Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in a word. Graphemes are the written form of phonemes. The document discusses various phonemes and graphemes in English, including vowels, consonants, digraphs, trigraphs, and diphthongs. It also covers phonics rules like segmenting, blending, doubling consonants, and the "bossy e".

1. Phonemes
A phoneme is the
smallest sound in a
word.

2. Grapheme
A grapheme is the
written form of a
phoneme.

3. Segmenting
Segmenting is when we
chop words up into their
phonemes so we can spell
them.
cat = c-a-t

4. Blending
Blending is when we push
phonemes together to
read a word.
d-o-g spells dog

5. Vowels
Vowels are the
letters
a e i o u

6. Consonants
Consonants are all the
letters in the alphabet
that are not vowels.
bcdfghjklmnp
qrstvwxyz

7. Vowel digraphs
Vowel digraphs are two
vowels put together to
make one phoneme.
ea in read
oa in boat

8. Consonant digraphs
Consonant digraphs are
two consonants put
together to make one
phoneme.
ch in chip
sh in shut

9. Split digraphs
Split digraphs are when
one vowel and the bossy
/e/ are separated by a
consonant.
a-e in take
i-e in bike

10. /sh/ phoneme
/sh/ is a consonant digraph.
shut, shop, hush, crash
________ _________

11. /ch/ phoneme
/ch/ is a consonant digraph.
chip, chill, lunch, much
________ ________

12. /th/ phoneme
/th/ is a consonant digraph
it can make a voiced or
unvoiced sound.
thin, thank, this that
________ _________

13. /ng/ phoneme
/ng/ is a consonant digraph.
it is usually at the end of a
word.
sing, bang, bring, telling
_________ _________

14. /qu/ phoneme
/q/ is always followed by the
/u/ to make the /qu/ phoneme.
quick, queen, quiet
_________ _________

15. /ar/ phoneme
/ar/ is a diphthong.
start, cart, far, dark
_________ __________

16. /ff/ phoneme
/f/ at the end of a small word with a
short vowel, is usually doubled.
/f/ sound, as in “off”, then use /ff/
_________
if you hear a /v/, then use /f/

17. /ll/ phoneme
an /l/ at the end of a small
word with a short vowel, is
usually doubled - /ll/
bell, doll, hill
_________ _________

18. /ss/ and /zz/ phonemes
/s/ or a /z/ at the end of a small word
with a short vowel, is usually
doubled
miss, fuss, buzz
________ _________

19. /ck/ phonemes
/c/ at the end of a small word
with a short vowel, is usually
doubled by adding /k/ = /ck/
clock, stuck, tick
________ _________

20. /y/ at the end of a word
/ee/ sound at the end of a multisyllabic
word is usually written as a /y/
/y/ only makes the /y/ sound when it is at
the beginning of a word
stinky, carefully, slowly
___________ ____________

21. the bossy /e/
the bossy /e/ makes no sound in
the word, but the /e/ bosses over
the consonant before it to
change the short vowel sound to
a long one.
like, cake, poke, cute
__________ __________

22. /a-e/ phoneme
the bossy /e/ makes the
short vowel /a/ go long = /a-e/
cake, name, plate
________ _________

23. /i-e/ phoneme
the bossy /e/ makes the short
vowel /i/ go long =
/i-e/
bike, smile, pile
________ _________

24. /o-e/ phoneme
the bossy /e/ makes the
short vowel /o/ go long =
/o-e/
poke, alone, home
________ _________

25. /u-e/ phoneme
the bossy /e/ makes the
short vowel /u/ go long =
/u-e/
flute, cute, June
________ _________

26. /wh/ phoneme
the /wh/ phoneme is a
consonant digraph
the /h/ is silent
when, where, while, white
________ _________

27. /ay/ phoneme
the /ay/ phoneme is a digraph
it makes the long vowel /a/
sound
hay, play, day, stay
________ _________

28. /ea/ phoneme
the /ea/ phoneme is a vowel
digraph
it makes the long vowel /e/
sound
each, tea, clean, peach
________ _________

29. /igh/ phoneme
the /igh/ phoneme is a trigraph: 3
letters making 1 sound
it makes the long vowel /i/ sound
high, sigh, night, tight
________ _________

30. www.kalamundacs.wa.edu.au
Visit our online resource pages