Phonics and early reading
What are tricky words?
Quick answer
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.
In one sentence
Tricky words are common words with a part that doesn't follow the phonics a child knows yet, like the, said, was and you. Children sound out the regular part and learn the tricky bit by heart.
Explained
Most English words can be read by blending their sounds. A small number of very common ones have an unusual spelling somewhere inside. Take said. The s and d are perfectly regular; only the ai, which here spells /e/, is unexpected. That is the tricky part.
Children need these words early, because they appear in almost every sentence: the, to, I, no, go, into, said, was, you, they, are, my, her, all, some, come, one, do, there, were, what, when, who, where.
How to learn a tricky word
Good phonics teaching doesn't ask children to memorize whole words as pictures. Instead:
- Sound out the word: was is /w/ /o/ /z/.
- Find the tricky part: the a says /o/ (or /u/ in many American accents), not /a/ as in cat.
- Mark it with a heart or a star.
- Read it in a short sentence, then write it from memory.
Because the tricky part is learned "by heart", many US teachers call these heart words. Other common US names are sight words and high-frequency words. "Sight words" sometimes also means any word read instantly, regular or not.
Some words are tricky only for a while. He and me feel tricky in the first weeks, but once a child learns that e can spell a long /ee/ sound, they become ordinary.
book
star
pencil
Examples
| Word | Regular part | Tricky part |
|---|---|---|
| said | s, d | ai says /e/ |
| was | w | a says /o/ |
| you | y | ou says /oo/ |
| they | th | ey says /ai/ |
| come | c, m | o says /u/, silent e |
Common mistakes
- Guessing from the first letter. This is the most common habit to break. Look through the whole word and say every sound.
- Learning tricky words only from flashcards. Read them in short sentences too: I said no.
- Spelling tricky words by sound. "Sed" is a sensible attempt when segmenting; teach the tricky part, then practice writing it.
Quick quiz
Tricky words
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
Which word is a tricky word for most beginners?
Practise it
Try it
- In to, which letter is tricky?
- In my, which letter is tricky?
- Which word is not tricky: the, hat or was?
Answers: 1) The o, which says /oo/. 2) The y, which says /igh/. 3) Hat: /h/ /a/ /t/ follows regular phonics.
For grown-ups
Related topics
Phonics
Phonics teaches children to read and spell by linking sounds (phonemes) with the letters that write them (graphemes), then blending and segmenting those sounds.
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.
Digraphs
A digraph is two letters that make one sound, like sh in ship, ch in chip, ck in duck or ai in rain.
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.
Silent letters
Silent letters are letters you write but do not say, like the k in knee, the b in lamb and the w in write. Most of them follow patterns such as kn, wr, mb and gn.
Syllables
A syllable is a beat in a word, built around one vowel sound. Cat has one syllable, rab-bit has two, el-e-phant has three.