hour
Hour begins with a silent h. Keep h at the front, then use the familiar written chunk our.
3rd Grade · Themed Spelling Practice
3rd Grade Time Spelling Words
Clocks, schedules, classroom routines, and math work all give children reasons to write time words. This eight-word set develops spelling through a silent letter, an apostrophe, final ck, shared endings, and a base-word change.
Word list
All 8 words in this list
3rd Grade · Themed Spelling Practice
- hour
- minute
- second
- o'clock
- digital
- analog
- clock
- elapsed
8 words
What to notice when spelling these words
The apostrophe in o’clock is the one truly unusual mark in this set. Everything else in these eight time words comes down to a silent letter, a familiar ending, or one base-word change worth checking carefully.
Connect clock and o’clock
The complete spelling clock appears inside o’clock. In both words, the final sound is spelled ck. The longer form adds o and an apostrophe before clock, so remembering the smaller word secures most of the spelling and leaves the punctuation as the new detail.
Organize the multisyllabic words
Digital and analog each have three syllables, but their endings differ: digital ends with al (dig-i-tal), while analog ends with og (an-a-log). The two-syllable words minute and second use different final chunks, ute and ond. Keeping all of these endings visible is useful because not every vowel in these words is easy to predict from speech alone.
Build and check the remaining spellings
Elapsed is built from elapse + ed. The final silent e in elapse is dropped before ed is added, leaving elapsed. Hour needs a different kind of check: its opening h is written but silent. These two words reward checking the base or the silent letter rather than relying only on sound.
Notes for particular words
o'clock
The apostrophe belongs between o and clock in o'clock. Keep clock complete after the apostrophe, including its final ck.