Phonics: Consonant Digraphs, Blends and Silent e

You know how to say one sound for one letter. Now some letters will work together. Ask someone to read with you as you try the sounds.

Two letters, one sound

A digraph is two letters that spell one sound. We can call it a letter team. In "ship", s and h spell /sh/. Keep them together when you read. You do not say /s/ and then /h/.

The letters a, e, i, o and u are vowels. The other letters are consonants. Both letters in sh and ch are consonants.

Feel sh and ch

Say /sh/, as if you are asking for quiet. You can hold it: "shhh". Try "shop" and "shell". The same sound ends "fish" and "rush".

Now say /ch/, like a toy train: "ch, ch, ch". The sound starts and stops quickly. Try "chin" and "chop". You hear /ch/ at the end of "rich" and "much", too.

Listen to "shin" and "chin". Only the first sound changes. In "shin", keep the air going for /sh/. In "chin", make the quick /ch/ sound.

Read a word in steps

Look at "shop".

1. Find sh. Say one sound: /sh/.
2. Say the vowel sound: short o.
3. Say the last sound: /p/.
4. Slide the sounds together: "shop".

Now read "chop". The first team has changed to ch. Keep the vowel and last sound the same. You get a different word.

Tap sounds, then write

Say "chip" slowly. Tap /ch/, /i/, /p/: three taps. Write ch for the first tap, i for the next, and p for the last. Read your word back.

There are four letters in "chip", but just three sounds. The team ch takes one tap. "fish" also has four letters and three sounds: /f/, /i/, /sh/.

Keep both letters

Read "sip" and "ship". They are different words. To spell /sh/, you need both s and h. If you write just s, your reader will say /s/.

Try reading "The fish is in the shop." Point to each word. Find the two sh teams, then read the whole sentence.

The letters th stay together, but they have two sounds. Your mouth can help you feel the difference.

Quiet th

Let the tip of your tongue peek between your teeth. Blow gently, with your voice off. That is the quiet th in "thin". Say "thick" and "moth". In "moth", the quiet th comes last.

Buzzy th

Keep your tongue in the same place. This time, turn your voice on. Touch your throat as you say "this". Can you feel the buzz? Try "that", "them" and "then".

Read "then" by saying its sounds: buzzy /th/, short e, /n/. If quiet th does not give a word you know, try buzzy th. Both sounds use the same spelling.

Some people's th sounds close to /f/ or /d/. People speak in different ways. You still write th in "thin" and "this". Look at "thin", "fin" and "tin": the different starts help you tell the words apart.

Read wh

For most people, wh says /w/. Say "when", "which", "whip" and "whiz". Some people say wh with a small puff of air. Both ways are fine.

Read "whip" in three taps: /w/, /i/, /p/. There are four letters. The w and h spell the first sound together.

"wig" starts with /w/ too, but it has no h. Your ears cannot tell you whether to write w or wh. Look closely at words with wh and remember their letters.

Keep question words in mind

"When" and "which" can start questions. Read "When can we go?" The first word needs wh, even though you may hear just /w/. Writing "wen" misses its h.

The word "who" is different. Its wh says /h/. Learn that tricky part as you learn the whole word.

Try "Which moth is on the shed?" Find wh at the start of "Which". Find quiet th at the end of "moth" and buzzy th in "the". The question has both kinds of th.

Look closely at the end of a short word. One sound may need two letters, or even three.

Choose ck or k

The team ck spells /k/. In a short word, write ck right after a short vowel: "back", "neck", "sick", "sock", "duck". In "duck", tap /d/, /u/, /k/. The c and k take one tap together.

Listen to the sound just before /k/. In "milk", it is /l/, a consonant. Write k. In "desk", /s/ comes before /k/, so write k again. In "bake", long a goes with k and silent e.

The team ck goes at the end of these short words. A word can start with c or k, as in "cat" and "kit".

Hear ng

Say "ring". The last sound comes from the back of your mouth. Air goes through your nose. That one sound is /ng/. You do not add a separate /g/ after it.

Tap "ring": /r/, /i/, /ng/. Three sounds use four letters. Compare "win" and "wing". The end changes from /n/ to /ng/, so you need the g in "wing".

Three letters can work together

The letters tch spell one /ch/ sound. A team of three letters is a trigraph. After a short vowel, you often see tch at the end: "match", "fetch", "hutch". Tap "match": /m/, /a/, /ch/. All three ending letters take one tap.

Remember these short words with ch: "rich", "much", "such", "which". After a consonant, use ch, as in "lunch". You hear /n/ just before /ch/ in "lunch".

Double letters

After a short vowel in a short word, /f/, /l/, /s/ and /z/ usually use ff, ll, ss and zz. Read "off", "bell", "miss" and "buzz". Each double letter spells one sound. "if", "us", "bus" and "yes" are words to remember with just one ending letter.

Put two teams in one word

Spell "chick". Say the word and tap /ch/, /i/, /k/. Write ch, then i. The /k/ comes right after short i, so write ck. Read it back: "chick". Five letters spell three sounds.

Say "frog" slowly. You can hear /f/ and /r/ at the start. They sit together, but each keeps its sound.

Hear every consonant

A blend has two or three consonants side by side. You hear each one. Some people call blends consonant clusters or adjacent consonants.

In "stop", s says /s/ and t says /t/. Say them close together, then move into short o and /p/. There are four letters and four sounds.

Try different starts

These blends end with l:

• bl in "black" and cl in "clap"
• fl in "flag" and gl in "glad"
• pl in "plum" and sl in "slip"

These blends end with r: br in "brick", cr in "crab", dr in "drum", fr in "frog", gr in "grin", pr in "press" and tr in "trip".

You can also start with s: sc in "scan", sk in "skip", sm in "smell", sn in "snap", sp in "spin", st in "step" and sw in "swim". Try tw in "twin", too.

Read a few words at a time. Point to each consonant as you say its sound. Move straight into the vowel without a long pause.

Read and spell a blend

Read "frog" in steps. Say /f/, then /r/, then short o, then /g/. Slide the four sounds together.

To spell "crab", say it slowly. Tap /k/, /r/, /a/, /b/. Write c, r, a, b in that order. Read the word back and listen for /r/.

If you leave out the r in "frog", you get "fog". If you leave out the l in "slip", you get "sip". Catch the second sound before you write.

Keep the sounds close

Try /f/ straight into /r/. Do not put an "uh" between them. "Fuh-rog" adds a vowel sound that has no letter in "frog".

The start of "truck" can sound a little like /ch/. Its letters are still tr. The start of "drum" can sound like /j/, but you write dr.

Finally, read "stop" and "spot". They have the same letters in different places. Follow the order you see so that each word comes out right.

A word can have a blend at its end. Read right through to the last letter so you hear the whole word.

Listen to the last two sounds

Say "hand": /h/, /a/, /n/, /d/. Keep the /n/ and /d/. "hand" has four letters and four sounds. If you miss /n/, you get "had".

Try these ending blends:

Catch the quiet middle sounds

The /m/ before /p/ can be easy to miss. Say "lamp" slowly. Feel your lips close for /m/, then open for /p/.

Tap /l/, /a/, /m/, /p/. Write one letter for each tap. Read back "lamp" and check for the m. In "went", catch /n/ before /t/. Missing it would give "wet".

A special ending: nk

In "pink", the n sounds like /ng/. The ending has two sounds: /ng/, then /k/. Tap /p/, /i/, /ng/, /k/: four sounds. Write p, i, n, k.

You hear /ng/, but the spelling is nk. You do not add g. Compare "sing" and "sink". "sink" has an extra /k/ sound. Compare "thing" and "think" the same way.

In "think", th is one sound. Tap /th/, /i/, /ng/, /k/. Five letters spell four sounds.

Blends at both ends

Read "crust". Start with /k/ and /r/. Say short u. Finish with /s/ and /t/. Five letters give five sounds.

"stamp", "blend", "trunk" and "print" also have blends at both ends. Keep your finger moving through every part of the word.

After a consonant, the /k/ ending uses k. Write "bank" and "milk". Save ck for right after a short vowel, as in "back". The st blend can start "stop" or end "nest"; where you see it tells you when to say it.

Some words have both a blend and a letter team. Find the team first so you know which letters stay together.

One sound or separate sounds?

Compare these words:

"clap" has four letters and four sounds. "chop" has four letters but three sounds. The ch team shares one sound.

Three consonants in a blend

Try scr in "scrub", spl in "split", spr in "sprint" and str in "strap". Keep all three sounds at the start. In "strap", say /s/, /t/, /r/, /a/, /p/: five sounds.

Do not rush past the middle consonant. In "split", you need /p/ between /s/ and /l/.

Three letters can have two sounds

The start shr has sh, then r. Say "shrub": /sh/, /r/, /u/, /b/. Its five letters spell four sounds.

The start thr works the same way. In "thrill", keep th together, then say /r/. Saying /t/, /h/, /r/ would break the team.

Read a word with both

Look at "splash".

1. Find sh at the end. It spells /sh/.
2. Find spl at the start. Keep /s/, /p/ and /l/.
3. Say short a between those parts.
4. Slide /s/, /p/, /l/, /a/, /sh/ together.

Six letters spell five sounds. Now try "chest": ch at the start is one sound; s and t at the end keep their own sounds.

"crash" has cr and sh. "thump" has th and mp. You may also hear /n/ right before /ch/, as in "bench", "pinch" and "lunch". In "lunch", tap /l/, /u/, /n/, /ch/.

Read "Trish can splash in the pond." Take time over "Trish" and "splash". Then read the sentence smoothly. Trish's name has the tr blend and sh team; "pond" ends with nd.

Read "hop", then "hope". One small letter changes what you say and what the word means.

Short vowels and long vowels

You hear short vowels in "cap", "pet", "pin", "hop" and "cut". A long vowel says its letter name. Listen to long a in "cape" and long i in "pine". Long describes the sound, not how slowly you say it.

Say "hop" and "hope" again. Listen to the middle of each word. Short o changes to the name of o.

Look for the last e

Silent e is an e at the end with no sound of its own. In the silent e pattern, you see a vowel, one consonant, then e. The vowel usually says its long sound.

Look at "made". The a and e work across the d. Say /m/, long a, /d/. Stop there: the e does not add a sound. Four letters spell three sounds.

You may hear the names magic e or bossy e. Another name is split digraph. The vowel and e are a team with a consonant between them. We show the space with a dash: a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e, u-e.

Watch words change

Point to the final e before you read each word on the right. This gives you time to choose the new vowel sound.

Read to the end before you begin

If you miss the e in "cape", you may say "cap". Look at all the letters first. If you say an extra "uh" after "cake", stop after /k/. The e has no sound of its own.

Not every final e is silent. Read "he", "me", "we" and "be". Each has just one vowel letter: e. You hear that e say its name. In "made", a is the vowel you hear and the final e stays silent.

You can use silent e to read and spell many words. Start with a-e and i-e, then try them after a letter team or blend.

Read a-e and i-e

The team a-e spells long a. Read "cake", "game", "name", "gate" and "wave". In each word, a consonant sits between a and e.

The team i-e spells long i. Read "bike", "time", "kite", "ride" and "five". The final e stays silent.

Compare "mad" and "made", then "pin" and "pine". Look at the last letter before you choose the vowel. You can also change "plan" to "plane" and "slid" to "slide".

Start with a team or blend

The same vowel pattern works in longer words. Try "snake", "skate", "brave" and "grape". Keep both sounds of the starting blend.

In "shape", "chase" and "whale", keep the first two letters together as a team. Try "shine", "white", "slide", "prize" and "stripe" with long i.

Work through "shake"

1. Look at the whole word. Find sh at the start.
2. Find a, then k, then final e. The a is long.
3. Say /sh/, long a, /k/.
4. Blend the sounds: "shake".

Five letters spell three sounds. Both sh and a-e work as teams, so you do not give each letter its own sound.

Write the silent e

Say "game" and tap /g/, long a, /m/. Write g, then a, then m. Add e after m to show the long vowel. Read back "game".

Writing "gam" leaves the vowel short. Putting e beside a, as in "gaem", misses the silent e pattern. The consonant belongs between the vowel and e.

Choose k or ck

Compare "back" and "bake". Short a goes with ck in "back". Long a goes with k and silent e in "bake". The same change happens in "lick" and "like", and in "snack" and "snake".

Read "I can ride my bike." If you say "rid" or "bik", check the end of each word. Both words have an e that changes the vowel sound.

There are more silent e teams to try. Some have one long vowel sound to learn; u-e has two.

Long o with o-e

Read "home", "bone", "rope", "note" and "joke". The o says its letter name. The final e has no sound.

Compare "not" and "note", "rob" and "robe", and "cod" and "code". Look to the last letter. The e changes how you read the vowel.

Two sounds for u-e

In "cute", "cube", "mule" and "use", u-e says /yoo/. That is the name of u.

In "rule", "flute", "June" and "rude", u-e says /oo/. Both sounds use the same u-e spelling.

Read "flute" slowly. Keep /f/ and /l/ at the start. Try /yoo/ for the u. That does not give the word. Try /oo/, then add /t/. Now you have "flute". The e stays silent in both tries.

Long e with e-e

Read "these", "Pete", "theme" and "eve". The first e says long e. The last e stays silent. You will meet fewer e-e words than a-e or i-e words.

In "Pete", p starts the word and t ends its sounds. The two e letters work across the t.

Listen to s inside a word

In "nose", "rose", "wise" and "those", s says /z/. Keep that buzzy sound when you read. Tap "those": buzzy /th/, long o, /z/. Five letters spell three sounds.

Spell a word with a blend

Say "stone". Tap /s/, /t/, long o, /n/. Write s and t for the blend. Write o, then n. Add silent e at the end to show long o. Read back "stone".

The first blend does not change where the silent e goes. You still have o, one consonant, e at the end.

Read "I hope you can come." "hope" needs its e. Without it, "hop" is a different word. Read back a sentence after writing so you catch a missing letter as well as a missing word.

Silent e is a useful pattern, but some common words work differently. Look at their letters and learn the tricky part.

Try the vowel, then check

Read "have", "give" and "love". Their final e is silent, but it does not make a long vowel. "have" has short a. "give" has short i. In "love", o sounds like short u.

English words hardly ever end with v. They usually need e after a final /v/ sound. That helps explain the e in "have", "give" and "love".

Other ve words do have a long vowel: "gave", "five", "hive" and "brave". Try the long sound first. If you do not get a word you know, try again and check the sentence.

Find the tricky part

Look at "come". The c spells /k/ and the m spells /m/. Those parts work as you expect. The o says short u, and the final e is silent. Put those sounds together to say "come".

Other words to remember are "some", "done", "gone" and "one". Say them with someone who knows them. Look closely at the letters while you hear each word.

The sentence can help

Read "We live in a red tent." Here, "live" has short i. Now read "a live frog". Here, "live" has long i. The letters are the same; the meaning in the sentence helps you choose the sound.

In "We have a dog", long a does not give the right word. Try short a and read the sentence again. Check the letters as well as the meaning, so you do not just guess.

Learn a tricky spelling

Use five steps for "love":

1. Look at all four letters.
2. Say "love".
3. Cover the word.
4. Write it from memory.
5. Uncover it and check every letter.

Writing "luv" matches the sounds you hear, but the word is spelled "love". Use the same steps for "have" and "come".

Some long vowels need no silent e. Read "go", "no", "hi" and "me". Keep their spellings as they are: "go" does not need an extra e.

A little part at the end can change a word's meaning. Read "jump", "jumps", "jumped" and "jumping" to hear what changes.

Find the word inside

A base word can stand on its own. An ending is added at the end. In "jumping", the base word is "jump" and the ending is -ing.

Cover -ing with your finger. Read "jump". Uncover the ending and add /ing/. Say the whole word: "jumping".

You can do this with different patterns. "wished" has "wish" and -ed. "picking" has "pick" and -ing. "swims" has "swim" and -s. "smiles" has "smile" and -s.

Listen for what the ending tells you

On a naming word, -s can tell you there is more than one. One "cat" becomes two "cats".

On an action word, -s goes with "he", "she" or "it", or a naming word for one person or thing. Read "She jumps." Then read "The dog jumps."

The ending -ed tells you an action already happened: "She jumped." The ending -ing helps tell about an action going on: "She is jumping."

Compare "Ben jumps", "Ben jumped" and "Ben is jumping". The base word is "jump" each time. Read the ending too, because it helps tell when the action happens.

Look before you split

Some words end in those letters without having an added ending. "bed", "shed" and "sled" do not have -ed. "ring", "king" and "thing" do not have -ing. The whole word "ring" names something; it is not "r" with an ending.

Ask whether there is a real base word. Taking ed from "bed" leaves just b. Taking ing from "king" leaves just k. Keep those words whole.

Do not stop too soon

Point all the way across "jumped". If you read only "jump", you miss the part that says it already happened. Try "The frog jumped." Read it once slowly, then once smoothly, keeping the ending.

One cat or two cats? A dog digs or dogs dig? A small ending helps you say what you mean.

More than one

Add -s to a naming word to show more than one. One "ship" becomes two "ships". One "duck" becomes three "ducks". The base word stays there, and s goes at the end.

Some naming words change another way. One "man" becomes two "men". Remember this word instead of adding s.

An ending on an action word

Read "She runs" and "The dog digs". Use -s with "he", "she" and "it", or with a naming word for one person or thing.

Now read "I run", "You run", "We run" and "They run". These do not take -s. Neither does "The dogs dig". Listen to the whole sentence before you choose the action word.

One spelling, two sounds

The s ending says /s/ in "cats", "ducks" and "ships". It says /z/ in "dogs", "pens" and "bells". Your mouth changes the sound, but you still write s. "dogz" has the wrong ending spelling.

When to write -es

After s, x, z, sh and ch, you usually write -es. It adds a beat and says /iz/. Read "dresses", "foxes", "buzzes", "dishes" and "lunches". After tch, you also use -es, as in "catches".

Try "dish" in steps. Its last sound is /sh/. Add the extra beat /iz/. Write "dish", then es: "dishes". Clap "dish-es": two beats.

If you write "dishs", there is no e for the extra beat. Say the whole word slowly as you check its ending.

Keep a silent e

Silent e words keep e when you add s. Read "cake" and "cakes", "bike" and "bikes", "bone" and "bones". The vowel stays long.

"nose" becomes "noses" and "rose" becomes "roses". You hear an extra beat, but the e is already there. Just add s to the base word. Look for that existing e before you write.

Read "I am packing" and "I packed". The endings help tell what is happening and what already happened.

Add -ing

The ending -ing has short i and the /ng/ sound. It adds a beat. "jump" has one beat; "jumping" has two.

Words ending in two consonants can take the ending with no change. Write "jump" then ing to make "jumping". Do the same with "rest" to make "resting". A team works too: "pick" becomes "picking" and "wish" becomes "wishing".

Read "I am packing", "Ben is fishing" and "The frogs are jumping". Words such as "am", "is", "are" and "was" go with these -ing words.

Add -ed for an action that happened

Compare "I pick a plum" and "I picked a plum". The second sentence tells about an action that already happened.

The letters ed can have three sounds. You use the same spelling for all three.

Choose the sound in steps

Start with "rest". Its last sound is /t/. Add /id/ and say "rested". Clap two beats.

Start with "wish". Its last sound is quiet /sh/. Add /t/ and say "wished".

Start with "fill". Its last sound is buzzy /l/. Add /d/ and say "filled". Touch your throat to feel the voice in /l/.

Write the meaning, too

"jumped" ends with a /t/ sound, but you write ed. The ending tells about the action that happened. Writing "jumpt" loses the spelling of that ending.

Do not add an extra beat to every -ed word. "jumped" has one beat. Its base word ends in /p/, so the ending says /t/.

Some action words change instead. "run" becomes "ran", "sit" becomes "sat", "sing" becomes "sang" and "swim" becomes "swam". Remember these changed words.

Look inside "hopping" and "hoping". The words look close, but one letter helps you read two different vowels.

Find a doubled letter

A base word can change before an ending. In "hopping", you see pp. The base word is "hop", with one p and short o. Add /ing/ when you read: "hopping".

Try "clapping" in steps.

1. Cover -ing.
2. Look at the pp in "clapp".
3. Find the base word "clap", with short a.
4. Read the whole word: "clapping".

The double letter after the vowel points to its short sound. You see this in "hopped", "running" and "stopped", too. A doubled letter does not make an extra consonant sound.

Find a missing silent e

In "baking", the base word is "bake". Its final e has dropped off before -ing. The vowel keeps its base-word sound: long a. In "riding", "hoping" and "smiling", find "ride", "hope" and "smile".

The same reading idea helps with tricky base words. "having" comes from "have", "giving" from "give", and "loving" from "love". Their vowels keep the sounds in those words. A missing e does not make every vowel long.

Compare close pairs

Read "The frog is hopping on the log." Then read "I am hoping to win." Check the letters before the ending before you use the sentence to help.

Read -ed after silent e

"baked", "hoped", "smiled" and "skated" have just one e before d. Find "bake", "hope", "smile" and "skate". The usual -ed sounds still work: /t/ in "baked", /d/ in "smiled", /id/ in "skated".

Many words show no base-word change: "jumping", "resting", "wishing", "picking", "fixing" and "fixed". With -s, the base word stays whole too: "hops", "hopes", "runs", "bakes".

A new word may have several parts you know. Give yourself time to look at the whole word before saying it.

A plan for a new word

1. Look from the first letter to the last.
2. Find an ending, a letter team, a blend or silent e.
3. Say the sounds and slide them together.
4. Check the word and the sentence.

An ending may hide the shape of the base word. Cover the ending while you work out the base. Then uncover it and read the whole word.

Read "splashing"

Cover -ing. In "splash", find spl at the start and sh at the end. Say /s/, /p/, /l/, short a, /sh/. Blend them to make "splash". Uncover -ing and say "splashing".

Now try "shaking". Cover -ing and look at "shak". Try the base word "shake", with long a and a silent e that has dropped off. Add /ing/. The whole word is "shaking".

Give the ending its sound

Look at "thumped". Cover -ed. Read "thump", keeping th together and both sounds of mp. Its last sound is quiet /p/. Add /t/ for -ed, and say "thumped" without an extra beat.

Read a made-up word

"shup", "blope" and "thrike" are made-up words. They have no story meaning to guess. You can still use their letters and sounds.

"blope" has bl at the start and o-e at the end. It rhymes with "hope". "thrike" starts with th then r, and its i-e rhymes with "bike".

Change one sound

Try this word chain: "ship", "shop", "chop", "chip", "chin", "thin", "thing". Say each word, then say which sound changed. Some changed sounds need two letters.

Read tricky words and check guesses

In "the", "was", "said", "to", "you" and "they", sound out the parts you know and remember the tricky parts. Ask a reading partner for a word you have not learned yet.

A picture can help you check a word after reading it. Start with the letters. "shell" and "shed" start the same way, but their ends are different. Reading only the start can send you to the wrong word.

Now use your word skills in a story. You can read with someone, taking time over new words before you read smoothly.

Read a sentence twice

A decodable text uses spellings you have learned and a few tricky words you know. Read "The chick ran to the shed." Keep ch and ck together in "chick". Read sh together in "shed". Remember "the" and "to".

Read slowly the first time. The next time, join the words as you would when talking. Keep your finger under each word so small words and endings do not disappear.

Check a close word

Look at "The frog hopped on the log." The word has pp, so its base word is "hop". "hoped" would have long o and a different meaning. If a sentence sounds strange, check its letters and try again.

Read a short story

"Jake has a pet frog. It hops on a big stone. Then it jumps in the pond. 'Come back!' yells Jake. The frog swims to him. Jake smiles and picks it up."

Pause at each period. Give Jake's words a calling voice. If one word takes time, finish sounding it out, then reread that whole sentence.

Hunt for patterns

Find th in "Then" and ck in "back". The blends in "frog", "stone", "pond" and "swims" keep their separate consonant sounds. In "Jake" and "stone", silent e gives a long vowel.

Look at "hops", "jumps", "yells", "swims", "smiles" and "picks". Each has an s ending. Keep it when you read. The base word in "smiles" is "smile", so its i stays long.

"Come" is a tricky silent e word. Its o sounds like short u. The tricky word still needs all its letters when you read.

Tell what happened

First, the frog hops on a stone. Next, it jumps in the pond. Last, it swims to Jake, and Jake picks it up. Use your own words to tell those events to your reading partner.

If you are unsure about an event, find it in the story. Check who did the action and what happened. Reading smoothly helps you hear the meaning; looking back helps you check it.

You can use the same sounds for writing that you use for reading. Say your words first, then help your reader see each sound.

Spell in four steps

Say the word. Tap its sounds. Write the letters for each sound. Read it back.

As you work, ask: do I hear a team or blend? Is the vowel long? Does the word have an ending?

Spell a word with an ending

Say "brushes". Find "brush": br at the start, short u, sh at the end. Write those parts. The ending after /sh/ adds a beat, so write es. Read "brushes" back.

Now spell "thumped". Its base word has th, short u, and mp. Write "thump". The action already happened, so write ed. You hear /t/ at the end, but the ending's letters are still ed.

Use a word you know

If you can spell "cake", change its first sound to spell "bake" or "lake". Add the sn blend to spell "snake". Keep the a-e pattern.

If you know "ring", try "king", "wing" and "sting". Keep ng together for the last sound. These word families help you use a spelling you already know.

Write a whole sentence

Say "Jake hopes the ship will dock." Count its words on your fingers: six. Write one word at a time, with a space after it. Start with a capital letter and put a period at the end.

For your own sentence, choose something to say aloud first. You might say "The snake slid on the rock." Hold the whole idea in your head while you write each word.

Check your writing

Read back with your finger under the words. If you wrote "jup" for "jump", say the sounds again and add m. If "cake" has become "cak", listen for long a and restore silent e. If "wishes" has become "wishs", listen for the extra beat and add e.

For a tricky word such as "said", use look, say, cover, write, check. Its ai does not match the short e you hear. Remember that part instead of writing "sed".

Read your sentence aloud to your partner. Point as you read to check that every word you say has a place on the page.