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14 Phonics Rules For Reading and Spelling

This document provides 14 phonics rules for reading and spelling. It explains rules for short and long vowels, vowels in syllables, the silent "e", consonant digraphs and blends, vowel digraphs and diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, the "schwa" sound, soft/hard "c" and "g", doubling consonants when adding endings, using "k" or "ck", the "j" and "ch" sounds, doubling consonants after short vowels, forming plural nouns, and exceptions to phonics rules in English.

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Efraín Reina
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816 views5 pages

14 Phonics Rules For Reading and Spelling

This document provides 14 phonics rules for reading and spelling. It explains rules for short and long vowels, vowels in syllables, the silent "e", consonant digraphs and blends, vowel digraphs and diphthongs, r-controlled vowels, the "schwa" sound, soft/hard "c" and "g", doubling consonants when adding endings, using "k" or "ck", the "j" and "ch" sounds, doubling consonants after short vowels, forming plural nouns, and exceptions to phonics rules in English.

Uploaded by

Efraín Reina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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14 Phonics Rules for Reading and

Spelling
By Ginny Osewalt
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Phonics instruction teaches the connection between word sounds and written
letters. It’s a key part of learning to read. But phonics instruction also teaches
spelling patterns. For success in both reading and spelling, here are some
important phonics rules to know.

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Short and long vowels

When a vowel is followed by one consonant, that vowel is usually short. A vowel is
usually short when there is only one vowel in a word or syllable as in on, red and
fantastic.

A vowel is long when it says its own name. When a single vowel is at the end of a
word or syllable, it usually makes the long vowel sound, as in go and paper.

Vowels also have long sounds when they’re paired with a silent e or when they are
vowel digraphs (two vowels paired together).

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Vowels in syllables

Every syllable of every word must have at least one vowel. A vowel can stand
alone in a syllable, as in unit and animal. It can also be surrounded by consonants,
as in jet, shut and fantastic.

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Silent ‘e’

When e is the last letter in a word, and there’s only one other vowel in that word,
the first vowel usually says its own name and the e is silent, as in cake.

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Consonant digraphs and blends

In a consonant digraph, two consonants work together to form one sound that isn’t
like either of the letters it’s made from. Examples include chap, ship, think
and photo.

Consonant blends are groups of two or three consonants whose individual sounds
can be heard as they blend together. Examples of that are clam, scrub and grasp.

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Vowel digraphs and diphthongs

In a vowel digraph, when two vowels are paired together, the first one is long and
the other is silent, as in boat, paint and beach.

In a diphthong, a new speech sound is formed when two vowels are paired
together, as in cloud or boil.

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R-controlled vowels

When a vowel is followed by an r in the same syllable, that vowel is “r-controlled”


and is no longer short. Sometimes we refer to the r as “bossy r” because
the r “bosses” the vowel to make a new sound, as in spark, cork, germ, birthday
and burn.

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The ‘schwa’ sound

Any vowel can make the schwa sound; it sounds like uh. Words like banana,
vitamin, item, and another have the schwa sound.

The schwa is only found in words with more than one syllable, but never in the
“accented” syllable. The schwa is the most common sound in the English
language!

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Soft ‘c’ and hard ‘c’ and soft ‘g’ and hard ‘g’

When the letter c is followed by the vowels e, i or y, it usually makes its soft sound.
Examples of that are cent, circus and cytoplasm. The letter c also makes a hard
sound, as in cat and cocoa.

When the letter g is followed by the vowels e, i or y, it usually makes its soft sound.
Examples of that are gel, giant and gym. The letter g also makes a hard sound, as
in gas, gorilla and yogurt.

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The ‘fszl’ (fizzle) rule

When f, s, z and l follow a vowel at the end of a one-syllable word, they’re usually
doubled, as in stuff, grass, fuzz and shell.
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Using ‘k’ or ‘ck’

We use ck at the end of one-syllable word when it follows a short vowel, as in


duck and trick. We use k when there’s another consonant immediately following
the vowel, as in task and drink.

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The /j/ sound and the /ch/ sound

When the /j/ sound follows a short vowel in a one-syllable word, it’s usually
spelled dge as in badge, hedge, bridge, dodge and smudge. (The d protects the
vowel from “magic e.”)

When the /ch/ sound follows a short vowel in a one-syllable word, it’s usually
spelled tchas in catch, fetch, stitch, blotch and clutch. Common exceptions are
the words such, much, rich and which.

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Doubling

When adding ed or ing to a word, we double the consonant if the vowel before that
consonant is short. Examples of that are gripped and winning. We don’t double
the consonant when the vowel is long.

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Plural nouns

When a plural noun ends with s, ss, sh, ch, x or z, we add es to make it plural, as
in classes, brushes and foxes. Otherwise, we just add s, as in cats.
When a plural noun ends with y and it follows a consonant, as in pony, family and
baby, we usually change the y to i before adding es to make it plural: ponies,
families and babies.

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Broken rules

In the English language, phonics rules are often broken. Your child will frequently
come across exceptions to the rule. But your child’s teacher or reading specialist
will teach those, too!

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