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Phonics 101

According to Merriam-Webster, phonics is "the study of sound." It's second meaning, the one we are interested in is "a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables."

phonics

Now, my definition in plain English: Phonics is the simple relationship between sounds and the letter or group of letters they represent.

For example, in English we have no letter or letter combination to represent the flapped r that Spanish has. They write the sound of a flapped r like this;

This will be the r with the little symbol over it once I get my fonts straightened out.

However, in English, we do use the same flapped r sound when we talk, it's just that we don't have a unique letter(s) to represent it. For example, the word auto in English actually has the flapped r sound in it. It is the sound between the au and the o. We use a t to represent the sound.

For beginning reading instruction, Reading For Kids uses only one letter to represent each of the different sounds. There are approximately forty different sounds in English, but only twenty-six letters to represent them with. A single letter, double, or triple letter combination that represents one of those sounds is a phoneme.

The following are some of the basic sounds and the most common letters that represent them.

"a" as in at /a/

"e" as in egg /e/

"i" as in it /i/

"o" as in lot /o/

"u" as in up /u/

"t" as in tent /t/

"m" as in mom /m/

"s" as in see /s/

"p" as in pup /p/

"n" as in net /n/

"j" as in jam /dz/

The way the "j" is pronounced is actually two sounds that are said almost as one. A "d" and a "z" are said together quickly. English speakers only think of it as one sound.

Other weird sounds:

The x is really only a ks blended quickly together.

The q is really a kw blended quickly together.

Phonics is the simple relationship between sounds and the letter or group of letters they represent.

Try some of our phonics games for improving phonemic awareness and our reading games for kids to improve blending skills.

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