Phoneme

It is essential that a child make a connection between letters and sounds; letters represent speech sounds and when combined forms words. Changing the letter results in a different sound and word.

Phoneme Definition

A phoneme is the smallest identifiable units of sound. When speaking, we combine phonemes to form a words. For example the word hen has 3 phonemes: /h/, /e/ & /n/. The word when also has 3 phonemes: /wh/, /e/ & /n/. Whereas the word went has 4 phonemes: /w/, /e/, /n/ & /t/.

Phoneme List

The English language contains 26 letters, yet there are approximately 44 sounds or phonemes. In addition, the same sound can be represented using different letters, e.g., the letter “c” often makes the /s/ sound, e.g. city. It is equally important to note, the same letters can yield a different sound, e.g., the /th/ sound in thin and these.

Vowel Phonemes
Short a	Short e	Short i	Short o	Short u
Long a	Long e	Long i	Long o	Long u
/aw/ Sound	/air/Sound	/ar/ Sound	/er/ Sound	/or/ Sound
/ear/ Sound	/ou/ Sound	/oi/ Sound	Short oo	Long oo

Consonant Phonemes
b	ch
d	f	g
h
j	k	l	m
n
ng	p	qu	r
s
sh	t	th	th
v
wh	x	y	z
zh

Phonemes Examples

Each phoneme is listed below along with a few examples.

Phoneme: Short a sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
a	Closed Syllable Rule	cat, back, fast

Phoneme: Long a sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
a	Open Syllable Rule	April, baby, paper
a _ e	Final E rule	ate, name, plane
ai	AI Digraph	nail, rain, laid
ay	AY Digraph	day, say, pray

Phoneme: /aw/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
aw	Broad O Vowels	awful, lawn, saw
al	Broad O Vowels	all, talk, call
au	Broad O Vowels	August, because, daughter
o	Broad O Vowels	off, cost, moth

Phoneme: /air/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ar	R Vowels	area, January, tiara
air	R Vowels	air, stair, chair
are	R Vowels	scare, aware, square

Phoneme: /ar/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ar	Bossy R	car, art, large

Phoneme: /b/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
b	/b/ Consonant Sound	be, bat, tub

Phoneme: /k/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
c	Hard C	can, because, music
ck	/k/ Consonant Sound	back, sick, check
k	/k/ Consonant Sound	kind, like, book

Phoneme: /ch/ Consonant Digraph Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ch	CH Digraph	church, chin, each
tch	TCH Spelling	catch, fetch, pitch

Phoneme: /d/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
d	/d/ Consonant Sound	did, study, red

Phoneme: Short e Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
e	Closed Syllable Rule	end, get, set
ea	EA Spelling	head, bread, meadow

Phoneme: Long e Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
e	Open Syllable Rule	even, zebra, me, we
ee	EE Digraph	eel, sleep, three
e	EA Digraph	eat, read, sea
y	Y Vowels	very, funny, city

Phoneme: /ear/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ear	R Vowels	dear, hear, year
eer	R Vowels	beer, deer, steer

Phoneme: /er/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
er	Bossy R	her, better, shower
ir	Bossy R	girl, first, stir
ur	Bossy R	turn, purple, fur
or	Bossy R	work, labor

Phoneme: /f/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
f	/f/ Consonant Sound	for, after, off
ph	PH Digraph / Silent Letter	photo, trophy, graph

Phoneme: /g/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
g	/g/ Consonant Sound	go, goat, dog

Phoneme: /h/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
h	/h/ Consonant Sound	he, home, ahoy

Phoneme: Short i Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
i	Closed Syllable Rule	in, ill, big

Phoneme: Long i Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
i	Open Syllable Rule	I, item, pilot
i_e	Final E Rule	five, like, mine
igh	IGH Spelling	night, light, bright
y	Y Vowels	myself, by, deny

Phoneme: /j/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
j	/j/ Consonant Sound	just, enjoy, join
dge	DGE Spelling	edge, bridge, fudge,
g	Soft G	gym, danger, age

Phoneme: /l/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
l	/l/ Consonant Sound	like, below, tell

Phoneme: /m/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
m	/m/ consonant sound	me, men, him
mb	MB Spelling	comb, lamb

Phoneme: /n/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
n	/n/ Consonant Sound	no, many, on
kn	KN Spelling / Silent Letters	know, knife, knee

Phoneme: /ng/ Consonant Digraph Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ng	NG Digraph	sing, going, long, song
n	N Spelling	think, sink, blink

Phoneme: Short O Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
o	Closed Syllable Rule	odd, hot, rock

Phoneme: Long O Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
o	Open Syllable Rule	open, go, zero
o_e	Final E Rule	hope, note, rose
oa	OA Digraph	oak, coat, toad
ow	OW Digraph	own, show, yellow

Phoneme: /ou/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
ow	OW Diphthong	down, cow, how
ou	OU Diphthong	out, hour, count

Phoneme: /oi/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
oy	OY Diphthong	oyster, toy, cowboy
oi	OI Diphthong	join, boil, void

Phoneme: /oo/ Short OO Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
oo	Double OO Vowels	look, wood, cookie
u	Double OO Vowels	full, push, sugar

Phoneme: /oo/ Long OO Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
oo	Double OO Vowels	soon, zoo, balloon
u	Double OO Vowels	truth, duty, tuna
u_e	U_E Spelling	June, flute, rule

Phoneme: /or/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
or	Bossy R	or, score, short, for

Phoneme: /p/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
p	/p/ Consonant Sound	put, people, up

Phoneme: /kw/ Q Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
qu	/kw/ Consonant Blend Sound	quick, quiet, square

Phoneme: /r/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
r	/r/ Consonant Sound	run, rest, very
wr	Silent Letter	write, wrote, wrong

Phoneme: /s/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
s	/s/ Consonant Sound	see, set, bus
c	Soft C	cent, cell, pencil

Phoneme: /sh/ Consonant Blend
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
sh	SH Digraph	she, show, ship
ss	SS spelling	mission, permission
ci	CI spelling	special,
ti	TI spelling	nation, portion
ch	CH spelling	chef

Phoneme: /t/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
t	/t/ Consonant Sound	to, city, not

Phoneme: /th/ Voiceless Consonant Digraph Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
th	/th/ Voiceless Consonant Digraph	thank, faith, with

Phoneme: /th/ Voiced Consonant Digraph Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
th	/th/ Voiced Consonant Digraph	the, then, brother

Phoneme: Short U Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
u	Closed Syllable Rule	up, cut, sun
a	SCHWA	about, idea, alike
e	SCHWA	item, diet, label
o	SCHWA	other, atom, money

Phoneme: Long U Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
u	Open Syllable Rule	future, menu, Utah
u_e	Final E rule	use, tube, cube
ew	EW Spelling	few, chew

Phoneme: /v/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
v	/v/ Consonant Sound	very, van, even

Phoneme: /w/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
w	/w/ Consonant Sound	we, away, want

Phoneme: /hw/ WH Digraph
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
wh	WH Digraph	when, white, wheat

Phoneme: /ks/ X Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
x	/ks/ X Consonant Sound	fox, fix, Texas

Phoneme: /y/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
y	/y/ Consonant Sound	you, year, yard

Phoneme: /z/ Consonant Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
z	/z/ Consonant Sound	zero, zoo, lazy
s	S Spelling	does, is, please

Phoneme: /zh/ Sound
Letter/s	Rule and/or Sound Grouping	Examples
s	/zh/ Sound	treasure, measure
s	S Spelling	does, is, please

Source: Fry, E.B., Ph.D. & Kress, J.E., Ed.D. (2006). The Reading Teacher’s Book of Lists 5th Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.