Letter/s-sound correspondences - overview
(graphemes = letters and letter combinations; phonemes = 42+ sounds in English language)
Around 4 years of age, consider introducing 5 or 6 letter/s-sound correspondences a week. Some
teachers would introduce one per day. Some teachers prefer to teach two sounds every other day
alternating with revising them and putting them to use in sounding out and blending all-through-theprinted word for reading (decoding) and segmenting the sounds all-through-the-spoken words for
spelling (encoding). Many parents and nursery settings introduce 3 year-old children to letter – sound
correspondences with great success. Avoid teaching letter names other than singing them in an
alphabet song as it doubles the learning and confuses many children.
The groups below provide one spelling version of the 42 sounds of speech and reception children can
be introduced to these groups within the first term of their year in reception.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
s a t pi n
c k e h r m d
g o u l f b
ai j oa ie ee or
z w ng v oo-oo
y x ch sh th-th
qu ou oi ue er ar
Teach that the /w/ sound can be spelt /wh/ and provide words
Teach ‘y’ represents 3 sounds early on: ‘yes, my mummy’
From week one, the children are introduced to the skills of ‘hearing’ the sounds all-through-thespoken-word (spelling process=encoding) and sounding out and blending the sounds all-through-theprinted-word to recognise the target word (reading process=decoding). Practise the skill of blending
using simple words with the letters learnt so far. Say simple words very slowly and the individual
sounds will ‘pop out’. Use letter cards and/or magnetic letters for lots of manipulation to make
words. Spelling activities can occur orally, but it is better to use letters as well. Pick them out of a
selection of magnetic letters or write the letters. Write from memory when able to do so. Reluctance
to write can be lack of fluent handwriting rather than poor spelling ability. Give simple dictations at
letter level and word level.
Double letters are only sounded out once: bell, hiss, buzz, cliff
Teach /-ng/ with a word list and show how /-nk/ represents the sounds ng+k. Provide examples.
I would introduce the idea of ‘soft ce’ at this stage as so many common words use the ce, ci, cy
spellings. Curly c followed by e, i or y represents the /s/ sound. Also, ‘soft ge - letter g followed by e,
i or y sometimes represents the /j/ sound.
Continue to introduce the idea of spelling variations for the same sound starting with ‘long vowel’
sounds. Teach the children that there are vowels and consonants in the alphabet but letter ‘y’ can act
as both a consonant and vowel sounds (as in ‘yes, my mummy’).
a ai ay a-e
e ee ea e-e y
i ie igh i-e y
o oa oe o-e ow
u ew ue u-e
later teach:
later teach:
eigh (eight, neigh, sleigh)
ey (key, monkey, donkey)
ie (thief, chief)
Provide lists of words with the same spelling patterns and same sounds. Provide sentences and text
with the same spelling patterns and then, later, different spelling patterns of the same sound. Create
nonsense stories with words with the same spelling patterns. Be flexible and ‘tweak’ the
pronunciation of words which when sounded out don’t sound quite right. Try the short vowel sound
first and if that sounds wrong, try the long vowel sound.
Teach that different sounds can have the same spelling patterns depending on the words in which
they are used:
/oo/ as in ‘book’
/ow/ as in ‘slow’
/ew/ as in ‘stew’
/ue/ as in ‘rescue’
/oo/ as in ‘moon’
/ow/ as in ‘cow’
/ew/ as in ‘crew’
/ue/ as in ‘blue’
So, words can have the same spelling pattern, different sound (as above); or different spelling
pattern, same sound:
/ow/ as in ‘cow’
/ou/ as in ‘shout out’
There are unusual letter combinations such as the /ough/ in bough. Leave such unusual words till
later, but if you do encounter them, simply point the letters-sound relationship out as a matter of
interest (not necessarily for learning at that moment). ‘ough’ is a particularly complex pronunciation
issue, so it is as well to provide a comprehensive list of all the words with this spelling pattern in year
one or two. (through, though, although, dough, enough, rough, tough, bough, bought, ought, thought)
Further letter patterns representing the same sound:
/or/ as in ‘fork’
/ore/ as in ‘store’
/aw/ as in ‘claw’
/oor/ as in ‘door’
/au/ as in ‘automatic’
/our/ as in ‘your’ (unusual)
/al/ as in ‘chalk’
/oi/ as in ‘foil’
/oy/ as in ‘boy’ (the ‘oy’ version is usually at the end of the word)
/er/ as in ‘her’
/or/ as in ‘work’
/ir/ as in ‘stir’
/e/ as in ‘peg’
/ea/ as in ‘head’
/f/ as in ‘fish’
/ph/ as in ‘photograph’
/c/ as in ‘cat’
/ch/ as in ‘chemist’
/k/ as in ‘kid’
/ch/ as in ‘chip’
/-tch/ as in ‘patch’ (long vowel sound would not end in ‘tch’)
/air/ as in ‘chair’
/are/ as in ‘care’
/ear/ as in ‘fear’
/ere/ as in ‘here’
/sh/ as in ‘ship’
/ch/ as in ‘chef’
/ti/ as in ‘station’ (but I would teach ‘-tion’ as a spelling pattern)
/ear/ as in ‘earth’
/ur/ as in nurse
/gh/ as in ‘tough’
-ck as in ‘pick’ (short word, short vowel - ends in ‘ck’)
/ear/ as in ‘pear’
/ere/ as in ‘there’ and ‘where’
Teach ‘wo/wa’ words. That is, sounds like ‘wo’, but spelt ‘wa’. (was, want, wasp, swan, swamp,
quad, squash)
Teach unusual digraphs which are often referred to as ‘silent letters’:
/-mb/ as in ‘lamb’
/kn/ as in ‘knee’
/gn/ as in ‘gnat’
/wr/ as in ‘write’
/-bt/ as in ‘debt’
Many words are spelt with ‘o’ where you can hear an /u/ sound: come, glove, love, dove, mother
Words that end with a /v/ sound, are spelt with ‘-ve’: dive, give, live, glove, dove
For much more detailed explanation and further examples, invest in a comprehensive spelling book
such as ‘Alpha to Omega’ (Beve Hornsby).