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      Spelling words with the suffixes -ence and -ency

      Lesson details

      Learning outcome

      I can spell words using the suffixes -ence and -ency.

      Key learning points

      1. The suffixes -ence and -ency can create abstract nouns.
      2. The -ence or -ency spellings may be found after a ‘soft c’, ‘soft g’ or ‘qu’.
      3. Words ending in -ence and -ency sometimes have related words where the ‘e’ vowel sound is clearer.
      4. Words in word families often have connected meaning and spelling.
      5. How to spell the curriculum words: accident, accidentally, especially and actually.

      Keywords

      • Root word - the base word from which other words are formed often by adding prefixes or suffixes

      • Suffix - a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning

      • Noun - a naming word for a person, place or thing

      • Abstract noun - a type of noun that names an idea or quality that cannot be seen

      • Adjective - describes a noun

      Common misconception

      Children may not be able to think of related words to create word maps independently.

      Use a dictionary to support generating words and to check spelling. This will help pupils to find words with different suffixes as the start of the spelling will be the same.

      Teacher tip

      You can use well-established etymology websites to identify the etymology of words of interest as a class.

      Licence

      This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0
      except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions
      (Collection 2).

      Lesson video

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      Prior knowledge starter quiz

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Select the words with a 'soft g'.

      Correct answer: intelligence
      Correct answer: urgent
      arrogance
      elegantly

      Q2.
      Select the words with a 'soft c'.

      significantly
      Correct answer: decent
      applicant
      Correct answer: magnificence

      Q3.
      Select the correct spelling of the word.

      egsellent
      exsellent
      Correct answer: excellent
      excelent
      excelant

      Q4.
      Select the correct spelling of the word.

      ekwipment
      Correct answer: equipment
      equiptment
      equipmant

      Q5.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'It was a potint magical potion.'

      Correct Answer: potent

      Q6.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'There was an acidant outside school yesterday.'

      Correct Answer: accident

      6 Questions

      Q1.
      Select the correct spelling.

      urjensy
      urjency
      Correct answer: urgency
      urgancy

      Q2.
      Select the correct spelling.

      desensy
      desency
      Correct answer: decency
      decansy

      Q3.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'She has wonderful confedance.'

      Correct Answer: confidence

      Q4.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'Your reading fluinsy has improved so much.'

      Correct Answer: fluency

      Q5.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'The frequnacy of their meetings increased as they became closer friends.'

      Correct Answer: frequency

      Q6.
      Correct the spelling of the word in bold in the following sentence: 'The child's inosense was evident in the way he believed in fairy tales.'

      Correct Answer: innocence

      To help you plan your 5 English lesson on: Spelling words with the suffixes -ence and -ency, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...