Primary 6 English spelling words
P6 spelling is PSLE spelling: long abstract nouns, the words everyone misspells, and a composition where a wrong word costs marks twice. Here are the highest-value words for Primary 6 in Singapore, with free practice below.
These are the spelling patterns that appear most often in Singapore primary 6 lists, grouped for practice. Your child's actual list comes from their teacher — photograph it and Spell Buddy will build a test from it in seconds.
The words, by spelling pattern
Set A · PSLE abstract nouns
12 words
- achievement
- opportunity
- responsibility
- determination
- perseverance
- confidence
- resilience
- communication
- imagination
- competition
- preparation
- celebration
Set B · ie or ei, and other classic traps
12 words
- receive
- believe
- achieve
- deceive
- ceiling
- science
- society
- patient
- sufficient
- efficient
- ancient
- conscience
Set C · Endings -ance and -ence
12 words
- appearance
- performance
- difference
- importance
- distance
- guidance
- patience
- silence
- presence
- influence
- audience
- allowance
Set D · The most misspelled English words
12 words
- accommodate
- recommend
- apparently
- basically
- especially
- extremely
- probably
- actually
- finally
- suddenly
- honestly
- occasionally
At P6, effort should go to the words that appear inside compositions: achievement, perseverance, opportunity. Those earn marks twice, once for spelling and once for vocabulary.
How to practise in five minutes
- Listen twice, write once. Play the word, let your child repeat it, then write. Repeating before writing is the step most families skip, and it is the one that fixes careless mistakes.
- Check straight away. Correcting a wrong word within seconds is worth more than correcting it tomorrow, because the wrong version has not had time to settle.
- Revisit tomorrow, not tonight. A word remembered the next morning is remembered for the test. A word repeated ten times in one sitting is forgotten by Thursday.
Practise PSLE words in a sentence, not alone. A word recalled inside a sentence is a word that will actually appear in the composition.
Questions parents ask
Which spelling words matter most for PSLE?
The ones a child will actually use in a composition: abstract nouns, feeling words and connectors. A child who can spell “perseverance” writes a better story than one who can spell “rhinoceros”.
How many days before the paper should we stop practising new words?
About a week. New words learned in the final days rarely survive the exam, so use the last week to revisit the child's own error list only.
My child's spelling is fine but handwriting is slow. Is that related?
Often, yes. Slow handwriting uses up the attention that spelling needs. If a word is only correct when written slowly, that word is not yet automatic.
Do secondary schools still test spelling?
Most do not test it directly, but every subject assumes it. P6 is the last point where spelling gets dedicated practice time, which is why it is worth finishing properly.
Practice the next level
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