Advanced search

Browse your search results by sector:

Browse by audience:

 

Resources

Resource - Phonics glossary

blend (vb) — to draw individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. s-n-a-p, blended together, reads snap

cluster — two (or three) letters making two (or three) sounds, e.g. the first three letters of 'straight' are a consonant cluster

digraph — two letters making one sound, e.g. sh, ch, th, ph.

vowel digraphs comprise of two vowels which, together, make one sound, e.g. ai, oo, ow

split digraph — two letters, split, making one sound, e.g. a-e as in make or i-e in site

grapheme — a letter or a group of letters representing one sound, e.g. sh, ch, igh, ough (as in 'though')

grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) — the relationship between sounds and the letters which represent those sounds; also known as 'letter-sound correspondences'

mnemonic — a device for memorising and recalling something, such as a snake shaped like the letter 'S'

phoneme — the smallest single identifiable sound, e.g. the letters 'sh' represent just one sound, but 'sp' represents two (/s/ and /p/)

segment (vb) — to split up a word into its individual phonemes in order to spell it, e.g. the word 'cat' has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, /t/

VC, CVC, CCVC — the abbreviations for vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, and are used to describe the order of letters in words, e.g. am, Sam, slam.

You might also be interested in:

Phonics - a definition

Phonics - methods of teaching

Phonics - a timeline

Return to downloads

 
  • Join our fun run Run, walk or jog in our first ever Where’s Wally? fun run on Sunday 24 March 2013. Find out more
  • Parents and carers Give your child the best possible foundation in speech, writing and reading skills with Words for Life. Go to Words for Life
  • Join our network We provide inspiration, resources and support to transform literacy for children and young people. Find out more
  • Resources Our range of resources makes our programmes available to all schools for the first time. Find out more
 

The National Literacy Trust is a registered charity no. 1116260 and a company limited by guarantee no. 5836486 registered in England and Wales and a registered charity in Scotland no. SCO42944.
Registered address: 68 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL.