What are difficult words for an English dictation test?

The most difficult English dictation words are the ones that break the usual sound rule. A learner can hear the sound of knife, but the k is silent, so the spelling must be learned, not worked out. The hard groups are silent letters, double letters, vowel teams with more than one spelling for the same sound, and homophones, which sound alike but are spelled differently and mean different things. Mix a few of these into a test, and keep most words the learner already knows. A test made only of hard words measures memory more than listening.

Irregular words are the ones sound cannot solve

The Common Core grade 1 standard asks students to recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words ¹. The standard is about reading, not spelling, but it targets the same kind of word: one whose spelling does not follow the usual sound pattern. A learner who decodes by sound will get these wrong, because the sound does not show the letters. That is why irregular words are the first thing to add to a difficult list.

Four groups of words that trip learners up

These examples are common words that fit each group. They are our selection, not a published list of hardest words, so check each one against the level of the learner.

Errors cluster in letter groups and long words

A 2015 study of Spanish adults with dyslexia found that their spelling errors affected individual letters or letter groups, through substitutions, deletions, additions and transpositions, and that word length significantly affected their errors ². The study is about dyslexia and about Spanish, so do not read its numbers as a guide for English learners. The pattern is still useful: long words with several letter groups give more places to go wrong.

The same study says that spelling difficulties in adults with dyslexia are present at least in a language with transparent spelling, such as Spanish ³. We did not find a checked study that measures the same errors in English, so the pattern is a reason to expect similar errors, not a measured result for English.

Mix hard words into a test you already know

The Hong Kong Education Bureau's dictation handbook describes a phonics dictation that revises vocabulary the pupils have learned, and also has them spell less familiar words by applying phonics skills ⁴. So the mix matters. A test with most known words and a few difficult ones shows what a learner can spell and what they cannot. A test of only hard words tells you less, and can discourage the learner.

1. Start with a list of words from the lesson or the reading the learner already knows.
2. Add two or three words from one of the groups above.
3. Put each word in a short sentence, so the learner can use the meaning. The handbook says that, like all English learning activities, dictation should be contextualized to enable pupils to seek and process information ⁵.
4. For homophones, dictate the sentence, not the word alone. The meaning decides the spelling.
5. Score each misspelling once, and repeat the missed words later.

The handbook also says marks should not be deducted for repeated mistakes ⁶, which fits a rule of scoring each error once and noting it for practice.

It depends on the learner and the purpose

For a child, use words from the school reading book, and keep the irregular words to a few. For an adult learner, use words from the learner's own work, such as medical or legal terms, because those are the words the learner will need. For a spelling test, choose words where the spelling rule is being checked. For dictation practice, choose audio the learner can replay, and read more on the dictation method.

Accent is a separate problem. A homophone can sound different in each accent, so a learner whose accent differs from the audio may hear the wrong word. A voice tool can show what it heard, but it is not a spelling test, and its output should be checked by a person.

For a list aimed at young children, read English dictation words for kids, and for the nursery to UKG levels, read dictation words for nursery, LKG and UKG. For a daily routine, read how to practice dictation in English.