Glossary of Phonics Rules
1. Vowels surrounded by consonants or followed by one 11. The letter o, when doubled, can make the short-oo
or more consonants are usually short: map, bet, hit,
toss, bun. [Upper grades: Vowels in closed syllables
(i.e., syllables that end with a consonant) are normally
short.]
2. Double consonants sound the same as single con-
sonants; however, they are not digraphs when at a
syllable break in the middle of a root word1: abbot,
accord, puddle, skiff, jiggle, skill, etc.
3. The letters c and k, together, form a digraph (a single
speech sound) that sounds just like k by itself: back,
buck.
4. The qu combination makes the /kw/ sound: quick,
queen, sequester.
5. The letters t and h, together, form a digraph (a single
speech sound). Sometimes the th digraph is vocalized,
as in than, them, and with; sometimes it is unvocalized,
as in thrash, thud, and pith.2
6. When a one-syllable word ends in y, the y makes the
long-i sound: my, by.
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7. The letters w and h, together, form a digraph (a single
speech sound) /wh/: what, who, why, wheel.
8. Two vowels together, especially ai, ay, ea, ee, and
oa, normally form a single sound, the long sound of
the first vowel. (Put another way: “When two vowels
go walking, the first one does the talking”; or “When
two vowels meet, the first one says its name.”) Vowel
combinations that make a single sound are called di-
graphs. Examples of the ai, ay, ea, ee, and oa digraphs:
bait, say, eat, week, boat.
9. When words end in s or x and need to be written in
the plural form, an -es is added to the root word to
give the ear a chance to hear the final s, which makes
the /z/ sound: passes, fusses, frizzes, prizes.
10. The or digraph normally makes the sound of a long-o
and r as in morning, fort, and porch, but it can also
make the schwa-r sound as in word and worth.
1. Digraphs cannot be split, whereas doubled consonants at syllable
breaks in the middle of words usually can (and must) be split: ab/bot, ac/
cord, pud/dle, jig/gle.
2. To demonstrate vocalized vs unvocalized sounds, place your fingers
on your throat, on either side of your “Adam’s apple” or larynx. Say the
/z/ and /s/ sounds. You should notice that, while your tongue and mouth
stay in exactly the same configuration for both sounds, your throat
vibrates with the /z/ sound and it is still for the /s/ sound. The vibration
is from your vocal chords vibrating. That is what vocalization is all about.
Now say the word that very slowly. You will feel your vocal chords vibrate
on the /th/ sound. Say thud and you will find your vocal chords do not
vibrate when you say the /th/ sound. Now try similar experiments with
other letters and letter-pairs. (How about comparing t and d? Are they
the same in any way? Different? How about the /k/ and /g/ sounds? …)
4th Grade Condensed Language Arts  |  Section Three  |  Instructor's Guide Resources  |  13
sound as in book and cook or the long-oo sound as in
cool and boon.
12. The letter combinations er, ir, and ur normally make
the sound of the shwa-r as in her, fir, and turn.
13. When a syllable or short word ends in e, i, or o, the
vowel is usually long (i.e., it says its name): be, besides,
hi, hijack, so, soda.
14. Words that end with –al plus a final -k, -l, or -m sound
as if they end with a short-o and the sound of the final
consonant: walk, ball, calm.
15. If an e at the end of a word is preceded by a vowel, or
a vowel and a single consonant, then the vowel that
comes before the e is long (“says its name”) and the
final e is silent: made, precede, hike, smoke, blue.
16. The letters c and g normally become soft (c makes the
/s/ sound; g makes the /j/ sound) when they are fol-
lowed by e, i, or y: proceed, cinder, cycle; gentle, giant,
apology.
17. The letters c and h, together, usually form a digraph (a
single speech sound) /ch/, whether at the beginning
or end of a word: chicken, China, much. Some words
with Greek roots may include a ch digraph that makes
the /k/ sound: Christian, psychology. Some words with
French origins may include a ch digraph that makes
the /sh/ sound: quiche, cartouche.
18. The letters p and h, together, form a digraph (a single
speech sound) /f/: physical, graph.
19. The letters g and h, together, usually form a digraph
(a single speech sound). The digraph is often the /f/
sound: cough, laugh; but is sometimes the /g/ sound:
ghastly, ghost, ghetto; and is sometimes silent (bough,
bought). When at a break between syllables, the g
and h will not form a digraph, but will be pronounced
separately: fog/horn.
20. The /ch/ sound at the end of a word is often spelled
–tch: patch, scotch.
21. The letter b is often silent when it comes immediately
after the letter m and has no other consonants follow-
ing: crumb, numb. (Notice that the b is not silent when
it is followed by another letter: crumble and rumble.)
22. The vowels o and u together often form a digraph (a
single speech sound) /ow/ as in sound, bout, or couch.
But the ou digraph can make many other sounds as
well: a short u sound as in touch or rough; a long-oo
sound as in through, rouge, and tour; a short-o sound
as in cough, ought, and bought. There are also a few
words in which ou can make a long-o sound (thor-
ough, your, borough), or—when followed by r—a
schwa-r sound (courage).
23. The vowels o and w, together, make either an /ow/
sound as in howl and now; or a long-o sound as in
blow, snow and bowl.
24. The /ow/ sound is usually formed by the digraphs ow
or ou. If you hear the /ow/ sound in the middle of a
word, it is usually formed by ou; if you hear it at the
end of a word, it is almost always going to be formed
by ow.
25. The letters k and n, together, almost always form a
digraph (a single speech sound) that sounds like the
letter n by itself: knife and know.
26. The letter combinations oi and oy make the same
sound. The oi digraph comes in the middle of closed
syllables (i.e., syllables that end with a consonant): boil,
point, boisterous. The oy digraph usually comes at the
end of open syllables (syllables that end with vowels)
or at the end of a word as in toy, joy, soybeans.
27. The letters n and g, together, normally form a digraph
(a single speech sound) /ng/, which is different from
the sound of the two letters simply blended together:
sing, prong. When the ng digraph is followed by –le, it
sounds like the ng digraph plus the /g/ sound: single,
tangle.
28. When e, i, o, or u precede the ng digraph, they are
short: penguin, sing, song, sung. When a precedes the
ng digraph, it is long: hang, sang, slang.
29. The letters n and k, together, form a digraph (a single
speech sound): the /ng/ sound but ending with the
/k/ sound: sink, chunk.
30. When a syllable ends with a consonant, it is a closed
syllable and the vowel is short: camel, parcel, stencil.
31. When one consonant stands between two vowels,
the word is usually divided after the first vowel and
before the consonant (vowel/consonant-vowel). That
means that the first syllable is open (an “open” syllable
ends with a vowel), and the vowel is normally long
(i.e., it “says its name”): pa/per, be/fore, be/gan, pi/per,
stu/pid. However, if the first syllable has a short vowel,
then the word is either treated like a compound (two
words put together): aloft, amount, afar, or the first
syllable is closed, and the vowel is part of the first
syllable: aneu/rysm, criti/cism, liga/ture, physi/cal, sepa/
rate.
32. When ar is used in a word, it says /ar/ as in star,
farm, ark.
33. A word plus a suffix (-ed, -en, -ly, -ful, - ing, -est, or
-ness) makes a new word. If you pronounce the vowel
in the suffix, the suffix forms a syllable. The new syl-
lable is the suffix. If you do not pronounce the vowel
at the end of the new word, then the suffix does not
form a new syllable.
14  |  Instructor's Guide Resources  |  Section Three  |  4th Grade Condensed Language Arts
34. When a word ends in -le, the final syllable normally
consists of the -le and the consonant (or consonant
that immediately precedes it): able, kettle, title, fumble.
However: if the final –le is preceded by a consonantal
digraph, the digraph is not split, and the –le forms a
syllable on its own: crackle, buckle.
35. When ai or ay is used in a word, the letters make the
sound of a long-a: pail, pay.
36. When a two-syllable word ends with y, the y makes
the long /e/ sound (/ee/). The second syllable consists
of the y and the consonant before it: baby, starry,
sandy.
37. When two consonants stand between two vowels,
the word is usually divided between the consonants
(vowel-consonant/consonant-vowel): bal/loon, bas/
ket, big/ger, can/teen, phan/tom.
38. The ie digraph sometimes says the name for the letter
i (pie, allies) and sometimes the name for the letter e
(chief, reprieve, countries).
39. The letter o, when doubled in combination with an r,
can make the /or/ sound: door, floor.
40. The ea digraph can make a wide range of sounds:
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short-e (breath, dread); schwa (when followed by r
plus other consonants: earth, learn); long-e (eat, team,
streak), long-a (break, steak) and more.
41. The combination -igh normally makes the sound of
a long-i while the gh digraph is silent: right, bright,
flight, sigh.
42. The combination –ght makes the /t/ sound: sight, right,
ought, caught.
43. The i is long in words ending with –ild: wild, mild; it is
almost always long in words that end in –ind: bind,
kind, and the verb wind (though the noun wind has a
short-i sound).
44. The sh digraph makes the /sh/ sound: fish, she,
fashion.
45. The digraphs eu, ew, ue, and ui usually make the long-
oo or long-u sounds. Long-oo: blew, blue, fruit. Long-u
sound: feud, imbue, argue.
46. When you’re trying to remember how to spell a word
that you know includes the letters e and i in it, re-
member, with only a very few exceptions, to follow the
rule “i before e except after c”: fierce, piece, friend.
47. The ending -ed usually means that something has
already happened. Sometimes -ed is unvocalized (/t/):
fixed, cramped, placed; at other times it is vocalized
(/d/): played, accrued, parachuted.
48. Proper names are always capitalized: Dick, Jane,
Sally, Spot.
 49. If a root word ends in one consonant and the vowel
that precedes it is short, double the final consonant
before adding suffixes that begin with vowels (-ing,
-ed, -able, etc.): plan/planned; sip/sipping; fat/fatty.
However, if the final syllable is unstressed, simply add
the suffix: fasten/fastened, glisten/glistening, canter/
cantered.
50. Sometimes s sounds like /sh/ (sure, passion, expres-
sion) and sometimes like /zh/ (measure, pleasure).
51. Sometimes z sounds like /zh/ (azure, seizure).
52. When the letter c is doubled and surrounded by
vowels, the first c is often hard (producing the /k/
sound) and the second c often has the soft /s/ sound:
accent, accident, succinct.
53. The digraphs ci and ti usually make the /sh/ sound:
special, nation, caution. When preceded by an s, the ti
combination takes on the /ch/ sound: exhaustion.
54. The letter t when followed by u is often pronounced /
ch/: nature; adventure, culture, spiritual.
55. The ei digraph often makes a long /a/ sound when
followed by the gh digraph: sleigh, eight, freight.
56. The letter a is pronounced as a short-o in a few words:
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papa, mama, father.
57. The digraphs au and aw usually make the /aw/ sound:
Paul, faucet, pause; hawk, gnaw, paw.
58. The letters g and n, together, when not at a syllable
break within a word, form a digraph that makes the
/n/ sound: gnu, gnaw, sign; but compare signal, indig-
nant, signify (all words where the g and n occur at a
syllable break within the word).
59. When gu is used at the beginning of a word, the g has
the hard /g/ sound and the u is usually silent; the fol-
lowing vowel makes the vowel sound for the syllable:
guest, guard, guide, guilty, guitar.
4th Grade Condensed Language Arts  |  Section Three  |  Instructor's Guide Resources  |  15
60. In a very few words, h at the beginning of the word
will be silent: hours, herbs.
61. When a word ends with an m followed by n, the n is
usually silent: hymn, solemn.
62. Sometimes the letters s and t, together, make the
sound of s alone: listen, fasten, glisten.
63. The letter combinations er, err, ar and arr often make
the long-a /r/ sound: very, merry, Mary, marry.
64. When s and c are together, the c is usually silent: scent,
scene, scepter.
65. Before adding the suffixes -es or -ed to words ending
with y (where the y sounds like a long-i, change the y
to an i: cry/cries/cried; dry/dries/dried; try/tries/tried; fry/
fries/fried.
66. When a word ends with y and you want to add a suffix
that begins with a letter other than i, change the y to
i, and add the suffix: happy/happily/happiness; satisfy/
satisfies/satisfied (but satisfying); fancy/fanciful.
67. When a word ends in a silent e, drop the e before
adding a suffix that begins with a vowel: love/loving;
come/coming; time/timing; phone/phoning.
68. When a word ends in –le, drop the e before adding
the -ly or –ing: terrible/terribly; tremble/trembling.
69. The letter o, when followed by n, often makes the
short-u sound: wonderful, son, ton.
70. The letter o is long in words ending with -old and -olt:
fold, bold, mold, colt, molt.
71. The letter w is always silent when followed by r at the
beginning of a word: wrap, wrist, write, wrong, wreck.
72. The f at the end of some words will change to a v
when the word is made a plural: wife/wives; knife/
knives. n