Word families

1. Words that have the Long A+R sound. This sound is represented by several different spelling combinations in English. If you think of the different spellings as different families, then you can remember the words by what family they are part of.
• -air Family: fair, hair, lair, stair, chair, pair, affair, repair, unfair
• -are Family: care, dare, bare, fare, hare, mare, pare, ware, beware, rare, scare, tare
• -ear Family: bear, wear, tear, pear,
• -eir Family: heir (an only child?)
• -err Family: err, error, terror, terrible
2. Words that have the Long E+R sound. This sound also has a few families. Remember the words as part of a family.
• -ear Family: dear, ear, fear, gear, hear, near, rear, sear, tear, year, clear
• -eer Family: beer, deer, jeer, leer, queer, peer, veer, steer, career
• -ere Family: here, mere, interfere
• -ier Family: bier, tier
3. Words that have the Long A+T sound. This group has one very strange family in it, but there are not very many members in the family, so you should be able to remember them easily.
• -ate Family: ate, bate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, pate, rate, sate, rotate
• -ait Family: bait, gait, wait
• -eat Family: great
• -eight Family: eight, freight, weight
4. Words that have the Long A + N sound can be a pain. This family has two main branches and a couple of poor cousins.
• -ane Family: bane, cane, Dane, Jane, lane, mane, pane,
plane, sane, vane, wane.
• -ain Family: Cain, chain, drain, gain, main, pain, rain, vain, slain, explain, detain, remain, contain, refrain, maintain.
• -eign Family: deign, feign, reign.
• -ein Family: rein, vein.
Memory Helpers: "The man down the lane hit Jane with a cane." "What will you gain if you remain in the rain?" "Cain tried in vain to explain why Able was slain."
5. Words with the Long E + N sound can be seen next: Divided into four family groups, these words can be as much trouble as any you have seen so far.
• -een Family: between, careen, seen, teen, keen, preen, spleen, queen.
• -ean Family: bean, dean, lean, mean, wean, clean.
• -ene Family: scene, gene, neoprene, kerosene, carotene, xylene.
• -ine Family: gasoline, Vasoline, Visine, dexodrine
Memory Helpers: "I've seen the teen queen preen between dates." "The mean Dean made me clean every bean."
6. Words that have the Long A + L sound: This group has only two families that I can think of, plus one odd cousin.
• -ale Family: bale, dale, hale, gale, kale, male, pale, sale, tale, whale, vale, Yale
• -ail Family: ail, bail, fail, flail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, snail, tail, wail, retail
• -eil Cousin: veil
Memory Helpers: "The pale male whale got caught in the gale." "The man from Yale bought a bale of kale that was on sale." "If you fail to make bail, you'll get your next mail in jail."
We have described an effective way to study spelling words on some of the other pages, including the Spelling Clues page. Use that method to study any of the words on this page that you do not already know well. With the Word Families especially, it will be important to have someone dictate the words to you as you spell them and use them in sentences so you get used to the sounds of the words and their relationship to their spelling.