diff --git a/frontend/src/App.css b/frontend/src/App.css
index 4227b82..7f8cb69 100644
--- a/frontend/src/App.css
+++ b/frontend/src/App.css
@@ -879,6 +879,33 @@
   display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: space-between;
   margin-top: 6px;
 }
+
+/* §8.11 Phase 5 — per-paragraph word-diff inside the pending manual
+   card. Shares Phase 3's green/red register with .markdown-preview
+   .tracked-insert / .tracked-delete so the contributor sees one
+   "change layer" vocabulary across the preview pane (accepted) and the
+   change card (their own pending typing). Scoped under its own class
+   rather than reusing the preview selectors since the card is not
+   inside .markdown-preview. */
+.change-manual-diff {
+  margin: 6px 0;
+  display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 6px;
+}
+.change-manual-diff-block {
+  font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.6;
+  background: #f9fafb; border-radius: 4px;
+  padding: 6px 8px; border: 1px solid #e5e5e5;
+  white-space: pre-wrap; word-break: break-word;
+}
+.change-manual-diff .manual-diff-insert {
+  background: #dcfce7; color: #166534;
+  border-radius: 2px; padding: 1px 2px;
+}
+.change-manual-diff .manual-diff-delete {
+  background: #fee2e2; color: #991b1b;
+  text-decoration: line-through;
+  border-radius: 2px; padding: 1px 2px;
+}
 .btn-save-now {
   background: none; border: 1px solid #d4d4d4;
   border-radius: 4px; padding: 2px 8px;
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/ChangePanel.jsx b/frontend/src/components/ChangePanel.jsx
index 0feb5c6..4f7be67 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/ChangePanel.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/ChangePanel.jsx
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ import { useState, useEffect, useRef } from 'react'
 
 const PREVIEW_LENGTH = 220
 
-function diffWords(original, proposed) {
+// Word-level LCS over whitespace-preserving tokens. Used by both the
+// AI change-card InlineDiff (original→proposed) and Phase 5's
+// manual-pending-card per-paragraph diff (baseline→current).
+export function diffWords(original, proposed) {
   const a = (original || '').split(/(\s+)/)
   const b = (proposed || '').split(/(\s+)/)
   const m = a.length, n = b.length
@@ -85,6 +88,7 @@ export default function ChangePanel({
         {manualPendingStatus && (
           <ManualPendingCard
             paragraphCount={manualPendingStatus.paragraphCount}
+            diffs={manualPendingStatus.diffs}
             savingIn={manualPendingStatus.savingIn}
             onSaveNow={manualPendingStatus.onSaveNow}
           />
@@ -114,7 +118,7 @@ export default function ChangePanel({
   )
 }
 
-function ManualPendingCard({ paragraphCount, savingIn, onSaveNow }) {
+function ManualPendingCard({ paragraphCount, diffs, savingIn, onSaveNow }) {
   return (
     <div className="change-item type-manual state-pending">
       <div className="change-meta">
@@ -124,6 +128,19 @@ function ManualPendingCard({ paragraphCount, savingIn, onSaveNow }) {
       <div className="change-label">
         {paragraphCount} paragraph{paragraphCount === 1 ? '' : 's'} edited directly
       </div>
+      {diffs && diffs.length > 0 && (
+        <div className="change-manual-diff">
+          {diffs.map(d => (
+            <div key={d.baselineIndex} className="change-manual-diff-block">
+              {d.tokens.map((t, idx) =>
+                t.type === 'same'   ? <span key={idx}>{t.text}</span> :
+                t.type === 'add'    ? <span key={idx} className="manual-diff-insert">{t.text}</span> :
+                                      <span key={idx} className="manual-diff-delete">{t.text}</span>
+              )}
+            </div>
+          ))}
+        </div>
+      )}
       <div className="change-manual-status">
         unsaved · auto-save in {savingIn}
         <button type="button" className="btn-save-now" onClick={onSaveNow}>Save now</button>
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/RFCView.jsx b/frontend/src/components/RFCView.jsx
index 52ab255..ec5b979 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/RFCView.jsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/RFCView.jsx
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ import SelectionTooltip from './SelectionTooltip.jsx'
 import { marked } from 'marked'
 import PromptBar from './PromptBar.jsx'
 import ChatPanel from './ChatPanel.jsx'
-import ChangePanel from './ChangePanel.jsx'
+import ChangePanel, { diffWords } from './ChangePanel.jsx'
 import DiffView from './DiffView.jsx'
 import PRModal from './PRModal.jsx'
 import GraduateDialog from './GraduateDialog.jsx'
@@ -214,12 +214,25 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
     const current = splitSourceParagraphs(doc)
     const baseline = originalSourceLinesRef.current || []
     const len = Math.max(current.length, baseline.length)
-    let changed = 0
+    // §8.11 Phase 5: per-paragraph word-diff for the pending manual card.
+    // Naive index-aligned compare against the same baseline Phase 4's
+    // gutter uses; tolerates the insert-in-middle cascade as the "you've
+    // touched stuff below this point" cue. An LCS-anchored pass could
+    // refine this later.
+    const diffs = []
     for (let i = 0; i < len; i++) {
-      if ((current[i] ?? '') !== (baseline[i] ?? '')) changed++
+      const a = baseline[i] ?? ''
+      const b = current[i] ?? ''
+      if (a === b) continue
+      diffs.push({
+        baselineIndex: i,
+        baselineText: a,
+        currentText: b,
+        tokens: diffWords(a, b),
+      })
     }
-    if (changed > 0) {
-      setManualPending({ paragraphCount: changed })
+    if (diffs.length > 0) {
+      setManualPending({ paragraphCount: diffs.length, diffs })
       setManualCountdown({ deadline: Date.now() + MANUAL_IDLE_MS })
     } else {
       setManualPending(null)
@@ -754,6 +767,7 @@ export default function RFCView({ viewer }) {
               focusedChangeId={focusedChangeId}
               manualPendingStatus={manualPending ? {
                 paragraphCount: manualPending.paragraphCount,
+                diffs: manualPending.diffs,
                 savingIn: manualCountdownLabel(manualCountdown),
                 onSaveNow: handleSaveNow,
               } : null}