ENGLISH STUDY GROUP ONLINE

Words that help students understand all of the 44 sounds. (19 vowel sounds including 5 long vowels, 5 short vowels, 3 dipthongs, 2 'oo' sounds, 4 'r' controlled vowel sounds and 25 consonant sounds).


The following lists provides you with sample words for the sounds in the English language.

The 5 Short Vowel Sounds

• short -a- in and, as, after
short -e- in pen, hen, lend
• short -i- in it, in
• short -o- in top, hop
• short -u- in under, cup

The 6 Long Vowel Sounds

• long -a- in make, take
• long -e- in beet, feet
• long -i- in tie, lie
• long -o- in coat, toe
• long -u- (yoo) in rule
• long -oo- in few, blue

The R-Controlled Vowel Sounds

• -ur- in her, bird, and hurt
• -ar- in bark, dark
• -or- in fork, pork, stork

The 18 Consonant Sounds
c, q and x are missing as they are found in other sounds. (The C sound is found in the k sounds and in the s sound in words like cereal, city and cent. The Q sound is found in 'kw' words like backwards and Kwanza. The X sound is also found in ks words like kicks.)

• -b- in bed, bad
• -k- in cat and kick
• -d- in dog
• -f- in fat
• -g- in got
• -h- in has
• -j- in job
• -l- in lid
• -m- in mop
• -n- in not
• -p- in pan
• -r- in ran
• -s- in sit
• -t- in to
• -v- in van
• -w- in went
• -y- in yellow
• -z- in zipper

The Blends
Blends are 2 or 3 letters combined to form a distinct spelling sound.
The blends sounds:

• -bl- in blue and black
• -c- in clap and close
• -fl- in fly and flip
• -gl- in glue and glove
• -pl- in play and please
• -br- in brown and break
• -cr- in cry and crust
• -dr- in dry and drag
• -fr- in fry and freeze
• -gr- in great and grand
• -pr- in prize and prank
• -tr- in tree and try
• -sk- in skate and sky
• -sl- in slip and slap
• -sp- in spot and speed
• -st- in street and stop
• -sw- in sweet and sweater
• -spr- in spray and spring
• -str- in stripe and strap

The 7 Digraph Sounds

• -ch- in chin and ouch
• -sh- in ship and push
• -th- in thing
• -th- in this
• -wh- in when
• -ng- in ring
• -nk- in rink

The Other Special Sounds Including Dipthongs

• -oi- in foil and toy
• -ow- in owl and ouch
• short -oo- in took and pull
• -aw- in raw and haul
• -zh- in vision

by Sue Watson