule that explains it. **[Make a printable Year 5 spelling list →](/tools/spelling-list-maker?year=5)** Tick the patterns you want, add words from your current unit, and print a look, say, cover, write, check sheet or a list to send home. ## Year 5 Spelling Resources by Australian Teachers _(Dynamic listing feed — browse at the page URL for live results.)_ ## What Year 5 Spelling Covers in the Australian Curriculum In the [Australian Curriculum (version 9) for Year 5 English](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/english/year-5), spelling sits in the Literacy strand under Phonic and word knowledge. In plain words, Year 5 students learn: - to read and spell words that share a letter pattern but sound different, like the ou in journey, tour and sour - to build new words from words they know, base words, prefixes, suffixes and word origins: vision, television, revision - the spelling generalisations behind endings like -able and -ible (suitable, collapsible) - less common plurals (cactus and cacti, louse and lice), and how a suffix such as -tion or -ment turns a verb into a noun (protect, protection; develop, development) The content descriptions behind this page, in plain words (the curriculum link above has the exact wording): - **AC9E5LY08**: words that share common letter patterns but have different pronunciations - **AC9E5LY09**: build and spell new words from known words, base words, prefixes, suffixes, word origins and generalisations - **AC9E5LY10**: less common plurals, and how a suffix changes the meaning or grammatical form of a word The thread through all of it is morphology: the meaningful parts of a word. A Year 5 student who spells signature by thinking of sign is using exactly the knowledge the curriculum describes. ## 100 Year 5 Spelling Words by Pattern Each group starts with its rule in one line, then the words. Teach the rule first, then practise the words that follow it. ### Same letters, different sounds (12 words) ou, ea and ough can each say several sounds: journey, tour, sour. journey, tour, sour, touch, young, cough, plough, bread, great, heard, heart, early ### Word families from a base (12 words) Related meanings keep related spellings, even when the sound changes: sign, signal. vision, television, revision, sign, signal, signature, muscle, muscular, please, pleasant, pleasure, visual ### -able and -ible (12 words) If taking off the ending leaves a whole word, it is usually -able (suit, suitable), sometimes after dropping an e or changing y to i (value, valuable; rely, reliable). If what is left is not a whole word, it is usually -ible (possible, terrible). collapsible is an exception to learn. suitable, breakable, comfortable, valuable, reliable, enjoyable, collapsible, possible, terrible, visible, edible, horrible ### Verbs to nouns: -tion, -sion and -ment (14 words) The suffix turns a doing word into a thing: protect, protection; develop, development. protection, development, education, invention, information, decision, explosion, discussion, celebration, competition, agreement, government, equipment, attention ### Less common plurals (12 words) Some plurals change the word itself (mouse, mice) or keep a Latin ending (cactus, cacti). f often becomes ves, and some words ending in o add -es. cacti, fungi, lice, mice, geese, children, women, knives, wolves, halves, potatoes, heroes ### Prefixes that change the meaning (12 words) im- goes before m and p, ir- before r, il- before l. Keep both letters: ir + regular = irregular. disappoint, dishonest, misbehave, incorrect, invisible, impossible, impatient, irregular, illegal, overflow, underground, international ### Easily confused words (12 words) In Australian English, practice and advice are nouns; practise and advise are verbs. affect, effect, accept, except, practice, practise, advice, advise, stationary, stationery, lose, loose ### Tricky words for Year 5 (14 words) Often misspelt in writing. Mark the hard part: sep-a-rate, nec-e-ss-ary. necessary, separate, definitely, environment, temperature, immediately, restaurant, language, neighbour, vegetable, achieve, opportunity, interrupt, especially **[Turn these words into a printable list →](/tools/spelling-list-maker?year=5)** ## Prefix and Suffix Activities for Year 5 _(Dynamic listing feed — browse at the page URL for live results.)_ ## Year 5 Spelling and NAPLAN Year 5 students sit NAPLAN. Spelling is tested in the conventions of language test, which has a spelling section first and then a grammar and punctuation section ([What is in the tests](https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/whats-in-the-tests), NAP). The test is online, and some spelling questions use audio dictation: students hear the word through headphones and spell it ([Understanding online assessment](https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/understanding-online-assessment), NAP). What that means for a Year 5 list: - **Patterns beat memorised words.** There is no NAPLAN word list. A student who knows that -able usually follows a whole word (with a few exceptions, like collapsible) can spell words they have never seen. - **Practise hearing and spelling.** Read your weekly words aloud in a sentence, as the dictation questions do, so students have to choose between look-alikes like accept and except from meaning alone. - **Proofread their own writing.** The words students misspell in their own drafts are the best extra words for next week's list. For practice tests, see [NAPLAN practice resources](/teacher-guides/naplan-practice-resources). ## How to Run a Weekly Year 5 Spelling List Upper primary students get more from a short, pattern-based list and some word investigation than from a long list to memorise. This is the routine I would use: 1. **Pretest.** Read 15 to 20 words aloud in sentences. Students mark their own and keep only the words they got wrong. 2. **Investigate the pattern.** Give students a pile of words and let them work out the rule: when is it -able and when is it -ible? Why does knives change the f? A rule they find themselves is a rule they remember. 3. **Practise.** Look, say, cover, write, check for the words they need, plus a word family task: write three more words built on the same base. 4. **Test and transfer.** Test the list plus a few unseen words that follow the same pattern, then check the pattern turns up correctly in their writing that week. Add a few words from your current science or HASS unit each week. The [spelling list maker](/tools/spelling-list-maker?year=5) lets you add your own words to any list, and [spelling activities](/teacher-guides/spelling-activities) has more ideas for word study. ## Spelling Words for Other Year Levels Use the year before for students who need to consolidate, and the year after for students who are ready for more. - [Foundation spelling words](/teacher-guides/foundation-spelling-words) - [Year 1 spelling words](/teacher-guides/year-1-spelling-words) - [Year 2 spelling words](/teacher-guides/year-2-spelling-words) - [Year 3 spelling words](/teacher-guides/year-3-spelling-words) - [Year 4 spelling words](/teacher-guides/year-4-spelling-words) - [Year 6 spelling words](/teacher-guides/year-6-spelling-words) Or start at the [spelling words by year](/teacher-guides/spelling-words-by-year) guide, which explains how all seven lists fit together. ## Year 5 Spelling Words: Frequently Asked Questions ### Is there an official Year 5 spelling list in Australia? No. The Australian Curriculum describes the spelling knowledge Year 5 students should learn, such as word families, suffixes and less common plurals, but it does not list words. The 100 words on this page fit those Year 5 patterns, and several are the examples the curriculum itself uses. ### How many spelling words should a Year 5 student learn each week? Many Year 5 teachers use 15 to 20 words a week, built around one or two patterns, with a few topic words added. Students who already spell the list in the pretest should get harder words that follow the same rule rather than more practice on words they know. ### What are commonly misspelt words in Year 5? Words like necessary, separate, definitely and immediately, look-alike pairs such as affect and effect or accept and except, and endings such as -able and -ible. Each group on this page comes with the rule that helps students get them right. ### What is the difference between practice and practise? In Australian English, practice is the noun and practise is the verb: we have netball practice, and we practise our spelling. Advice and advise work the same way. American English uses practice for both, which is why spellcheckers sometimes get it wrong. ### How do I make a printable Year 5 spelling list? Open the [free spelling list maker](/tools/spelling-list-maker?year=5), tick the patterns or words you want, add your own words and press Print. You get a look, say, cover, write, check sheet or a plain word list on A4. ### Where can I find free Year 5 spelling resources? Australian teachers share free spelling resources on TeachBuySell. [Browse free spelling resources](/s?keywords=spelling&price=0%2C0) and filter by Year 5. --- Source: https://teachbuysell.com.au/teacher-guides/year-5-spelling-words Marketplace: https://teachbuysell.com.au