Year 5 spelling rules: -cious, -tious, -cial, -tial, -ant, -ent and -able
The Years 5 and 6 rules deal with sound-alike endings. The honest truth is that some of these have exceptions, and the national curriculum says so. The clues below get you right most of the time; the rest you learn word by word. This page covers the endings; Year 6 covers the rest.
Endings -cious and -tious (shus)
Both say shus. If the root word ends in -ce, the sound is usually spelt with c: space becomes spacious. Many others use -tious. A good clue: if there is a related word ending in -tion, use -tious (nutrition, nutritious).
- -cious
- vicious precious delicious malicious suspicious gracious spacious
- -tious
- ambitious cautious nutritious fictitious infectious
- related to -ce or -tion
- grace → gracious space → spacious nutrition → nutritious caution → cautious
Watch out: Exception: anxious.
Endings -cial and -tial (shul)
-cial is common after a vowel letter. -tial is common after a consonant letter. Learn the exceptions.
- -cial after a vowel
- special official artificial social racial
- -tial after a consonant
- essential confidential partial
- exceptions
- initial financial commercial provincial
Watch out: Financial, commercial and provincial are related to finance, commerce and province, so they keep the c.
Endings -ant, -ance, -ancy and -ent, -ence, -ency
Use -ant, -ance, -ancy if there is a related word with an a sound in the right place (hesitant, hesitation). Use -ent, -ence, -ency after a soft c, a soft g or qu, or if a related word has a clear e. Many words simply have to be learnt.
- -ant, -ance
- hesitant tolerant observant expectant vacant elegant distant
- -ent, -ence after soft c, soft g, qu
- decent recent urgent agent frequent
- learn these
- assistant assistance obedient obedience independent independence resident
Watch out: If the rule does not help, picture the word and trust the pattern you have seen in your reading.
Endings -able, -ably, -ible and -ibly
-able is much more common than -ible. Use -able when you can hear a whole word before it (comfortable) or when there is a related word ending -ation (adoration, adorable). After a soft c or g, keep the e (noticeable, manageable). -ible is common when you cannot hear a whole word before it. For the adverb forms, change the final e to y.
- -able, whole word heard
- dependable comfortable understandable reasonable enjoyable reliable
- related -ation word
- adorable (adoration) considerable (consideration) tolerable (toleration)
- keep the e after c or g
- noticeable changeable manageable replaceable
- -ible
- possible horrible terrible visible incredible sensible
- adverbs
- possibly horribly terribly visibly incredibly sensibly reliably considerably
Watch out: Legible and forcible are -ible words that keep the e. Reliable comes from rely, with y changing to i.
Year 5 spelling quiz
12 quick questions on the rules above. Choose an answer for each, then check.
Keep going
Spelling lists and grammar terminology: Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study, Appendices 1 and 2 (Crown copyright 2013), reproduced under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Example sentences, tips, explanations and questions are by Litlings.