Here are most of the letter combinations used in the ...

Here are most of the letter combinations used in the English language. Some people refer to these combinations as "phonograms". These letter combinations, regardless of whether they are made up of one letter or 4 letters, only make one sound. For example, in the word "though", the combination [ough] says the long "o" sound. It is important to recognize the various combinations based on the sounds being made. For example the word "beach" is made up of three combinations b-ea-ch, while in the word "react", the letters [e] and [a] are not working together to make one sound, they are each representing their single letter phonogram. "React" can be broken down into 5 phonograms (or sounds) r-e-a-c-t.

Some letter combinations make two or more sounds. When this is so, I will list the sounds in the order that they are most frequently used. Since I do not know how to do phonetic markings with a computer, I am just going to list words that show each of the various sounds that letter/letter combination makes.

Letter Combination

a

Sample words demonstrating sound/s made cat, rake, ball, above

b

bat

c

cat, city

d

dot

e

hen, be

f

fan

g

gap, gym

h

hat

i

hit, hi

j

jet

k

king

l

love

m

man

n

nap

o

on, go, do, love

p

pan

qu

quilt ([q] is always followed

by the letter [u] in English

words.

r

rat

s

sat, is

t

tap

Letter

Sample words demonstrating

Combination

sound/s made

ui ew ar or war wor wr mb

th wh sh ch tch

ck

dge

ea oo

ee

igh eigh

juice (not used at the end of words) few car for wart (ar can say "or" when preceded by the letter [w] word (or can say "er" when preceded by the letter [w] write comb (The b is silent when this combination is used at the end of a base word.) think, this where ("hw") ship chat, school, chivalry match (used after a single vowel that doesn't say its long sound) back (used after a single vowel that doesn't say its long sound) bridge (used after a single vowel that doesn't say its long sound) bead, bread, break choose, book (The words "floor" and "door" are the two exceptions to these sounds.) keep ([ee] always says "ee" with one exception ? the word been) high eight

u

up, cute, put

v

van

w

wall

x

box, xylophone ("z")

y

"When it's a consonant it

says "y", when it's a vowel it

says "ee", " ie" "i".

consonant: yell

vowel: baby, cry, gym

z

zoo

er

These are the 6 different

ir

ways to spell the "er" sound.

ur

Memorize this sentence:

wor

Her first jury work earned

ear

courage.

our

oa

toad

oe

toe

ei

receive, veil (not used at the

end of words)

ey

key, they

ie

pie, believe

ou

out, you, bouquet, country

(not used at the end of

words except "you" and

"thou")

ow

now, know

au

fault (not used at the end of

words)

aw

saw

ai

pail (not used at the end of

words)

ay

play

oi

foil (not used at the end of

words)

oy

boy

ough augh

kn gn

though, through, rough, cough, bought, bough caught, (laugh is an exception) know

sign ("n")

gh

ghost

ph

phone

Below are letter combinations that make more than one sound together, but occur so

frequently they are worth learning as memorized letter combinations.

ing, ang, ong, ung ink, ank, onk, unk,

alk

ould all tion

sing, sang, song, sung

sink, sank, honk, hunk

walk

could ball nation

cial cious

sion

ild

old ind

olt

special spacious

pension, vision

child

cold kind

bolt

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