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Unit 14: Spelling the sound /or/

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Unit 14: Spelling choices for /or/ sound: or, ore, au, aw and war

Unit Startpage 1Course Testpage 3page 4Course Testpage 6page 7Course Testpage 9page 10page 11Unit End

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Unit 14: Spelling the sound /or/: or, ore, au, aw

/or/ as in fork Learning to spell the or sound in English words

Teaching point There are many ways of spelling the /or/ sound. The most common ways are or, ore, au and aw

There are no rules but there are some helpful hints:

  1. Very few words used commonly in English end with au, so if the /or/ sound is at the end of the word, use ore or aw (shore, jaw)
  2. aw is often used if the /or/ sound comes before an n or l (dawn, crawl).

Here are lots more examples that use the /or/ sound. See how many you can learn.

Learning to spell the or sound in English words Learning to spell the or sound in English words Learning to spell the or sound in English words Learning to spell the or sound in English words
or as in fork ore as in shore au as in sauce aw as in jaw

cord
ford
lord*
cork
pork
stork*
form
norm
storm
born
corn
horn
torn
worn*
fort
port
sort*
short
sport
porch
torch
scorch
force
forge
gorge
horse*
horde*
...and many more

 If or is at the end of the word, add e:

ore
bore*
core
gore
lore*
more
chore
score
shore*
snore
sore*
store
swore
tore*
wore*

Rule breakers break spelling rules

for*
tor*		 haul*
maul*
Paul
daub
taut*
fraud
cause
pause*
fault
vault
daunt
gaunt
haunt
jaunt
haunch
launch
paunch
staunch		 law*
saw*
paw*
raw
claw
draw
flaw*
thaw
straw
hawk
squawk
dawn
fawn
lawn
pawn
yawn
drawl
drawn
prawn
spawn
bawl*
crawl
trawl
shawl
scrawl
Learn the Words:
Learn the Words: or words
Learn the Words:
Learn the Words: -ore words
Learn the Words:
Learn the Words: au words
Learn the Words:
Learn the Words: aw words
Note: Words marked * are homophones. Please see page 11

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

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Take a test in these /or/ words.

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

"This is a fantastic opportunity for our students!  I'm sure Spellzone will be invaluable in helping them to improve their spellings and therefore improve the quality of their writing in all subject areas!"

Teacher, High School, UK