Prepare for Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency…

In this section, we'll help you develop appropriate word lists for your students.

Many schools and programs will give you a set list of high-frequency words to teach. If that is not your situation, you'll need to choose your own words. We recommend selecting the full list of words you'll teach at the beginning of the school year. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Once you've selected your words, align the decodable high-frequency words with your phonics scope and sequence so you can teach them alongside their corresponding phonics patterns.
Plan when you will teach irregular high-frequency words, teaching the most common words first. Introduce up to three words per week for kindergartners, and three to five words for students in grades 1-3.
Since consistency is important, decide what you are going to call your irregular high-frequency words (trick words, red words, heart words, rule breakers, etc.). If possible, use the same terminology across your grade level and school.

How to Choose High-Frequency Words

There are many high-frequency word lists available to teachers, including the Dolch and Fry lists. If your curriculum already includes a set list of high-frequency words, you can skip ahead to Explicitly Teaching Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words to learn how to introduce heart words during instruction.

If you are using a word list like the Dolch or Fry and do not know where to start, here are some helpful tips that can help guide your planning.

Planning Your Decodable High-Frequency Words

Many high-frequency words taught in kindergarten through third grade are decodable. Grouping them by phonics or spelling pattern helps students apply what they've learned about phonics when reading and spelling these words.
If you're following our phonics continuum, this Dolch word list grouped by phonics pattern (opens in new window) provides decodable words. You can use the list to identify high-frequency words that match the phonics patterns you're teaching and plan to teach them alongside those patterns.
To support orthographic mapping, include these words regularly in your daily phonics lessons and small group work, and make sure to provide plenty of repeated, varied practice both in isolation and in meaningful context.

Planning Your Irregular High-Frequency Words

When deciding how many irregular high-frequency words to teach each week, it's important to know your class. We suggest introducing up to three words per week for kindergartners, and three to five words for students in grades 1-3. This pace allows students enough time to fully master the word's irregular parts without feeling overwhelmed.
If you're mapping out your own list of irregular high-frequency words to teach, here are some helpful ways to group your words that can support your planning and instruction.

Words Lists for You

1. Top 10 Irregular Words to Teach First

It's helpful to begin by introducing a small set of very common irregular words to your students. These are typically function words, like the, is, and was, which appear frequently in text and allow young students to start reading and writing simple sentences as soon as possible. Because these words contain spelling patterns that are new to early readers, you should teach these words as heart words.

Here's a list of 10 high-frequency words that you can introduce to your kindergarten students first:

Ten irregularly spelled words: the, a, I, to, is, and, was, for, you, of

Teacher Tip

Since these words are introduced very early in the year and kindergartners are still developing phonemic awareness and sound-letter knowledge, you may want to start by introducing only one irregular word per week. As students build their phonics skills, you can gradually increase the number of words introduced each week.

2. Irregular Words That Go Together

There are a few irregular high-frequency words that share the same irregular parts, like could, would, and should. You can group these words together and teach them at the same time to help students remember the common patterns.

Here's a list of irregular high-frequency words you can teach together.

Common Irregular Spelling Patterns	High-Frequency Words
1. 's' at the end of the word spells /z/	has, is, as, his
2. 's' spells /z/ in words with magic 'e'	these, those
3. 'v' is followed by 'e' because no word in English ends with a 'v'	have, give, live
4. 'o-e' spells the short 'u'	some, come, done
5. 'e' follows an r-controlled vowel at the end of a word	were, are
6. Short Vowel Rule exceptions - the vowel makes its long sound	old, cold, told, hold, both, find, kind, *mind
7. rhyming words - spelled with the same last four letters	where, there
8. rhyming words - the letter 'a' says short 'i' or short 'e' depending on dialect	any, many
9. 'oor' spells /or/	door, floor
10. 'u' spells /oo/ as in book	put, full, pull, *push
11. 'o' spells /oo/, as in boot	to, do, into
12. 'oul' spells /oo/ as in book	could, would, *should
13. 'ea' spells the short 'e' sound	head, bread
14. words similar in meaning and spelling	once, one
15. 'a' after 'w' sometimes spells the short 'o' sound	want, wash, watch, water

*These words are not on the Dolch list, but follow the common irregular spelling pattern.

3. 29 Always Irregular High-Frequency Words

There are only 29 words on the Dolch list that have a unique spelling pattern that students must learn by heart. Below is a short list of words that do not fit a regular phonics pattern.

29 irregularly spelled words: again, don't, only, two, what, because, four, please, use, who, been, from, said, very, work, buy, goes, their, walk, you, carry, laugh, today, warm, your, does, of, together, was

List of Irregular Words by Grade, K-3

These word lists offer examples of irregular high-frequency words you can teach in each grade, kindergarten through third.

Dolch Word List with Irregular and Decodable High-Frequency Words

This is a list of 256 decodable and irregular words from the Dolch Word List. The words are organized by always irregular, common irregular patterns and decodable phonics patterns.

3.1 Prepare for Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words Instruction

Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words Skill Explainer

Teacher Tip

List of Irregular Words by Grade, K-3

Dolch Word List with Irregular and Decodable High-Frequency Words