Year 6 Letter strings, etymology and curriculum words worksheet

“Ough and au sounds” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 English unit “Letter strings, etymology and curriculum words”, for children aged 10 to 11, and takes about 23 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 9 to 12 of the year, 16 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Ough and au sounds

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · English · about 23 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can tell apart the different sounds made by the letter strings 'ough' and 'au'.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which two letters make one sound in 'shop'?
shopshoho
2.
Which word sounds the same as 'sea'?
seesewsetsay
3.
What sound does 'ph' make in 'phone'?
fphoh

B Watch me, then you4 min

Some letter strings make a different sound in each word. Say the word aloud, then listen for the sound.

Watch me

Say 'tough' slowly. The letters 'ough' sound like 'uff'.

'Cough' has the same letters, but they sound like 'off'.

So the same letter string can make different sounds.

Now you

1.
Which sound does 'ough' make in 'thought'?
oroffuffoo

C Your turn6 min

Read each word aloud before you choose the sound.

1.
Which sound does 'ough' make in 'plough'?
offuffowor
2.
Which sound does 'ough' make in 'dough'?
ohoffoouff
3.
Which sound does 'au' make in 'autumn'?
orarooo
4.
Which sound does 'au' make in 'sausage'?
oroowoo

Say it out loud: Did the sound change when only the word changed? What do you notice about the letters around 'ough' or 'au'?

D Spot the mistake4 min

Ben says: “Rough and through end in the same four letters, so they must sound the same.”

1.
Say each word aloud. What sound does 'ough' make in 'rough'? In 'through'?

E Think deeper4 min

Use what you have learned to write your own sentence.

A cosy reading corner with a stack of books and a mug beside a rainy window

1.
Write one sentence with a word where 'ough' sounds like 'uff' and a word where 'au' sounds like 'or'. Underline both letter strings.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Ough and au sounds · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. sh If they chose 'op' or 'ho', ask them to say 'shop' slowly. The first two letters together make one 'sh' sound.

2. see If they chose 'sew', ask them to say 'sea' and 'sew' aloud. They sound different. 'See' sounds the same as 'sea', so it is a homophone.

3. f If they chose 'p', ask them to say 'phone' slowly. The 'ph' digraph makes an 'f' sound here.

B

1. or If they chose 'uff', that is the sound in 'tough'. 'Thought' has the 'aw' sound, like 'or'. Ask them to say both words aloud.

C

1. ow If they chose 'off', that is the sound in 'cough'. 'Plough' rhymes with 'cow', so 'ough' makes the 'ow' sound.

2. oh If they chose 'oo', that is the sound in 'through'. 'Dough' has a long 'o', as in 'oh'.

3. or If they chose 'o', that is the short 'o' in 'sausage'. 'Autumn' has the 'aw' sound, like 'or'.

4. o If they chose 'or', they have heard the 'aw' sound from 'autumn'. Say 'sausage' slowly. The 'au' sounds like a short 'o'.

D

1. Look for: Says rough makes the uff sound and through makes the oo sound, so the two words sound different and Ben's claim is wrong. If they wrote the same sound twice, ask them to say each word slowly. Same spelling does not always mean same sound.

E

1. Look for: A sentence that contains a word with 'ough' sounding like uff (such as tough) and a word with 'au' sounding like or (such as autumn), with both letter strings underlined.

Words to use

Say“Read the word out loud first. What sound do you hear, and does it match the spelling?”

Instead of“The spelling tells you the sound, so just sound it out.”

After the sheet

Hunt for 'ough' and 'au' words in a book or on a food packet at home. Write them in two columns and say each one aloud to check the sound.

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

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

Same letters, different sounds(with a plan)
Ie and ei words(with a plan)
EI spelling and sounds(with a plan)
Spelling -ant and -ance words(with a plan)
Ent and ence clues(with a plan)
Able or ible endings(with a plan)
Spelling -ible words(with a plan)
Silent letters b, k, g, w, t(with a plan)
Hidden letters in words(with a plan)
French roots in spelling(with a plan)
Words from Greek and Latin(with a plan)
Cracking curriculum words(with a plan)
Spelling key curriculum words(with a plan)
Hyphens with prefixes(with a plan)
Hyphens that make adjectives(with a plan)

Every Year 6 English worksheet

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