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📘 How do letters stand for sounds?

Letter names are not word names—how graphemes code sounds you can blend.

7
lessons
~30 min
to learn
Adults
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. Names don't make wordsTell a letter's name from the sound it stands for, and use only the sound when blending a word.The alphabet song teaches names. Reading feeds the blender sounds. See-ay-tee is not cat. Keep the two jobs in different pockets.
  2. The letters are a codeTreat print as a code in which letters and letter groups stand for phonemes, starting with a small useful set.Twenty-six letters cover 40+ sounds. A grapheme is the mark; a phoneme is the sound. Begin with a handful such as s, m, d, p, a, pinned to pictures, said quickly.
  3. Sounds you can holdStretch continuous sounds, keep stop sounds short, and cut the extra uh that hides the word.S, m, f and the vowels can last. T and p cannot. An added uh turns tap into a muddle. First blending words should be stretchy on purpose.
  4. The five short vowelsGive each short vowel its first reading sound and hear how changing the middle sound changes a CVC word.A apple, e egg, i pin, o pot, u sun. These engines sit in the middle of hat, hen, sit, hot, cup. Change the engine and the word jumps.
  5. Glue the soundsBlend from left to right with connected sounds, after oral sound-talk, and check that a real word appeared.Ears first, then print. Point, sound, hold, glue, check. Connected phonation (sssaaat) beats a chopped list. Hat can be chunked or sounded out, always from the left.
  6. Two letters, one soundTreat sh, ch, th, ck and ng as one phoneme each, and keep true blends such as st as two sounds.A digraph is a team. Sheep does not start with s then h. Count the sounds in ship and fish, not the letters. Three-letter teams wait.
  7. When the word appearsCheck that the blend is a familiar word, refuse picture-guessing, and handle a few exception words without dropping the code.Blend, then ask if it is real. The picture is a guest. If the word breaks, walk back. Learn the, I, said as exceptions. Tonight, sound-talk cup.

Questions this course answers

You see the letters c-a-t. Why does saying the letter names see-ay-tee fail to make the word?

Names and sounds are different jobs. England teaches both, but blending uses the sounds the letters stand for. See-ay-tee is three names. /k/ /a/ /t/ is the word.

Match each letter to the sound you feed the blender

These are first-set sounds. The IES guide starts with useful single consonants and short vowels such as /s/, /m/, /d/, /p/, /a/. The sound is never the letter's name.

Put the blending moves in order

The IES recommendation is to blend from left to right until a recognisable pronunciation appears, then check that it is a familiar word. Connected sounds beat a chopped list.

Which set of sounds is easiest to hold while you blend, and why do teachers start there?

The IES panel wants first blending words to use continuous consonants such as f, h, l, m, n, r, s, v, z so children can elongate the sounds and still hear each one.

Name the extra grunt that hides a word

The IES guide warns that a strong schwa — uh — after stop sounds such as /b/ and /d/ can block blending. Reading Rockets says a trailing /uh/ interferes with blending.

Match each short vowel to a first word

Short vowels are the engines of CVC words. They are not the letter names ay, ee, eye, or oh. Change the engine and hat becomes hit or hot.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • UK Department for Education, National curriculum in England: English programmes of study — letters on the page represent sounds in spoken words; Year 1: respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes for all 40+ phonemes; read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing taught GPCs; name the letters of the alphabet and use letter names to distinguish alternative spellings; common exception words, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study
  • Foorman, B., et al. (2016), Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (NCEE 2016-4008), IES / What Works Clearinghouse — Rec. 2: letter–sound relations, first set /s/ /m/ /d/ /p/ /a/, continuous sounds in Elkonin work, pig as memorable picture; Rec. 3: blend letter sounds left to right; Example 3.1 hat by chunking and sounding out; sound out smoothly /mmmaaannn/; minimise schwa after stop sounds; digraphs taught as a unit (sh, th, ch, ng); check that the blended word is familiar, https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_foundationalreading_040717.pdf
  • UK Department for Education, Education Hub, Everything you need to know about phonics in schools (2023) — recognise individual letter sounds; identify combination sounds such as sh or oo; blend those sounds from left to right to decode new words; systematic progression from easiest to more complex sounds, https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-phonics-in-schools/
  • Gonzalez-Frey, S. & Ehri, L.C. (2021), Connected Phonation Is More Effective than Segmented Phonation for Teaching Beginning Readers to Decode Unfamiliar Words, Scientific Studies of Reading 25:3 — summarised on Reading Rockets: kindergartners who kept the speech stream going (sssaaannn) outperformed those who broke it (sss – aaa – nnn); breaks appeared to make children forget initial phonemes, https://www.readingrockets.org/resources/resource-library/connected-phonation-more-effective-segmented-phonation-teaching
  • Reading Rockets, Blending and Segmenting Games — blending is putting sounds together and segmenting is pulling them apart; both are necessary for reading and spelling in an alphabetic language, https://www.readingrockets.org/classroom/classroom-strategies/blending-and-segmenting-games
  • UK Department for Education / Primary National Strategy, Letters and Sounds (2007) — Phase One oral blending and sound-talk: adult leaves a short gap between sounds; children say the word and identify the object; blending the component sounds all through a word is a main objective, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-and-sounds

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