1st Grade spelling
1st Grade Long O Silent E Words
First grade long o words spelled o_e: home, hope, note, rose, bone, rope, phone. Play hangman with the list, read it, or print a worksheet.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: One-syllable words spelled o, consonant, e, where the silent e makes the o say its name.
In an o_e word, the silent e at the end makes the o say its name: home, hope, note, rose, bone, rope, nose, joke, hole, zone and wrote. The e is not pronounced, but it changes the vowel. Each word on the list has one syllable and follows the o, consonant, e shape, including some with blends or digraphs, such as stroke, throne, phone and whole.
The words were chosen by spelling pattern and each was checked against a pronunciation dictionary for the long o sound. Words that look the same but sound different, such as come and some, are left out. A frequency check kept the list to first grade vocabulary. Long o with silent e is one of the first vowel patterns children see in print, and it appears in a lot of everyday words. Teachers usually use it after short o: hop and hope, not and note, rob and robe.
30 entries. Our solver needed 5.6 wrong guesses on average: 0 easy, 14 medium and 16 hard. The toughest is code (12 misses), the quickest rose (2).
- home Hard · 7
- whole Medium · 3
- hope Hard · 6
- phone Medium · 4
- role Medium · 3
- vote Hard · 9
- code Hard · 12
- note Medium · 3
- wrote Medium · 3
- rose Medium · 2
- zone Hard · 10
- joke Hard · 10
- hole Hard · 5
- mode Hard · 5
- nose Medium · 4
- tone Medium · 3
- bone Hard · 9
- drove Medium · 3
- sole Medium · 4
- stroke Medium · 3
- scope Medium · 4
- pole Hard · 9
- woke Hard · 8
- stole Medium · 3
- dose Hard · 9
- owe Hard · 6
- throne Medium · 3
- pose Hard · 6
- coke Hard · 7
- rope Hard · 6
Words worth a closer look
- wholeThe w is silent. It sounds the same as hole, so a sentence is needed to tell them apart.
- holeSame sound as whole but no w. A homophone pair useful for sentence practice.
- phonePh says /f/, then o_e. A word children use daily, so they enjoy writing it.
- wroteStarts with a silent w, then o_e. Related to write on the i_e list.
- roseThe s sounds like z. The long o rule still applies, and the word also means the flower.
- oweThe o and e are separated by w, not a consonant letter on its own. A small variation on the same pattern.
Teaching it
Use pairs. Write hop and hope, rob and robe, or not and note, and have children read both and say what the e changed. Then sort a pile of words into short o and o_e. A fun extra step is to make a word with tiles, add the e, and read it again.
The usual error is leaving off the e (hom for home) or writing the long o with ow or oa by mistake (hoap for hope). Some children also add an e to short o words. Silent letters cause some trouble: wrote and whole start with a silent w. For the hangman round, announce the pattern and let the group guess the consonants. The printable lets you set a short test.
Print a 1st Grade Long O Silent E Hangman worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 1st Grade Short A WordsFirst grade short a words with blends and digraphs: that, back, last, hand, class, match. Play hangman with the list, or print a worksheet.
- 1st Grade Short E WordsFirst grade short e words with blends and digraphs: when, best, next, check, dress, fresh. Play the hangman game, read the list, or print a sheet.
- 1st Grade Short I WordsFirst grade short i words with blends and digraphs: with, this, think, list, ship, fish, stick. Play hangman, read the list, or print a worksheet.
- 1st Grade Short O WordsFirst grade short o words with blends and digraphs: stop, rock, drop, shop, block, clock, frog. Play hangman, read the list, or print a sheet.
- 1st Grade Short U WordsFirst grade short u words with blends and digraphs: just, much, club, luck, jump, lunch, brush. Play hangman, read the list, or print a sheet.
- 1st Grade SH WordsFirst grade sh words: she, shop, ship, fish, dish, wash, sheep, shell. Play hangman with the list, read it with difficulty scores, or print a sheet.