Phonics and early reading
What is phonics?
Quick answer
Phonics teaches children to read and spell by linking sounds (phonemes) with the letters that write them (graphemes), then blending and segmenting those sounds.
In one sentence
Phonics is a way of teaching reading and spelling by matching the sounds of spoken English to the letters that write them.
Explained
Spoken English has around 44 sounds (the exact number depends on accent). Each sound is called a phoneme. The letter or letters that write a phoneme are a grapheme. In sun, each letter is one grapheme for one phoneme: /s/ /u/ /n/. In ship, the two letters sh make one grapheme for the single phoneme /sh/.
Systematic synthetic phonics teaches these grapheme–phoneme links in a planned order, starting with simple ones like s, a, t, p, i, n. Children then use two skills straight away:
- Blending for reading: say each sound, then push them together. /p/ /i/ /g/ → pig.
- Segmenting for spelling: hear a word, split it into sounds, write a grapheme for each.
Saying pure sounds makes blending far easier. Say /mmm/, not "muh"; /sss/, not "suh"; and keep /t/ and /p/ short and crisp. Adding an "uh" turns cat into "cuh-a-tuh", which does not sound like a word at all.
Some common words have an unusual spelling for one of their sounds, such as the, said and was. These are taught as tricky words: children still sound out the regular parts and learn the tricky bit by heart.
Examples
| Word | Sounds | Graphemes |
|---|---|---|
| sat | 3 | s – a – t |
| frog | 4 | f – r – o – g |
| chip | 3 | ch – i – p |
| rain | 3 | r – ai – n |
| night | 3 | n – igh – t |
sun
map
pig
hen
fox
Common mistakes
- Adding "uh" to sounds. Practise stretchy sounds (mmm, sss, fff) and bouncy ones said short (t, p, k).
- Guessing from the picture. Cover it, sound out the word, then check.
- Counting letters, not sounds. Shop has four letters but three sounds.
Quick quiz
Phonics
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
What is a phoneme?
Practise it
Try it
Hear the sound, find the letter
For grown-ups
Related topics
Blending
Blending means saying the sounds in a written word one after another and pushing them together to hear the whole word, like /c/ /a/ /t/ → cat.
Segmenting
Segmenting means breaking a spoken word into its separate sounds so you can spell it, like hearing dog as /d/ /o/ /g/ and writing a letter for each sound.
Digraphs
A digraph is two letters that make one sound, like sh in ship, ch in chip, ck in duck or ai in rain.
Tricky words
Tricky words are common words with a part that does not follow the phonics children know yet, like the, said, was and you. Children sound out the regular part and learn the tricky bit.
Alphabet
The alphabet is the set of 26 letters we use to write English, from a to z, each with a name, a sound and a capital and lowercase shape.
Vowels and consonants
The vowel letters are a, e, i, o and u (and sometimes y); all the other letters are consonants. Almost every English word needs a vowel sound.