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Dolch sight words

The 220 service words and 95 nouns Edward Dolch published in 1936, in the groups he put them in, each with a sentence and a test that reads them aloud.

One word per line, or paste a comma-separated list. Numbering and bullets are stripped. A sentence after a pipe is read out with the word.

Your list, the answers and any name you type stay in this browser — nothing is uploaded. The built-in lists are compiled by spelling pattern, not issued by a curriculum authority. Check this before you rely on it. This spelling test maker is provided free and without warranty, and its results are not professional advice.

Dolch sight words — Pre-primer

Name ____________________ Date ____________

Listen to each word and write it on the line. Put your name at the top first.

Dolch sight words — Pre-primer

Name ____________________ Date ____________

Look at the word, cover it, write it, then check. Repeat any you get wrong.

  1. aI ate a pear at lunch.
  2. andBread and butter for breakfast.
  3. awayThe cat ran away from the dog.
  4. bigThat is a big red truck.
  5. blueThe sky is bright blue today.
  6. canI can tie my own shoes.
  7. comePlease come to the front of the class.
  8. downSlide down the hill on the sled.
  9. findCan you find my missing glove?
  10. forThis card is for my grandmother.
  11. funnyThat story was very funny.
  12. goWe go to the park after school.
  13. helpI will help you carry the books.
  14. herePut your bag down here.
  15. II am ready to start.
  16. inThe pencils are in the drawer.
  17. isThe soup is too hot.
  18. itOpen the box and look inside it.
  19. jumpFrogs jump from stone to stone.
  20. littleA little bird landed on the fence.
  21. lookLook at the picture on page four.
  22. makeWe will make a card for Dad.
  23. mePlease pass me the glue.
  24. myMy coat is hanging by the door.
  25. notThis pen is not working.
  26. oneOnly one apple is left.
  27. playWe play football at lunchtime.
  28. redShe wore a red hat.
  29. runI can run all the way home.
  30. saidThe teacher said to line up.
  31. seeI can see the moon tonight.
  32. thePut the milk in the fridge.
  33. threeThere are three eggs left.
  34. toWe walked to the shop together.
  35. twoI have two brothers.
  36. upClimb up the ladder slowly.
  37. weWe are going swimming.
  38. whereWhere did you leave your lunchbox?
  39. yellowThe lemon is yellow.
  40. youYou can borrow my ruler.

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Dolch sight words — Pre-primer

Score ______ out of ______

Date ____________

Every word in Dolch sight words

315 words in 6 groups, grouped by pattern.

Pre-primer

The first forty. Taught before a child reads connected text at all.

  1. a
  2. and
  3. away
  4. big
  5. blue
  6. can
  7. come
  8. down
  9. find
  10. for
  11. funny
  12. go
  13. help
  14. here
  15. I
  16. in
  17. is
  18. it
  19. jump
  20. little
  21. look
  22. make
  23. me
  24. my
  25. not
  26. one
  27. play
  28. red
  29. run
  30. said
  31. see
  32. the
  33. three
  34. to
  35. two
  36. up
  37. we
  38. where
  39. yellow
  40. you

Primer

Kindergarten. Colours, numbers and the verbs that hold a sentence together.

  1. all
  2. am
  3. are
  4. at
  5. ate
  6. be
  7. black
  8. brown
  9. but
  10. came
  11. did
  12. do
  13. eat
  14. four
  15. get
  16. good
  17. have
  18. he
  19. into
  20. like
  21. must
  22. new
  23. no
  24. now
  25. on
  26. our
  27. out
  28. please
  29. pretty
  30. ran
  31. ride
  32. saw
  33. say
  34. she
  35. so
  36. soon
  37. that
  38. there
  39. they
  40. this
  41. too
  42. under
  43. want
  44. was
  45. well
  46. went
  47. what
  48. white
  49. who
  50. will
  51. with
  52. yes

First grade

Where the irregular past tenses arrive: had, has, were, know.

  1. after
  2. again
  3. an
  4. any
  5. as
  6. ask
  7. by
  8. could
  9. every
  10. fly
  11. from
  12. give
  13. giving
  14. had
  15. has
  16. her
  17. him
  18. his
  19. how
  20. just
  21. know
  22. let
  23. live
  24. may
  25. of
  26. old
  27. once
  28. open
  29. over
  30. put
  31. round
  32. some
  33. stop
  34. take
  35. thank
  36. them
  37. then
  38. think
  39. walk
  40. were
  41. when

Second grade

The homophone trap opens here: their, its, right, would, your.

  1. always
  2. around
  3. because
  4. been
  5. before
  6. best
  7. both
  8. buy
  9. call
  10. cold
  11. does
  12. don't
  13. fast
  14. first
  15. five
  16. found
  17. gave
  18. goes
  19. green
  20. its
  21. made
  22. many
  23. off
  24. or
  25. pull
  26. read
  27. right
  28. sing
  29. sit
  30. sleep
  31. tell
  32. their
  33. these
  34. those
  35. upon
  36. us
  37. use
  38. very
  39. wash
  40. which
  41. why
  42. wish
  43. work
  44. would
  45. write
  46. your

Third grade

Longer and less phonetic: laugh, myself, together, eight.

  1. about
  2. better
  3. bring
  4. carry
  5. clean
  6. cut
  7. done
  8. draw
  9. drink
  10. eight
  11. fall
  12. far
  13. full
  14. got
  15. grow
  16. hold
  17. hot
  18. hurt
  19. if
  20. keep
  21. kind
  22. laugh
  23. light
  24. long
  25. much
  26. myself
  27. never
  28. only
  29. own
  30. pick
  31. seven
  32. shall
  33. show
  34. six
  35. small
  36. start
  37. ten
  38. today
  39. together
  40. try
  41. warm

The 95 nouns

Dolch listed these separately: they are picturable, so they are learned differently.

  1. apple
  2. baby
  3. back
  4. ball
  5. bear
  6. bed
  7. bell
  8. bird
  9. birthday
  10. boat
  11. box
  12. boy
  13. bread
  14. brother
  15. cake
  16. car
  17. cat
  18. chair
  19. chicken
  20. children
  21. Christmas
  22. coat
  23. corn
  24. cow
  25. day
  26. dog
  27. doll
  28. door
  29. duck
  30. egg
  31. eye
  32. farm
  33. farmer
  34. father
  35. feet
  36. fire
  37. fish
  38. floor
  39. flower
  40. game
  41. garden
  42. girl
  43. goodbye
  44. grass
  45. ground
  46. hand
  47. head
  48. hill
  49. home
  50. horse
  51. house
  52. kitty
  53. leg
  54. letter
  55. man
  56. men
  57. milk
  58. money
  59. morning
  60. mother
  61. name
  62. nest
  63. night
  64. paper
  65. party
  66. picture
  67. pig
  68. rabbit
  69. rain
  70. ring
  71. robin
  72. Santa Claus
  73. school
  74. seed
  75. sheep
  76. shoe
  77. sister
  78. snow
  79. song
  80. squirrel
  81. stick
  82. street
  83. sun
  84. table
  85. thing
  86. time
  87. top
  88. toy
  89. tree
  90. watch
  91. water
  92. way
  93. wind
  94. window
  95. wood

What the practice modes do

Generated by the same code the buttons run, on the first few words of this list, so what is printed here is what you will get.

Word Letter scramble Missing letters Spelled out loud
aa_A
andnad_ndA, N, D
awaywyaaaw_yA, W, A, Y
bigigbb_gB, I, G

What Dolch counted, and why the list still holds

Edward Dolch built this list by counting words in children’s books in the 1930s and pulling out the ones that turn up constantly and cannot be sounded out reliably — the, said, come, would. Between them the 220 service words account for somewhere between half and two-thirds of the words in most beginning readers, which is why the list survived a change of century and several changes of teaching fashion.

The nouns sit apart for a good reason. A child can be shown a picture of an apple; nobody can draw "would". Picturable words are learned by a different route and are usually easier, so folding them into the service groups would flatter a child’s progress rather than measure it.

Sight word does not mean unsoundable

The phrase is misleading and does real harm when taken literally. Roughly two-thirds of the Dolch words are perfectly regular — and, stop, black and help all sound out exactly as written — and drilling those as whole shapes teaches a child to guess at words they could have decoded. What Dolch identified was frequency, not irregularity.

The genuinely irregular ones make a far shorter list: said, come, some, one, two, who, could, would, should, been, again. Those are worth learning as wholes. For the rest, the useful instruction is "you can already sound this out — now do it fast enough that you stop noticing you did".

Working through the groups

Take a group, not the list. Pre-primer is forty words and occupies most children for several weeks; all 315 at once is a year’s work and looks like a wall. Ten a week from a single group, tested on Friday, with the misses carried into the following week, gets through pre-primer and primer in a term.

The order inside a group does not matter; the order of the groups does. They are graded by how early the words appear in text, so a child who has not got pre-primer will find primer disproportionately hard. When a group is going badly the right move is to drop back rather than to slow down.

Common questions

How many Dolch words are there in total?

315: the 220 service words split across five graded groups, plus 95 nouns listed separately. The 220 is the number usually quoted, because that is the part which has to be taught as vocabulary rather than picked up from pictures.

What age is each Dolch group for?

Roughly: pre-primer before formal reading begins, primer in kindergarten, then one group per year through third grade. Treat it as a sequence rather than a calendar — the groups get harder in a fixed order, but children move through them at very different speeds.

Are the Dolch lists free to use?

Yes. The list was published in the 1930s, is reproduced in thousands of school documents, and appears here unedited. The example sentences on this page are ours; the words themselves are not anybody’s.

Dolch or Fry — which should I use?

Dolch if the child is at the very beginning and short graded groups suit you. Fry if you want frequency order and a longer runway, since it continues to a thousand. They overlap heavily across the first few hundred words, so working through both in full is largely duplicated effort.

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