Year 3 & 4 Spelling Words
Years 3 and 4 introduce the statutory word list - 100 words that children must be able to spell by the end of Year 4, such as believe, calendar, caught, different, and separate.
Unlike the KS1 common exception words, the Year 3 and 4 list contains many longer, multisyllabic words that reward understanding of word roots and spelling patterns alongside memorisation.
The full Year 3 & 4 word list
Statutory word list · National Curriculum (England)
- accident
- accidentally
- actual
- actually
- address
- answer
- appear
- arrive
- believe
- bicycle
- breath
- breathe
- build
- busy
- business
- calendar
- caught
- centre
- century
- certain
- circle
- complete
- consider
- continue
- decide
- describe
- different
- difficult
- disappear
- early
- earth
- eight
- eighth
- enough
- exercise
- experience
- experiment
- extreme
- famous
- favourite
- February
- forward
- forwards
- fruit
- grammar
- group
- guard
- guide
- heard
- heart
- height
- history
- imagine
- increase
- important
- interest
- island
- knowledge
- learn
- length
- library
- material
- medicine
- mention
- minute
- natural
- naughty
- notice
- occasion
- occasionally
- often
- opposite
- ordinary
- particular
- peculiar
- perhaps
- popular
- position
- possess
- possession
- possible
- potatoes
- pressure
- probably
- promise
- purpose
- quarter
- question
- recent
- regular
- reign
- remember
- sentence
- separate
- special
- straight
- strange
- strength
- suppose
- surprise
- therefore
- though
- although
- thought
- through
- various
- weight
- woman
- women
Source: National curriculum in England: English programmes of study, Department for Education.
📥 Free printable paper-practice sheet
Download a clean, ready-to-print Year 3 & 4 sheet - the full statutory list, 10 words a page, built for look, cover, write, check. Your child writes each word, then you snap a photo in the spelling.live app - Paper practice reads the sheet, marks it, and brings tricky words back automatically.
🖨️ Open printable sheet (PDF)Opens a print-ready page - choose “Save as PDF” in the print dialog to keep a copy, or send it straight to your printer.
Practise the whole list on the app
The statutory list is built into spelling.live as ready-made KS2 lists, so there's no typing. Your child hears each word, writes it, and gets instant feedback - and tricky words come back automatically until they stick.
- Open your child's profile and tap Word Lists.
- Tap Browse Preset Lists and choose the KS2 tab.
- Add Year 3/4 - Everyday Essentials (or Tricky Spellings) and start practising.
New: Paper practice
Set a written spelling test on paper, then snap a photo of the marked sheet. spelling.live reads the ticks and crosses, records which words were right, and feeds the misspelled ones back into practice automatically - it can even score handwriting and letter formation. All the benefit of writing by hand, with AI-assisted marking.
Handwriting mode, word games, paper practice, and instant feedback - all aligned to the National Curriculum. Free to start.
Start practising freeMore National Curriculum lists: Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 5 & 6 Read more: KS2 spelling lists guide · Paper practice explained Browse all free spelling resources →