Year 5 Etymology and prefixes worksheet

“Hard c sounds” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 English unit “Etymology and prefixes”, for children aged 9 to 10, and takes about 22 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 8 to 10 of the year, 12 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Hard c sounds

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · English · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell whether c says k or s by looking at the letter after it.

A Look back3 min

1.
Join sun and flower to make one word. Circle the new word.
sunflowerflowersunsunshine
2.
Hop becomes a new word when you add -ing. Circle the correct spelling.
hopinghoppinghopeing
3.
Circle the consonant letter.
abe

B Watch me, then you4 min

Here is the word cobweb. Look at the letter straight after the c to find out what sound it makes.

A dusty garden shed with a cobweb in the top corner

Watch me

The letter after the c is o.

When a, o or u comes after c, the c is hard.

A hard c says k, as in cobweb.

Now you

1.
Is the c in cupboard hard or soft? Circle your answer.
hardsoft

C Your turn8 min

Look at the letter after the c in each word. Then decide the sound.

1.
What sound does the c make in cot? Circle your answer.
hardsoft
2.
What sound does the c make in cut? Circle your answer.
hardsoft
3.
What sound does the c make in cell? Circle your answer.
hardsoft
4.
What sound does the first c make in cycle? Circle your answer.
hardsoft

Say it out loud: Say each word aloud. What did the letter after the c tell you about its sound?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Kit says: “The c at the start of circus is hard, because it is the first letter in the word.”

1.
Circle the sound the first c makes in circus.
ks

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Write two words with a hard c and two words with a soft c. Next to each word, write the letter after the c.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Hard c sounds · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. sunflower your child may have chosen sunshine because it sounds similar. Ask your child to say the two parts first, then join them in the same order.

2. hopping If your child chose hoping, remind them that a short word with one vowel and one consonant at the end doubles that consonant before -ing.

3. b If your child circled a or e, ask them which letters are vowels. Every other letter in the alphabet is a consonant.

B

1. hard If your child said soft, ask which letter comes after the c. Remind your child that a, o and u make a hard c, even at the start of a word.

C

1. hard If your child said soft, ask your child to read the letter after the c out loud. A vowel letter o after c keeps the hard sound.

2. hard If your child said soft, check whether the letter after the c is u. Remind your child that u also makes a hard c.

3. soft If your child said hard, ask which letter follows the c. When e follows c, the c usually makes an s sound.

4. soft If your child said hard, ask your child to find the letter after the first c. y, like e and i, usually makes the c soft.

D

1. s your child may have copied Kit and looked at the first letter only. Ask your child which letter comes after the c, then say whether that letter makes the c soft.

E

1. Look for: Four words: two with a hard c (c before a, o or u) and two with a soft c (c before e, i or y), each with the letter after the c written next to it.

Words to use

Say“Which letter comes straight after the c? Does that letter make the c say k or s?”

Instead of“Just learn each spelling by heart, one word at a time.”

After the sheet

Walk round the kitchen with your child. Point at things with c in the name, such as cup or cereal box, and ask them to say the sound the c makes and the letter after it.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

11 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Soft c spellings(with a plan)
Ch that sounds like k(with a plan)
Ph for the f sound(with a plan)
Spelling SC words(with a plan)
Hidden letters in long words(with a plan)
Hidden vowels in long words(with a plan)
Prefixes that mean not(with a plan)
Building words with prefixes(with a plan)
Prefix spelling anchors(with a plan)
Cracking the Prefix Code(with a plan)
Prefix spelling detectives(with a plan)

Every Year 5 English worksheet

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