Choose the conventional spelling where a simple sound rule is insufficient.
Free to use and free to share. There is no sign-up, no score, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere.
Practise it now
Sweep the magnifier along the sentence. One word is spelt wrong, so tap it, then operate.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Words that break their own pattern
Which spelling belongs in the gap? "Niamh was late _____ the school minibus broke down again."
Work one word out and find the trick that fixes it for good.
becuase
because
bacause
beccause
Answer: because
How you get there
"because" is the spelling the gap wants. Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants: b-e-c-a-u-s-e. The a comes before the u. Beside it, "becuase" is wrong: The right letters are after the letters "bec", but in the wrong order: it is "au", not "ua".
Why the other answers tempt
The spelling that matches how the word sounds is usually the wrong one; that is what makes these words worth learning.
If they are stuck, say this
Say the word slowly in parts and write each part down. The letters people lose are the ones they never hear.
Sweep the magnifier along the sentence. One word is spelt wrong, so tap it, then operate.
"posible" should be "possible". A letter has gone missing after the letters "pos": the spelling needs "s" there. Possible ends in -ible, the same as terrible and horrible. Only the two ss are doubled. Proofreading is not reading faster, it is reading slower: one word at a time, letter by letter.
What to say if they get stuck
Read it slowly under the lens, one word at a time, and look at the letters rather than at the meaning.
The poorly word has 7 letters. Copy it out and compare it letter by letter with the spelling you know.
A letter has gone missing after the letters "pos": the spelling needs "s" there.
Questions parents ask about resolve an irregular spelling
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Choose the conventional spelling where a simple sound rule is insufficient. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the spelling strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
The spelling that matches how the word sounds is usually the wrong one; that is what makes these words worth learning. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Say the word slowly in parts and write each part down. The letters people lose are the ones they never hear.
The skill map draws the line here: This is orthographic recall, not vocabulary meaning. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The spelling strand holds 3 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to resolve an irregular spelling are apply a prefix or suffix and form a plural. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Spelling Surgeon, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to resolve an irregular spelling, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems
A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.
