KS1 · Year 2 · Ages 6–7
The Foragers' Glade
Year 2 children become spelling foragers. They've collected the sounds; now they pull words apart and put them back together with suffixes, prefixes, and the rules that hold them up. This is Phase 6 — phonics into spelling.
Suffixes
Adding endings
A suffix is a little ending that changes a word's job: jump → jumping → jumped → jumps → jumper.
The four big rules
1. Just add it
For most words, just stick the ending on. walk + ing = walking, play + ed = played.
2. Drop the silent e
Word ends in e? Drop it before -ing, -ed, -er. hike → hiking, bake → baker.
3. Double the consonant
Short vowel + single consonant? Double it. hop → hopping, run → runner, swim → swimming.
4. Change y to i
Word ends in a consonant + y? Swap y for i (unless adding -ing). cry → cries / cried, but crying.
Suffixes to know in Year 2
Try it
Suffix swap. Pick a root word: kind. How many forms can you make? kindly, kindness, unkind, kinder, kindest. Race to find five.
Prefixes
Adding to the start
Year 2 introduces un- as the first prefix. It flips a word: happy → unhappy, do → undo, kind → unkind.
- unhappy
- unkind
- unfair
- undo
- untie
- unwrap
- unlock
- unsafe
- unwell
- unzip
Contractions
Squashing two words into one
The apostrophe shows missing letters. do not → don't. I am → I'm. she will → she'll.
- I'm
- I'll
- I've
- I'd
- you're
- you'll
- you've
- you'd
- he's
- she's
- it's
- we're
- they're
- can't
- don't
- didn't
- won't
- wouldn't
- shouldn't
- couldn't
Watch out
its (belonging to it) has no apostrophe. it's always means it is. A common Year 2 trip-up.
Trickier spellings
Patterns to puzzle out
The /j/ sound at the end
Often spelled -dge or -ge.
The /n/ sound at the start
Sometimes a silent k sneaks in.
The /r/ sound at the start
Sometimes a silent w.
The /l/ sound
At the end of two-syllable words, often -le.
/s/ spelled c
Before e, i or y.
/zh/ spelled s
Like the soft buzz in treasure.
Common exception words (Year 2)
Words from the National Curriculum that don't quite follow the rules — best learned by sight.
- door
- floor
- poor
- because
- find
- kind
- mind
- behind
- child
- children
- wild
- climb
- most
- only
- both
- old
- cold
- gold
- hold
- told
- every
- everybody
- even
- great
- break
- steak
- pretty
- beautiful
- after
- fast
- last
- past
- father
- class
- grass
- pass
- plant
- path
- bath
- hour
- move
- prove
- improve
- sure
- sugar
- eye
- could
- should
- would
- who
- whole
- any
- many
- clothes
- busy
- people
- water
- again
- half
- money
- Mr
- Mrs
- parents
- Christmas
Year 2 readers head onto The Trailblazers' Path as they step into KS2.