Tricky words

Where do your tricky words come from?

Our list of tricky words comprises:

  • the original tricky words from Letters and Sounds
  • the CEWs from the National Curriculum Year 1 and 2
  • additional words from Appendix 1 of Letters and Sounds.

We also included ‘Ms’ as having only ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’ seemed outdated. 

Some of the words in these lists are not included as tricky words for Little Wandle as the children will be taught the GPC, for example ‘poor’. Many tricky words are tricky at one point in the programme and then become decodable for example ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘me’, ‘be’ and ‘we’ are tricky in Reception but become decodable in Year 1.