English Spelling & Word Studyusually ages 7–9

Suffixes (age 7+)

Spell words using productive suffixes (-ation, -ly, -ous) and less common sound-spelling correspondences (/ɪ/ as y, /ʌ/ as ou, endings sounding like /ʒə/, /tʃə/, /ʒən/, /ʃən/) introduced in the Year 3-4 programme

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Spell words with suffixes -ation (e.g., information, sensation), -ly (e.g., sadly, gently, happily), and -ous (e.g., famous, enormous, various)
Spell words with less common vowel patterns: /ɪ/ as y (e.g., myth, gym), /ʌ/ as ou (e.g., young, touch, double)
Spell words with endings /ʒə/ as -sure (e.g., measure, treasure), /tʃə/ as -ture (e.g., creature, furniture), /ʒən/ as -sion (e.g., division, television)

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Try this together

Can your child spell words with endings like "-tion," "-ous," or "-ly" correctly — for example, "nation," "famous," or "quietly" — without needing to look them up?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Suffixesages 6–7Y3 suffix/sound-spelling builds directly on Y2 suffix rules with root changes

Spelling Verb Endingsages 5–6Basic suffix spelling from Y1 provides foundation

Suffixes (age 7+)this skill · ages 7–9

Unlocks

Spellings from Greek, French and Latinages 8–10Etymological spelling patterns extend the suffix and sound-spelling work from Y3

Converting Words into Verbsages 9–10Converting word class via suffixes (-ate, -ise, -ify) requires secure suffix knowledge from the Y3-4 suffix programme

Spelling -able & -ibleages 9–10The -able/-ible and -ably/-ibly patterns build directly on suffix knowledge from the Y3-4 programme

Suffixes (age 9+)ages 9–10Latin/French suffix spelling patterns (-cious/-tious, -cial/-tial, -ant/-ance/-ent/-ence) build on Y3-4 suffix programme knowledge

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E3LY11medium confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter) relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words

AC9E1LY13low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns

AC9E3LY10low confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

understand how to apply knowledge of common base words, prefixes, suffixes and generalisations for adding a suffix to a base word to read and comprehend new multimorphemic words

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN2-SPELL-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2

EN3-SPELL-01medium confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 3

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E1LY06medium confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand

VC2E3LY05medium confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Literacy strand

VC2E5LY03low confidenceEnglish · Level 5 · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Apostrophes for possession (age 7+)ages 7–10 Homophonesages 7–9 Prefixes (age 7+)ages 7–10 Spelling Word Lists (age 7+)ages 7–9

All Spelling & Word Study skills →