These unique sounds are usually best brought up and taught when a student runs into a word with such a sound and asks about it. Students often like if you can provide a reason (for example most silent letters are from ancient Greeks who also gave us much of our scientific words, and the French gave us the soft sounds for the c and g). Most importantly though, is to provide more words that fit the pattern so the pattern can be learned. It is helpful to have students highlight the targeted sound to train their brains to recognize and identify the letter combination automatically. The following explanations and links will help with this.
Story: Since the queen broke her leg, the u carries her around in a wheelbarrow. When the u is carrying the queen around it can’t do anything else (like make a sound or help another vowel) so qu is treated as a single consonant.
qu Word List with help reading look-alike words quite, quit, and quiet.
1. Written Story: 2 Sounds for Long u Story as told in Teaching Video found on the Magic e page.
2. Full name & nickname Story/Explanation for 2 sounds of /ū/:
Full name: The letter u’s name is pronounced like the word “you”. This word has two phonemes (sounds): the /y/ sound (as in yes), and then the /oo/ sound (as in moon). In words like use and cute the letter u’s full name is heard.
Nickname: Often the u goes only by the end of its name, its nickname. For its nickname the u drops the first phoneme (sound) /y/ and we only hear the second phoneme (sound) /oo/ as in moon. We only hear the /oo/ sound of the u’s name in words like tube and flute.
The letter c says the /k/ sound. However, when it is followed by an e, i, or y it says the /s/ sound. (Examples: city, cycle and cent). We can thank the French for this softening of the c sound.
Find Poster and activities in the 2 Sounds of C and G Pack!
The letter g says the /g/ sound. However, when it is followed by an e, i, or y it usually says the /j/ sound. (Examples: giant, gym and gentle). We can thank the French for this softening of the g sound.
Find Poster and activities in the 2 Sounds of C and G Pack!
The most common reason s is pronounced /z/ is that it follows a voiced letter. (A voiced letter uses your voice box like the the sounds /m/, /l/, and /r/. (An unvoiced letter does not use the voice box like the letters /p/, /t/, and /f/). S rarely says /sh/.
PowerPoint for S says /s/ and /z/ (Download as PPTX for correct formatting and animations.)
S has 3 sounds for hanging on wall.
gh is pronounced:
/g/ as in ghost at the beginning of syllables (and words).
/f/ as in laugh or /-/ as in plough in the middle or end of syllables (and words).
(*gh used to be pronounced like the end (the ch) of the word “blech,” a back of the throat fricative. Though this sound is still found in German, English gradually moved away from this difficult sound. In Italian gh is pronounced /g/ hence unchanged Italian words like spaghetti and ghetto continue to be spelled with gh.)
gh has 3 sounds for hanging on wall.
Y says long i at the end of one syllable words (try), long e at the end of multiple syllable words (bunny).
-y Teaching Video also on the Open & Closed Syllable page
-y Pack
Also found in Step 2: 4h Digraphs and Blends
The /n/ sound moves to the back of your mouth when paired with g and k. Ng is pronounced /ŋ/ as in the last sound in king. Nk is two sounds, /ŋ/ /k/ as in bank. Watch for the long vowel cheater chunks -ang and -ank.
-ng Word List
-nk Word List
Click on the box in the lower right of the video to make it full size.
sound of -ng including cheater chunk -ang
sound of -nk including cheater chunk -ank
Also found in Step 2: 4h Digraphs and Blends
Use -dge after a short vowel. Since we do not end words in j, we need to use the soft sound of g, spelled ge to make the /j/ sound at the end of a word. In order to keep the e away from a short vowel, a d is added instead of doubling the letter. (If the g was doubled, the first g would say the /g/ sound since it is followed by another g.)
-dge and -tch Pack.
Also found in Step 2: 4h Digraphs and Blends
Use -tch after a short vowel. Exceptions: much, such, rich, detach/attach, sandwich, spinach, ostrich.
-dge and -tch Pack.
Up until the 1500’s we pronounced the k in kn words like knee and knife. Apparently it is just too hard for us to do that anymore!
kn Word List with endings.
We can thank the Greeks for this letter combination.
Digraphs kn, gn, ph, wr, mb Pack
Each of these letter combinations say one sound. gn says /n/, kn says /n/, ph says /f/, wr says /r/, mb says /m/ and mn says /n/.
Students often hear /tr/ as /chr/ in words like trip and tree. It is easy to know how this sound is spelled because it is always tr. When a word is actually spelled with a chr, it is pronounced as /kr/ as is chrome, chronicle and chrysalis.
tr, (not chr) wordlist to help reinforce that that sound at the beginning of train and truck is /tr/.
Max vs. Chicks. Learn when we use a letter x to spell the sound /cks/ and when we use the letters cks.
In English, we do not end words in v, j, i or u. Exceptions are words borrowed from other languages, (spaghetti) and abbreviations of words (taxi), and the pronouns you, hi and I. In a word that ends in a ve, the vowel before the v may or may not say its name since the e may be there as a Magic e, but may not be. The i in give says its sound, the a in gave says it’s name, and the i in live is pronounced both ways!
Why is there an e at the end of this word? These are a many of the reasons that explain the e at the end of words like horse, nerve, dodge etc.
Also found in Step 6: Bossy R (& Contractions Detour)
Sometimes we shove 2 words together and use an an apostrophe to show where we took out the letter(s). “Is not” can also be “isn’t.”
To pronounce each letter in a pair the mouth position is exactly the same, but the vocal cords in the voice box are activated (voiced) for one letter, and the other letter is a breath sound (unvoiced). Put your fingers on the front of your throat to feel when the vocal cords are activated. These are easy letters to mix up!
These pairs include: