Your current location:

Unit 3: Spelling the consonant sounds, part 2

Page 4 of 10

Unit 3: Spelling the consonant sounds, Part 2

Unit Startpage 1Course Testpage 3page 4Course Testpage 6Course Testpage 8Course Testpage 10Unit End

Page 4 of 10

Spelling the qu words

Spelling the qu words Spelling the qu words
  queen question


Teaching point The rules for qu are simple;

1. When you hear the sound /kw/ the spelling is always qu.
2. In English words, q is never seen without u: qu.

"Never?" - Well, almost never! A true story:

word lists
 
For many years the author of this course used to stress the qu spelling to all her classes by promising a big reward to any student who could find an English word containing q without u. She was confident she would never have to pay up but, in 1993, Andrew (age 12) found the word 'qwerty' in his dictionary. This word describes a computer keyboard and is made from the first six letters on the keyboard. It has become part of the language and is one of the very few English words to break the qu rule. Can you find two more words that break the qu rule?
 
word lists
word lists word lists

Some examples of qu words:

quick
quite
quilt
request
require
equal
aquarium
earthquake
inquisitive
qua and quar
quads
quality
quantity
squash
squat
squalor
quarter
quartet
quartz

After qu, the short vowel sound /o/ is usually spelled with the letter a. The sound /or/ is spelled ar.
Learn the Words:
Learn the Words:

You have not completed Learn the Words activities for each word list on this page.

next part of the spelling course
Go to next page:
A spelling test on qu words.

X
X
Please turn your screen to landscape to play this game.
X

The Spellzone interactive course is intended to be used online and may not be printed.

"Thank goodness for Spellzone during this remote learning phase. The site is easy for students to navigate independently and they're really enjoying the activities and spelling games. You get an awful lot for your money with Spellzone. Really reassuring is the very prompt response with helpdesk queries. I've very rarely needed the helpdesk, but when I have, the issue has been addressed and sorted within a very short time."

Sarah Taggart, Oasis Academy Lord's Hill