5th Grade spelling
5th Grade Words Ending in Ance and Ence
Sort words ending in ance and ence: performance, distance, science, difference. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: Two endings that sound the same, /uns/. The only sure way to know which one a word takes is to learn it.
Ance and ence sound the same in speech, a weak /uns/ at the end of a word, and spelling them correctly is a memory task. The endings come from Latin. Ance goes with words that have a related ant adjective, as in important and importance. Ence goes with related ent adjectives, as in different and difference, independent and independence.
This list shows both groups. The ance group includes performance, insurance, distance, balance, appearance, assistance, guidance and substance. The ence group includes evidence, science, conference, difference, influence, presence, sentence, silence and sequence. Fifth grade is the right time because students are writing longer, more formal pieces where these nouns appear often, and the pair gives them a first look at how related words help spelling.
30 entries. Our solver needed 0.1 wrong guesses on average: 30 easy, 0 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is performance (1 misses), the quickest insurance (0).
-ance
- performance Easy · 1
- insurance Easy · 0
- distance Easy · 0
- balance Easy · 0
- appearance Easy · 0
- assistance Easy · 0
- instance Easy · 0
- maintenance Easy · 0
- resistance Easy · 1
- alliance Easy · 0
- entrance Easy · 0
- guidance Easy · 1
- substance Easy · 0
- significance Easy · 0
- attendance Easy · 0
-ence
- evidence Easy · 0
- science Easy · 0
- conference Easy · 0
- difference Easy · 0
- influence Easy · 0
- reference Easy · 0
- presence Easy · 0
- intelligence Easy · 0
- confidence Easy · 0
- independence Easy · 0
- sentence Easy · 0
- existence Easy · 0
- silence Easy · 0
- residence Easy · 0
- sequence Easy · 0
Words worth a closer look
- differenceDifferent gives difference. The ent in the adjective tells you the noun takes ence.
- performancePerform gives performance. No ent adjective here, so memorize the ance.
- independenceIndependent gives independence. A long word whose adjective, independent, shows the ence ending.
- scienceThe ending is ence, but there is no ent sister word. Students often write sience or scence.
- balanceShort and common, a model for the group: bal-ance, with the ending spelled as it is said.
Teaching it
The cleanest hint is to check the sister word: if the adjective is important, the noun is importance; if the adjective is different, the noun is difference. That works for many pairs but not all, so some words, such as science, simply need to be learned. The most common mistake is writing the wrong ending in a word that the writer has not seen written: confidance for confidence, performence for performance.
In hangman, the ending comes last, so ask players to name the group once the letters before it are known. Print the worksheet and have students sort words into two columns, then write the ant or ent sister word beside each one.
Print a 5th Grade Words Ending in Ance and Ence 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
- 5th Grade Latin Roots Port, Spect and TractLatin roots port (carry), spect (look) and tract (pull) in transport, respect, attract and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Latin Roots Dict, Rupt and StructLatin roots dict (say), rupt (break) and struct (build) in predict, interrupt, structure and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Graph, Phon and TeleGreek roots graph (write), phon (sound) and tele (far) in photograph, telephone, telescope and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Bio, Auto and MicroGreek roots bio (life), auto (self) and micro (small): biology, automatic, microscope and more. Play hangman or print a spelling worksheet.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in Ant and EntWords ending in ant and ent: important, different, assistant, excellent, accident. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in ItyWords ending in ity: ability, community, security, university, activity. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.