Spelling list: ay words - set 1

In the world of phonics, understanding the relationship between letters and their sounds is a crucial step towards becoming a confident reader and speller. As you spend more time practising your spelling, you will start to notice the same letter combinations come up again and again to spell particular sounds.

The combination of the letters a and y in words creates the distinctive long /a/ sound, which is like the /a/ sound you hear the words play, stay, and day.

There six different ways to spell the long /a/ sound, but luckily the ay spelling is most-often used at the end of the word. This means that if you hear a word which ends in a long /a/ sound, the ay spelling will be a safe bet in most cases.

day	You can have a day off next week.
hay	Wait for a dry spell to cut the hay.
lay	Male birds do not lay eggs.
may	Please may I have a piece of cake?
pay	I insist it's my turn to pay for the drinks.
ray	A ray of sunshine lit up the wall.
say	They say it's a wonderful place to visit.
way	He looked at me in a very odd way.
clay	They dug up a huge amount of clay.
gray	My hair is beginning to go gray.
pray	Muslims pray in a mosque.
tray	Put the glasses on the tray.
slay	Did St George slay a dragon?
stay	Stay there, do not move.
sway	We watched them sway in time to the music.
spray	Spray the room to freshen the air.
stray	Stray cats are often very thin.