Spelling Patterns & Common Traps

GL does not ask your child to spell words — it asks them to spot mistakes. Each question is one sentence divided into four groups (A, B, C, D). One group contains a spelling mistake — or, on many papers, there is a fifth option (N) for "no mistake".

Why good spellers still lose marks here

Fluent readers read too fast to see mistakes: the brain quietly auto-corrects "disapointed" to "disappointed" without noticing. The fix is a deliberate change of gear — read each group on its own, slowly, looking at each word letter by letter. This feels unnatural to strong readers, which is exactly why it needs practising.

The method

1. Take one group at a time. Don't read the sentence for meaning first — that switches the brain into auto-correct mode.
2. Go letter-slow. Point at each word and ask: "would I write it exactly like this?"
3. Homophone check. If a group contains there/their/they're, to/too/two, your/you're or passed/past, stop and ask which meaning the sentence needs.
4. Check all four groups before answering, even after finding a suspect — and only choose "no mistake" after genuinely checking every word.

The patterns GL recycles

• i before e except after c (when it sounds like ee): believe, thief — but receive, ceiling. Rebels to memorise: weird, seize.
• Doubling: short vowel, then double the consonant before -ing/-ed: hopping (hop) vs hoping (hope); beginning, occurred, swimming.
• -tion / -sion / -ssion: station, decision, permission.
• -ful has one l: hopeful, beautiful — it only doubles when -ly is added: hopefully.
• Silent letters: Wednesday, February, island, knight, autumn, doubt.
• Homophones — the biggest single source of marks: their/there/they're, practice/practise (noun/verb in British English), stationary/stationery, allowed/aloud, affect/effect.
• The demon list: separate, definitely, necessary, disappear, disappointed, embarrassed, occasionally, immediately, environment. Worth learning cold — they appear year after year.

Common 11+ traps

⚠️ Homophones are real words spelled correctly — the spell-check in your child's head won't fire. The mistake is in the meaning, so the question to ask is "is this the right WORD?", not "is this word spelled right?"

⚠️ The auto-correcting brain. Reading at normal speed hides mistakes. If a question looks clean on the first pass, it hasn't been checked — it has been read. Slow down and sweep again.

⚠️ Stopping at the first suspicion. Sometimes the word that "looks weird" (like weird itself!) is correct, and the real mistake sits in a later group. Check everything before committing.

⚠️ Fear of "no mistake". Children under pressure invent errors rather than choose N. N is a genuine answer that appears regularly — it just has to be earned with a full check of all four groups.

Coaching at home

Little and often beats long sessions: five minutes on the demon list twice a week. Keep a running "personal demons" page of words your child has actually misspelled — recycling their own mistakes is worth more than any generic list. And when they find a mistake in practice, have them say WHY it is wrong ("double p in disappointed — dis + appointed"), because naming the rule makes it stick.

Worked examples

Read through each example. Cover the steps and try it yourself first if you can.

1. 1

   The doubled-letter demon

   Find the group with the spelling mistake: A) The whole team | B) was thoroughly disapointed | C) when the final match | D) was cancelled.

   Steps

   1. Take each group alone and go letter-slow.
   2. Group A: 'whole' and 'team' — both correct.
   3. Group B: 'disapointed' — the word is dis + appointed, so it needs a double p: 'disappointed'. Found it.
   4. Still check C and D to be safe: 'final match' and 'cancelled' (double l is correct in British English) are fine.

   Answer

   B (disapointed → disappointed)

2. 2

   The homophone trap

   Find the group with the spelling mistake: A) They're going to | B) collect there tickets | C) from the office | D) before the show.

   Steps

   1. Every word here is a real, correctly-spelled word — so hunt for the wrong WORD, not a misspelling.
   2. Group A: 'They're' = 'they are' — 'they are going to' works, so A is right.
   3. Group B: 'there tickets' — the tickets belong to them, so it must be 'their'. Found it.
   4. C and D contain no homophones and no errors.

   Answer

   B (there → their)

3. 3

   Earning the "no mistake"

   Find the group with the spelling mistake: A) She practised the piano | B) every evening in February | C) until her fingers ached | D) and her scales were perfect. N) no mistake

   Steps

   1. Group A: 'practised' with an s — correct, because it is a VERB (British English: practise the verb, practice the noun).
   2. Group B: 'February' — check the sneaky first r: F-e-b-r-u-a-r-y. Correct.
   3. Groups C and D: 'ached', 'scales', 'perfect' — all correct.
   4. Every group has been genuinely checked, so N is the earned answer — don't invent an error out of nerves.

   Answer

   N (no mistake)