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Third grade spelling words

Eighty words in eight units. The year r-controlled vowels arrive, prefixes start doing real work, and homophones become a problem the test itself has to solve.

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.

Grade 3 spelling words — Unit 1 — ar and or

Name ____________________ Date ____________

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

Grade 3 spelling words — Unit 1 — ar and or

Name ____________________ Date ____________

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

  1. farmWe visited a farm last spring.
  2. startStart at the top of the page.
  3. sharpBe careful, the knife is sharp.
  4. gardenBeans are growing in the garden.
  5. stormThe storm knocked down a fence.
  6. northGeese fly north in the spring.
  7. shortA short walk brings you to the beach.
  8. cornerFold the corner of the page down.
  9. morningWe do reading every morning.
  10. forgetDo not forget to sign the form.

Spelling certificate

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Grade 3 spelling words — Unit 1 — ar and or

Score ______ out of ______

Date ____________

Every word in Grade 3 spelling words

80 words in 8 groups, grouped by pattern.

Unit 1 — ar and or

The vowel disappears into the r. Nothing to sound out — just to know.

  1. farm
  2. start
  3. sharp
  4. garden
  5. storm
  6. north
  7. short
  8. corner
  9. morning
  10. forget

Unit 2 — er, ir and ur

Three spellings, one sound, no rule at all. Pure memory.

  1. her
  2. term
  3. bird
  4. first
  5. third
  6. turn
  7. burn
  8. hurt
  9. nurse
  10. purple

Unit 3 — Soft c and soft g

Before e, i or y the letter goes soft: city, giant, orange.

  1. city
  2. circle
  3. pencil
  4. dance
  5. place
  6. giant
  7. gentle
  8. page
  9. change
  10. orange

Unit 4 — Prefixes un- and re-

The base word does not change. That is the whole lesson.

  1. unhappy
  2. unkind
  3. unlock
  4. unable
  5. retell
  6. return
  7. reread
  8. replay
  9. refill
  10. rewrite

Unit 5 — Suffixes -ful, -less and -ly

One l in -ful, always, however it sounds.

  1. helpful
  2. careful
  3. useful
  4. hopeless
  5. careless
  6. endless
  7. quickly
  8. slowly
  9. safely
  10. gladly

Unit 6 — Homophones

The unit that makes the sentence compulsory. Ten words, five sounds.

  1. their
  2. there
  3. they're
  4. to
  5. too
  6. two
  7. hear
  8. here
  9. right
  10. write

Unit 7 — Irregular plurals

No s in sight. Some change the vowel, some change the f.

  1. children
  2. feet
  3. teeth
  4. mice
  5. geese
  6. men
  7. women
  8. leaves
  9. knives
  10. wolves

Unit 8 — Compound words

Two whole words joined, with nothing dropped from either.

  1. birthday
  2. sunshine
  3. outside
  4. playground
  5. everyone
  6. something
  7. anywhere
  8. football
  9. notebook
  10. afternoon

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
farmmarff_rmF, A, R, M
startatsrtst_r_S, T, A, R, T
sharphrsaps__rpS, H, A, R, P
gardengradeng_rd_nG, A, R, D, E, N

When r swallows the vowel

In farm, her, bird, turn and storm the vowel does not say anything you could sound out — the r has taken it over. That is why they arrive together in two units here: there is nothing phonetic left to build on, so the words have to be grouped by spelling and learned as families.

er, ir and ur are the hard part, because all three make the same sound and nothing in the word says which one it needs. er is the commonest by a wide margin, so it is the right guess when a child has to guess. The other two are memory, and there is no honest way to dress that up.

Soft c and soft g, and the letter that decides

Before e, i or y, c says /s/ and g says /j/: city, circle, giant, gentle. Everywhere else they stay hard. This is one of very few English spelling rules with almost no exceptions worth mentioning at this age, and it explains a surprising amount — including why dance needs the e that appears to be doing nothing.

The rule also reads backwards, which is where most of its value sits. A child wanting to write an /s/ sound at the start of a word can rule c in or out by looking at the next letter, instead of choosing between c and s by feel.

Prefixes and suffixes leave the base word alone

un + happy is unhappy. re + read is reread, with both e’s. help + ful is helpful, with one l. The lesson in these two units is not the meanings, which children pick up easily, but the mechanics: bolt the piece on and change nothing. Most errors here are children helpfully tidying away a double letter that belongs.

-ful is the one to state out loud. The suffix has one l, always, even though full has two and even though it sounds exactly like full. Careful, helpful, useful — never carefull.

Homophones need a sentence, not a rule

Unit six is ten words and five sounds: their, there and they’re; to, too and two; hear and here; right and write. No spelling rule can help, because the words are identical in the air. What distinguishes them is what they mean in one particular sentence, and a test that dictates them bare is asking an unanswerable question.

This is the unit that changes how the test has to work. Read there on its own and any of three spellings is defensible. Read "Your bag is over there by the door" and exactly one is. Keep the sentences switched on for this unit whatever you do with the rest of the year.

Common questions

What is the difference between their, there and they’re?

`Their` shows possession — their coats. `There` is a place, or the word that opens a sentence like "there is". `They’re` is they are with the a removed. The test on this page dictates each inside a sentence, because out of context the question has no correct answer.

Why does careful have one l when full has two?

Because `-ful` as a suffix is a shortened form and has always been written with one l, while `full` standing alone keeps both. It is an inconsistency rather than a rule, and the only remedy is to say it aloud once and then test it.

My third grader spells well in tests but badly in stories. Why?

A test asks for one word with full attention; a story asks for four hundred with almost none. The gap is normal and closes as handwriting and sentence construction become automatic. Judge spelling from the test and content from the story, rather than each from the other.

Should third graders still be sounding words out?

For unfamiliar words, always — it is the strategy that generalises. But by third grade the common words should be automatic, and a child still sounding out `because` letter by letter needs those specific words drilled rather than more phonics.

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