Soft c, soft g, dge and tch

"dge" written as "ge" (silent "d" dropped)

"dge" keeps its "d" after a short vowel: "bridge", "badge", "hedge". A plain "ge" is what follows a long vowel or a consonant: "huge", "change".

"dge" written as "j"

At the end of a word, straight after a short vowel, the /j/ sound is spelled "dge" and never a bare "j": "bridge", "edge", "badge", "judge".

"tch" written as "ch"

Straight after a short vowel the /ch/ sound is usually spelled "tch": "catch", "kitchen", "watch". A few common words keep a plain "ch": "much", "rich", "such", "which".

Y2The /dʒ/ sound spelt as ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g elsewhere

Examples: badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge, age, huge, change, village, giant

Y2The /tʃ/ sound spelt tch

Examples: catch, fetch, kitchen, notch, hutch

Dictation sentences

Read each one aloud and ask your child to write it down.

1. Catch the ball before it goes over the fence.
2. The giant ate a huge slice of cake in the kitchen.
3. We walked across the bridge to the city.

Quick check

Can they spell these without help?

• fudge
• stitch
• cage
• circus

Keep going

• Year 2 spelling words - the statutory list with a free worksheet
• Printable spelling test sheet - for writing the words on paper
• Practise in Spelling.Live - add these words as a list, take a Skills Check, or play games built from them