What does spaniel mean?
Word: Spaniel
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Spaniel means a friendly dog with a silky coat and long, soft ears that hang down.
How do you spell spaniel?
Syllables: span - iel
Tricky part: The weak ending is the trap. Pupils write ial, eil or ol, but this word closes with iel.
Watch out for: spanial, spaneil, spaniol
Memory tip: Imagine a boy called Daniel with a dog at his heels. Daniel and his spaniel end in the same way.
Spaniel in a sentence
Example 1: Our neighbour's spaniel waits by the gate for the school bus.
Example 2: A wet spaniel shook itself all over my new shoes.
Example 3: The spaniel's ears flapped as it raced along the beach at Brighton.
Fun Fact
Virginia Woolf wrote a whole book, Flush, telling the life of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's pet spaniel from the dog's point of view.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is misspelt. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. dachshund 2. speniel 3. terrier 4. retriever
a) a floppy-eared pet with a wavy coat
b) a big dog trained to fetch things
c) a small dog with a long body and very short legs
d) a small, lively dog with a rough or smooth coat
Show answer
a) a floppy-eared pet with a wavy coat. The first vowel of the second word is wrong; the other dog names are printed correctly.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
spanniel
a) p
b) a
c) n
d) l
Show answer
c) n. Span is a short syllable, but this word still keeps a single n.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
During the long summer holidays in the hills, my cousin's friendly spaniel followed us everywhere and enthusiasticly chased every butterfly that crossed the garden path.
a) enthusiasticly
b) butterfly
c) friendly
d) spaniel
Show answer
a) enthusiasticly. Most adjectives ending in ic take ally, not just ly, before they become adverbs.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The Cavalier King Charles is a small spaniel. Why does it carry that name?
a) It was first bred by a famous scientist
b) It won a great prize of that name
c) It is linked with a king of old England
d) It was found on a ship of that name
Show answer
c) It is linked with a king of old England
2. Which care does a spaniel's owner need to give most often?
a) cleaning its tank and testing the water
b) warming its lamp and misting its glass cage
c) trimming its beak and filling its seed tray
d) brushing its coat and checking its ears
Show answer
d) brushing its coat and checking its ears
