PHONICS TERMINOLOGY
Phonics Terminology
Phoneme: Smallest unit of sound
Grapheme: A written symbol fo a phoneme
Vowels: A. E, I, O, U (w and y in final position; y in middle)
Consonants: W and Y in initial position of word or syllable
Consonant Blend (Cluster) : 2 or more adjacent consonants blended, each
retaining its identity (frame, click, bread)
Donsonant Digraphs: two consonants making a single speech sound (shore,
then, thick, sing, shout, telephone, rough, chief, chef, chaos)
Vowel digraph: sound different from each (au in taught; aw in saw; oo in
food, look
- Or sound of just one of two (bread, break, seed, aim)
Dipthongs: Vowel Blends: (oi in foil; oy in toy; bound, cow)
PHONICS GENERALIZATIONS
Phonics Generalizations
1. Soft – Hard C -/ Soft-Hard G
2. Two like consonants, usually have sound of one (hall, glass)
3. Ch usually “church” but occasionally sh (chef) or k (chord)
4. kn at beginning of word, k is silent. (know)
5. wr at beginning, w not sounded (write)
6. ck at end of word, = k (click)
7. Vowel preceding r is usually neither long nor short (car, fir, her)
8. Combinations oa, ee, ai, ay, first vowel long, second one silent (boat,
feet, rain, play)
9. Double vowels oy, oi, and ou usually are dipthongs.
10. Single vowel word, with vowel at end, vowel is long (go, me)
11. Single vowel word, with vowel NOT at the end, vowel is usually
short (set, man, cut, hop)
12. Two vowels, and one is final e, first vowel is long; final is silent
(cape, cute, cove, kite)