Year 6 Spelling Words for Australian Students

By Year 6, spelling supports learning across every subject. Students need strategies for longer words used in science, mathematics, history and persuasive or informative writing, as well as commonly confused words that depend on meaning.

A strong Year 6 list should not be difficult merely for the sake of it. The words should demonstrate useful structures and conventions that students can apply in secondary school.

What spelling knowledge develops in Year 6?

Students work with complex prefixes, nominalisations, less common suffixes and technical vocabulary. A nominalisation turns another kind of word into a noun: investigate becomes investigation, persuade becomes persuasion and describe becomes description.

They also meet Greek and Latin plurals, unstressed syllables and pairs whose spelling changes with grammatical function or meaning, such as affect and effect, advice and advise, and practice and practise.

Examples of Year 6 spelling areas

• Complex prefixed words - for example, underestimate
• Nominalisations - for example, investigation
• -cious and -tious endings - for example, ambitious
• Subject vocabulary - for example, photosynthesis
• Less common plurals - for example, hypotheses
• Commonly confused words - for example, affect and effect

Break long words into meaningful parts

Long words become more manageable when students identify prefixes, bases and suffixes. Counterargument can be examined as counter + argument; irresponsible as ir + responsible; and multinational as multi + national.

Ask your child to explain what each part contributes and to find another related word. This strengthens vocabulary at the same time as spelling.

Use reference tools intelligently

Older primary students should still attempt a word using what they know, but they should also learn to verify uncertain spellings with a dictionary or spellchecker. The important step is to compare their attempt with the correct form and identify what they missed, rather than accepting an automatic correction without thought.

Preparing for high school

The best preparation is not memorising every advanced word. It is having a repeatable process: pronounce the word, divide it into syllables and morphemes, consider related words, write it in context and check it when uncertain.