Year 1 Common Exception Words: Full List

What are Year 1 common exception words?

Common exception words are words that do not follow the usual phonics patterns, or that use spellings children have not yet been taught. The National Curriculum lists the common exception words that children should learn to read and spell by the end of Year 1, in the English Appendix 1: Spelling.

The Year 1 common exception words

the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our

Why common exception words need to be taught explicitly

Many of the most common words in English do not sound the way they are spelt. The more often a word is used, the more its spoken form becomes clipped and relaxed, while its spelling stays the same. This is especially true of small function words such as they, you, other, who and could.

The 300 most common words make up around 65% of all the words children read, and almost half of them cannot be read using the phonics children know at first. That is why common exception words need to be taught explicitly and practised often.

How Monster Phonics teaches common exception words

The English Programme of Study asks teachers to draw pupils’ attention to the parts of each common exception word that do and do not fit the sounds they have been taught. Monster Phonics is unique in how it does this: colour coding links each specific part of a word to its sound, including the tricky part. Children are not asked to memorise the word as a whole shape: they can see which letters make which sound, and the monster characters help them remember the tricky part. Our common exception word assessments sit alongside our phonics assessments, supporting the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check and end of Key Stage 1 teacher assessment.

Common exception word flashcards

Our double-sided flashcards show the colour-coded word on one side and the plain word on the other, so children practise with the colour support and then without it. They are ideal for classroom practice and for parents helping their children learn these words at home.