How many phonograms are there in english

Knowing the phonograms is key to learning how to decode written English. The 26 letters of the alphabet are phonograms. However, they are not the only ones. Forty-nine multi-letter phonograms like igh, ch, and th are also used regularly to represent sounds in English words. In English, there are around 44 phonemes sounds , but there are around graphemes letters or letter groups that correspond to a single sound.

This is because every phoneme sound corresponds to more than one grapheme letter or letter groups across different words. A phonogram is a written symbol that stands for a sound.

Vowel and semi-vowel phonograms: a, e, i, o, u, y, ee, ay, ai, ow, ou, oy, oi, aw, au, ew, ui, oo, ea, ar, er, ir, ur, or, ed, or, oa, ey, ei, ie, igh, eigh, oe, ough, and eu. Digraphs, technically, are pairs of letters that represent a single sound or, more accurately, a single phoneme.

For example, sh, th, ow, oy, bb, tt, and nn are usually digraphs when they appear in words. Essentially, then, any letter or digraph is also a phonogram, and a grapheme. A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, that is represented by two letters. A trigraph is a phoneme that consists of three letters. Consonant digraphs include ch, ck, gh, kn, mb, ng, ph, sh, th, wh, and wr. Some of these create a new sound, as in ch, sh, and th. Word families are groups of words that fit into a certain set of letter patterns with the same root words.

This means that these groups of words have a common feature, pattern or meaning. Learning the letter sounds: Children are taught 42 letter sounds, which is a mix of alphabet sounds 1 sound — 1 letter and digraphs 1 sound — 2 letters such as sh, th, ai and ue. Spalding then compounds her error by teaching students to apply the phonograms in a completely random order, the order found in the most common and irregular words in the English language.

Traditional phonics teaches phonograms in a logical order, beginning with one sound for each letter and proceeding from the most common and most regular patterns to those that are less common and less regular, each pattern applied immediately in word families. This order has been worked out over time by teachers and linguists, and though it may vary in some details, it is a thing of beauty.

This order is completely obscured in WRTR. I cannot see how either the teacher or student could develop any understanding of the underlying order of the English language or how to teach it—from WRTR. Spalding has no relation to traditional or classical phonics.

Spalding is rigorous phonics, but it is not systematic phonics; it is not incremental phonics, and it is not common-sense phonics. The task of remembering the 70 phonograms, many with multiple and overlapping sounds, taught in isolation with no aid to memory provided by actual words, pictures, or word families, and concurrently remembering 29 awkwardly worded and abstract spelling rules as a basis for reading is a remarkably obtuse and unnatural method—it is easy to mistake this confusion with complexity.

There have been many who have worked hard to rewrite WRTR, to make it more user-friendly and provide the details and materials needed to implement it; they are to be commended. From what I have seen, most of them have improved WRTR and corrected some of its most egregious faults.

But it is time to recognize that WRTR is fundamentally flawed and reject it as unsound, putting our efforts instead into developing sound phonics and reading programs based on traditional methods that work.

I would also submit that its use by the classical education movement is unfortunate and undermines the credibility of our movement. I think there are two reasons. With its 70 phonograms, 29 spelling rules, and marking system, WRTR appears to be comprehensive and rigorous. We classical educators are serious, and this is appealing to us.

But increasing complexity and confusion is not evidence of rigor. It is evidence of poor teaching. With its 70 phonograms, 29 spelling rules, and marking system, WRTR claims to greatly minimize the irregularities of English spelling. We classical educators like order and discipline. We want to believe that English spelling can be reduced to a predictable system with only occasional irregularities.

We think this is a necessary argument against the anti-phonics crowd. But here is the real truth. English is the most irregular of all of the modern languages. It is, in fact, in a class by itself.

Not only does English have many phonograms with multiple sounds, it has many sounds that are spelled by multiple phonograms. There is an average of eight different ways to spell ea ch of the long vowels in English, and there are few, if any, rules that govern these variations.

If you know that it is boat rather than bote , it is not because of a rule but because you have seen the word spelled correctly many times. English has 19 vowel sounds, as compared to five for Spanish and Italian.

That was an easy example, but the same principle also applies to multisyllable words. Instead, he can just segment the word and represent each sound with a phonogram. If you are on a slow internet connection, there may be a slight delay. The downloaded version of the app will not experience this delay. The button colors match the colors of our letter tiles to reinforce learning, and the phonograms are arranged in logical groupings, matching the labels provided with the letter tiles.

Phonograms are the building blocks of almost every English word. In fact, a study of 17, words showed that the vast majority of words follow the regular phonogram sounds.

Here are some examples:. It would overwhelm most kids to have to learn all the phonograms at once, so we teach just a few phonograms at a time. Once your child has mastered those, we introduce a few more. Flashcards known as Phonogram Cards are an efficient way to teach and review the phonograms, and we include them right in the All About Reading and All About Spelling programs. The back of the card has information for you, the teacher. It shows the sound of the phonogram, along with a key word.

The goal is to flip through the flashcards and have your student say the phonograms without pausing to think. Choose one of these games or all four! Try Not to Moo is an effective and super silly new way to practice phonograms that makes review time extra me- moo -rable! Designed to be used in conjunction with All About Reading or All About Spelling , this activity can also be used independently.

Get instant access to Try Not to Moo! Check out our super fun and kind of gross Swatting Phonograms activity! Playing games is a great way to reinforce learning with children, and our easy-to-assemble printable game boards give you five different ways to have fun with phonograms!

Get instant access to Fun with Phonograms! Just print our jungle-themed bingo boards and grab your phonogram cards. Was this post on phonograms helpful to you? Let me know in the comments below! Leave this field empty. These simple lessons are amazing. My non-reader became an avid reader without even realizing he was learning how to read! He just had fun. Thank you All About Learning Press. What a great way to learn! Thanks for the information.

I hope to reach my second son to read as well as his big brother. Thank you. Let me know if you have questions about placement or anything else. I really want to teach my daughter to read with phonics, but it does seem intimidating. However, if you have questions or concerns, please let me know.

We are planning to start AAR1 soon. My daughter has some experience with phonograms through Montessori and we are excited to get started with this program. Thanks for the explanation about phonograms. If you have any questions as you begin All About Reading, just let me know.

I love all the extras that we get by following All About Reading. I only wish that I knew these things or could have had these resources many years earlier. My severely dyslexic 10 y. This is my first year using this program. We are using Level 1 and Level 3! We are all very excited about this program. It is so hands on and fun!!!! Wooow wonderful blog about to teach how to read using phonograms. I am new to teach readng for my kid and this blog is crisp and easily understandable nd easily can be implemented through okay in the way kids can understand.

Thank you so much. How can I contact you? Similarly, what is a phonogram in phonics? Phonograms are the letter or letters that form the individual sounds that are heard in words. Some phonograms are represented by a single letter, while others are represented by letter teams. Letter teams may be consonant teams, vowel teams, or a combination of consonants and vowels that make irregular sounds.

It is a letter or letter combination that represents a single phoneme within a word. A grapheme is a spelling of a phoneme. Our most popular consonant digraphs in English involve the letter h: ch, ph, sh , and th. Other digraphs have silent letters, for example, kn, wr, and ck. Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch. Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out.

A digraph is two vowels beside each other forming one sound - for example: ai, ea, oa. A diphthong is two vowels beside each other forming two sounds - for example: ey as in they; oy as in toy. Digraphs are two letters that make just one sound. Blends , on the other hand, are two or more consonants that BLEND together but each sound can still be heard.

A phoneme is a distinct, single sound that is used in the speech of a particular language.