What your child's spelling mistakes are telling you
Most spelling mistakes follow a pattern. Spot the pattern and you know what to practise. This guide covers five that turn up in most children's exercise books.
You open your child's homework book and find becos, jumpt and runing. Each one is wrong, but each one is wrong in a way that makes sense. That is useful, because a sensible mistake points to a sensible fix.
This post is the practical companion to why is my child a good reader but a poor speller? That post explains why spelling lags behind reading. This one helps you read the mistakes on the page and decide what to do about them.
Spelling from memory, a few minutes a day
SpellCast reads each word aloud inside a sentence. Your child types it from memory, and any word they miss comes back until it sticks. Free to try.
How do I read my child's spelling mistakes?
Read the misspelling aloud, exactly as written. Ask whether it sounds like the right word. Then ask which part went wrong. The Education Endowment Foundation says that by analysing the types of spelling errors pupils make, "it is possible to provide support specific to their needs".
Collect five or six misspellings first. One slip tells you little, but the same slip three times tells you something. The table below covers the five patterns that come up most. Where a row draws on the EEF's error types, the "what it suggests" wording follows the EEF.
| Pattern | Example | What it suggests | What helps at home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spelt exactly as it sounds | becos for because, frend for friend | Sound-to-letter knowledge is working. The child has not stored how this word is written. | Find the tricky part of the word and practise it from memory |
| Ending spelt by ear | jumpt for jumped, lookt for looked | The child has not yet learned that these endings are always spelt the same way | Learn that the past tense ending is spelt -ed, however it sounds, then spot it in the word |
| Doubling or dropped e missed | runing for running, hopeing for hoping | The rule for adding -ing and -ed is not secure yet | Learn the rule, then sort a few words by it |
| Wrong real word | hole for whole, were for where | The child spelt a real word correctly. It is the wrong word for the meaning. | Learn the pair together, with a sentence for each |
| Letter missing from a known word | vrious for various, libary for library | A gap in the sound structure of that particular word | Say it slowly in a "spelling voice" with every syllable, then write it from memory |
Why does my child spell words exactly as they sound?
Because they are using what phonics taught them, and the word does not follow the usual pattern. The EEF calls these errors "phonologically plausible but inaccurate". They suggest a child "is relying only on letter-sound rules to produce an invented spelling".
Becos is a good example. Because is one of the common exception words the national curriculum lists for Year 2. Exception words contain letter patterns that children have not yet met as widely applicable, so sounding out will not get them there. The fix is word-specific. Ask your child to point to the bit that surprised them. For because, it is the au and the final -se. Then they practise that bit from memory.
The EEF lists this among the strategies that good spellers "appear to use". It describes "the identification of the 'tricky' parts of words so that these can be learned". Our common exception words guide has the Year 1 and 2 lists.
Why does my child spell word endings by ear?
Because the same ending can sound different. The national curriculum notes that a past tense ending can sound like "id" in wanted, "d" in played or "t" in jumped. It adds that "all these endings are spelt –ed". This sits in the Year 1 spelling work.
So jumped sounds like jumpt, and trapped sounds like trapt. The EEF uses trapt for trapped as its own example of a morphological error. It says such errors suggest "pupils have not learned the consistent spelling of the morphemes in the word". Trapped also needs a doubled p, which is a Year 2 rule covered below. A morpheme is a meaningful chunk of a word, such as -ed.
At home, tell your child the rule in one line. When you add an ending to show something happened in the past, it is spelt -ed. Words like kept and slept are different and are learned one at a time. Then ask them to split jumped into jump and ed. Our explainer on -ing, -ed and -er endings shows the rule with examples.
Why does my child miss doubled letters and the dropped e?
Because two separate rules apply. One rule adds a letter and the other takes one away. The national curriculum teaches both in Year 2. The final e is dropped before an ending that starts with a vowel letter, as in hiking and nicer. A single last consonant is doubled "to keep the vowel 'short'", as in patting and dropped.
That is why hoping and hopping are different words, and why runing and hopeing are such common slips. Both words are one letter away from correct. The child usually knows an ending needs adding. They have not yet learned what happens to the end of the root word.
Pick one rule at a time. For doubling, write run, hop and drop and add -ing to each. For the dropped e, try hope, bake and smile. Our explainer on adding suffixes walks through both. The EEF advises that teachers "systematically teach spelling rules with regular practice consistently undertaken".
Why does my child write the wrong real word?
Because two words sound the same or very alike, and the child picked the wrong one. The spelling is perfect. The word is wrong for the sentence. The national curriculum says it is "important to know the difference in meaning between homophones", and it lists pairs from Year 2 onwards.
Our own practice data shows how common this is. In our summer 2026 analysis of more than 100,000 spelling attempts, 61% of the mistakes on where were were. For whole, 42% of the mistakes were hole. Those figures come from that post and cover April to July 2026.
Drilling the letters will not fix this, because the letters are already right. Teach the pair together with a sentence for each. Where is about a place and has the word here hiding inside it. Whole and hole need two different pictures. Our guides to Year 3 and 4 homophones list the common pairs.
Why does my child leave a letter out of a word they know?
Often the child has said the word quickly in their head and written what they heard. The EEF describes errors that are "not phonologically plausible", such as vrious for various. It says a child "might have gaps in their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, or in their knowledge of the sound structure of a particular word".
Our practice data shows the same thing with everyday words. Libary accounted for 63% of the mistakes on library, and intrest for 68% of the mistakes on interest. Both words lose a syllable when people say them fast. Unlike vrious, these match how many adults say the word. The fix is to say it the way it is spelt.
The EEF suggests "practise sounding phonemes all the way through words". At home, that means saying lib-rar-y slowly and writing one chunk at a time. Then cover the word and write it again from memory.
Which mistakes are worth talking to school about?
Mistakes that follow these five patterns are normal. A single odd spelling is normal too. You can ask the class teacher about spelling at any time. Ask about extra support if difficulties persist and sit alongside other signs. The British Dyslexia Association says "a cluster of these indicators alongside areas of ability may suggest dyslexia".
The BDA's list of signs for primary-age children includes a child who "spells a word several different ways in one piece of writing". It also includes "phonetic and bizarre spelling: not age/ability appropriate". Note the words "not age/ability appropriate". Becos at six is normal. Becos at ten, alongside other signs, is worth a conversation. The NHS lists "written work that looks messy and has lots of spelling mistakes" among the signs, alongside reading below the expected level.
If that sounds familiar, the NHS says "a useful first step is to talk to their school's special educational needs coordinator (SENCO)". In most schools the class teacher is the easiest way in, and they will involve the SENCO. The BDA adds that a formal diagnosis is not needed for school to put support in place. Our guide to dyslexia and spelling covers the signs in more detail.
What do I do with the list?
Sort the misspellings into the five rows. Choose the row with the most entries. Practise two or three words from that row for five minutes a day, writing each from memory. Add one or two new words with the same pattern. Test the original words again a week later. Fix the pattern first. The individual words follow. If you would like a quick read on where your child is now, try our free Year 3 spelling check. There is one for every year from 1 to 6.
Sources
- Education Endowment Foundation, Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2, guidance report, second edition (2021), pages 34 to 36, including Figure 12. Education Endowment Foundation (PDF) (retrieved 31 October 2026).
- Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study, English Appendix 1: Spelling (2013, current). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk (retrieved 31 October 2026).
- British Dyslexia Association, Signs of dyslexia (primary school age). bdadyslexia.org.uk (retrieved 31 October 2026).
- NHS, Dyslexia in children. nhs.uk (retrieved 31 October 2026).
- SpellCast, What a term of spelling data reveals about how children spell (July 2026): anonymised practice data, April to July 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most common spelling mistakes children make?
Why does my child spell words how they sound?
Why does my child write jumpt instead of jumped?
Should I correct every spelling mistake in my child's writing?
When should I worry about my child's spelling mistakes?
Practice for the words that keep going wrong
SpellCast reads each word aloud in a sentence and your child types it from memory. Missed words come back until they stick. Free to try.