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Year 2 common exception words

All 64 words the national curriculum in England lists for Year 2, in 8 sets of 8. Each set opens as a ready practice packet.

PDF makes a 12-page A4 packet in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

Year 2 common exception words in 8 sets
SetWords, as the document writes themA4 pagesPacket
1door, floor, poor, because, find, kind, mind, behind12 Edit set 1
2child, children, wild, climb, most, only, both, old12 Edit set 2
3cold, gold, hold, told, every, everybody, even, great12 Edit set 3
4break, steak, pretty, beautiful, after, fast, last, past12 Edit set 4
5father, class, grass, pass, plant, path, bath, hour12 Edit set 5
6move, prove, improve, sure, sugar, eye, could, should12 Edit set 6
7would, who, whole, any, many, clothes, busy, people12 Edit set 7
8water, again, half, money, Mr, Mrs, parents, Christmas12 Edit set 8

Source: English Appendix 1: Spelling, part of the national curriculum in England (Department for Education, 2013), read on 2026-11-10. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Spellwren is not affiliated with the Department for Education. The sets are our own split.

What each packet holds

A teacher page, a Monday to Thursday homework menu, trace and write, word shapes, ABC order, missing letters, word scramble, word search, look-cover-write-check, a test sheet and answer keys: 12 A4 pages for every set. Press Edit to change the words, the line size or the paper before you download.

Make a packet from your own listLook, cover, write, check only

Questions

Are the Year 2 common exception words a statutory list?

The requirement to teach common exception words is statutory; the words themselves are printed in the example words column and end with "and/or others according to programme used". The appendix says: "In this spelling appendix, the left-hand column is statutory; the middle and right-hand columns are non-statutory guidance."

What is a common exception word?

A word a child needs often in which a letter or group of letters stands for a sound in a way not yet taught, such as said or was. The appendix calls them exception words.

Why is children on the list?

The appendix says: "Note: ‘children’ is not an exception to what has been taught so far but is included because of its relationship with ‘child’."

Is the split into sets official?

No. The document prints one run of 64 words. The 8 sets of 8 are ours, in the document's order, which keeps look-alike words such as find, kind, mind together.

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