Vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
Alphabetical order
Put words in dictionary order, using the second letter when the first letters are the same.
A dictionary holds tens of thousands of words, and you can find any one of them in a few seconds. That only works because every word sits in one agreed place — alphabetical order.
Start with the first letter
Fig comes before jug, which comes before pond. Say the alphabet in your head if you are not sure which letter comes first.
Same first letter? Move to the second
Hand, hedge, hill, hope, hut all begin with h, so the second letters decide: a, e, i, o, u. The first letter is settled, so it stops being the question.
Keep going letter by letter
If the second letters match too, compare the third, and so on. Candle comes before cape because d comes before p, even though cape is the shorter word.
Guide words
The two words printed at the top of a dictionary page are the first and last words on it. Anything that falls between them alphabetically is on that page.
Worked example
Put these in dictionary order: "song", "sand", "sky".
Check the first letters. All three are s, so the first letter decides nothing.
When a letter is the same in every word, it cannot separate them.
Try it together
Let us order three words together.
The three words are "drum", "desk" and "dish". Each answer is one word.
1.The first letters are all the same, so compare the second letters: r, e and i. Which of the three words comes first?
Have a go
Which comes first in a dictionary, "flute" or "fan"? Write that word.
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.