Learn to Spell Words Ending in -cial and -tial

In this activity, we will look how to spell words ending with -tial and -cial. 

 

These word endings sound the same.  They make the sound 'shul'. 

As the sound of the ending doesn't give us a clue as to which of the two spellings should be used, we can look at the other letters in the word to help us.

 

Generally, the -cial ending comes after a vowel.  The ending -tial usually comes after a consonant. 

 

Do you remember which letters are vowels?  A, E, I, O, U.  The rest are consonants.

 

For example:

In official, the -cial ending comes after i.

In partial, the -tial ending comes after t.

 

However, there are some exceptions to this rule.  You can practise spelling these in another activity.

 

Here are some examples of words that use these endings that we will practise in this activity:

 

official

special

artificial

partial

confidential

essential

 

You can listen to them here:

 

Use Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check to practise spellings a few times before we begin the activities.