Phonic Rules

Copyright Lesley Clarke 2006 (revised 20.8.07) lesleyclarkesyntheticphonics.co.uk

PHONIC RULES/PATTERNS, WHICH MAY BE USEFUL AT EACH PHASE OF LETTERS

AND SOUNDS

NB: These rules are equally relevant to other synthetic phonics programmes

• In English there are 26 letters which represent 44 phonemes. These phonemes are represented by approximately 140 different letter combinations.

Phase 2:

• After a short vowel, words end in ‘ss’ instead of ‘s’, ff instead of ‘f’, ll instead of ‘l’, ‘ck’

instead of ‘k’ (eg hiss, whiff, hill, lick).

NB. These (and ‘zz’ instroduced in Phase 3) are the only consonants which double in this

position.

Phase 3:

• After a short vowel, words end in ‘zz’ instead of ‘z’ (eg fizz)

• After a digraph, words end in ‘f’ instead of ‘ff’, ‘k’ instead of ‘ck’, ‘l’ instead of ‘ll’ (eg reef,

park, heel)

• Although not technically at this phase, the following information may be useful:

o At the end of a word /v/ is usually spelled ‘ve’ (eg have, live).

Phase 4:

CCVC words:

• After a short vowel, words end in ‘ss’ instead of ‘s’, ‘ff’ instead of ‘f’, ‘ck’ instead of ‘k’, ‘ll’

instead of ‘l’, ‘zz’ instead of ‘z’ (eg. dress, sniff, block, frill, frizz). This is the same as CVC

words in Phases 2 & 3.

• After a digraph, words end in ‘f’ instead of ‘ff’, ‘k’ instead of ‘ck’, ‘l’ instead of ‘ll’ (eg scarf,

shark, growl). This is the same as CVC words in Phases 2 & 3.

CVCC words:

• After a consonant, words end in ‘f’ instead of ‘ff’, ‘k’ instead of ‘ck’ (eg shelf, sink). /l/

doesn’t appear in final position. /s/ and /z/ only occur as plurals represented by ‘s’.

Phase 5:

• CVC and CCVC words: after a digraph, words end in ‘ce’ or ‘se’ instead of ‘s’ (eg horse)

• Regional pronunciation: (this is relevant in areas where ‘path’ is pronounced ‘parth’)

/ar/ followed by /s/ (eg grass), /th/ (eg bath) or a consonant cluster (eg plant, ask, clasp) is

written ‘a’. Where it is followed by /s/, this is written ‘ss’ (eg glass).

• After /w/ (represented by ‘w’, ‘wh’ or ‘qu’), /o/ is often represented by ‘a’ (eg was, what,

quad)


Which representation of each vowel phoneme is most likely in different positions:

A) Which representation is most likely in initial/medial/final position in a

monosyllabic word.

See chart below. Letters in brackets show less likely representations.

Initial and Medial position

Final position

ai a-e

ea ee

i-e (igh i ie)

oa o-e (o ow)

oo u-e

ar (a*)

oi

ou ow

ir ur er (ear or)

or (aw a ough)

oo u (oul)

-

-

* areas of the country in which ‘bath’ is

pronounced ‘b-ar-th’

ay

ee e ea (words with 1 syllable)

y (words with 2 or more syllables)

y (ie igh)

ow (o oe)

ew (oo ue)

ar

oy

ow

ir ur er

ore aw (oor)

-

are (air ear)

ear eer


• Alternative representations of /s/:

In initial position:

o ‘s’ is most likely.

o ‘c’ is sometimes used before /i/ or /e/.

In final position (not including plurals):

o ‘ss’ is most likely after a short vowel.

o ‘ce’ is most likely after /ie/ /ai/, /oi/.

o ‘se’ is most likely after /oo/, /oa/, /ow/, /ur/.

o ‘se’ and ‘ce’ are equally likely after ‘n’, /ee/, /au/

• Alternative representations of /j/:

In initial position:

o ‘j’ is most likely.

o ‘g’ is sometimes used when followed by ‘i’ or ‘e’ (eg gel).

In final position:

o ‘dge’ is most likely after a short vowel.

o ‘ge’ is most likely after a digraph or consonant.

• Alternative representations of /ch/:

In final position:

o ‘tch’ is most likely after a short vowel

B) Which representation of a vowel phoneme in initial/medial position is most likely to occur

before particular final consonants.

The initial/medial position is the most problematic in a monosyllabic word, as a vowel phoneme

can usually be represented in more than one way (eg ‘ai’ and ‘a-e’ are equally likely in this

position).

In the mini charts below, the grapheme in the column heading is the most likely representation

before the final phonemes shown in that column. Where 2 or more graphemes are in the

column heading (eg ai a-e), both representations are equally likely.


• ai a-e:

ai a-e ai a-e

/n/ /b/ /d/

‘nt’ /f/ /l/

/j/

/k/

/m/

/p/

/s/

/t/

/v/

/z/ (except present tense verbs, which take ‘ays’ eg plays)

• ee ea (e-e):

ee ea ee ea ee ea ie

/d/ /m/ /k/ /f/

/p/ /v/ /l/ /s/

/ch/ /n/

‘st’ /t/

• i-e (igh i ie):

i-e i i-e igh ie i-e

/f/ ‘nd’ /t/ /d/ (only past tense verbs take ‘ie’)

/k/ ‘nt’

/l/ ‘ld’

/m/

/n/

/p/

/s/

/v/

/z/


• oa o-e (o ow):

o-e oa o o-e oa oa o

/b/ /f/ ‘ld’ /d/ ‘st’

/k/ /t/ /m/

/p/

/v/

/z/

o-e o oa o-e oa ow o-e o

/l/ /n/ /s/

• oo u-e:

u-e oo u-e oo

/b/ /f/ /d/

/j/ /l/ /n/

/m/

/p/

/t/

• ou ow:

ou ow

/d/ /l/

/s/ /n/

/t/

/ch/

/th/

‘nd’

‘nt’

• ir ur er (ear or):

o ‘ir’, ‘ur’, ‘er’ are equally likely in initial/medial position.

o ‘or’ is most likely after ‘w’ eg worm, work.

• aw or a (augh ough):

or a or aw or ough

/k/ /l/ /n/ /t/ (most words taking ‘ough’ are past tense

/th/ verbs)

/ch/

/m/ (except where it follows ‘w’, in which case ‘ar’ is used eg warm, swarm)


• oo u (oul):

oo u oo u oo oul

/k/ /l/ /t/ /d/

/sh/

• e ea:

e ea e ea

/b/ /f/ /d/

/g/ /th/

/j/ ‘lth'

/k/

/l/

/m/

/n/

/p/

/s/

/t/

‘nt’

C) Which representation of a vowel phoneme is most likely to occur in final position.

• ee e ea

o ‘e’ is mostly found in pronouns eg he, she

• are (air ear)

o ‘are’ is more likely in verbs

o ‘air’ and ‘ear’ are equally likely in other words.

Phase 6

Adding suffixes:

Consonant suffixes (eg ly, ful, less, ness, ment)

• Where the root word has a final ‘y’ representing /ee/ or /igh/: change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add

the suffix (eg noisy noisily, merry merriment).

• Other types of root words: just add the suffix (eg end endless)

Vowel suffixes (eg. er, est, ing, ed, y, en)

• Where the root word has a short vowel and single final consonant: double the final consonant

before adding the suffix (eg big bigger).

• Where the root word has a split digraph: remove the final ‘e’ before adding the suffix (eg

bone bony, wise wisest).

• Where the root word has a final ‘y’ representing /ee/ or /igh/: change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add

the suffix (eg lucky luckily). The exception is ‘ing’, which keeps the ‘y’ (eg copying, drying).

• Other types of root words: just add the suffix (eg cook cooking).


Plurals:

• Words ending in ‘s’ or ‘ss’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, ‘z’ or ‘zz’: add ‘es’ to make the plural (eg church churches).

• Words ending in ‘y’: change the ‘y’ to ‘i’ before adding ‘es’ to make the plural (eg baby babies).

• Other words: just add ‘s’ to make the plural (eg book books).

/l/ (as in ‘little’):

• Occurs at the end of polysyllabic words.

• ‘le’ is more common than ‘el’, ‘al’, ‘il’.

• Words containing a short vowel double the last consonant before adding ‘le’.

• Words containing digraphs or consonant clusters before /l/ just add ‘le’.

Polysyllabic words:

• Each syllable in a word contains a vowel phoneme.

• The stressed syllable is often the first one in a word.

Words in which the stressed syllable contains a short vowel:

• Many words contain 2 consonants between the short vowel in the first syllable and the vowel

in the second syllable. Where there is only one consonant phoneme a double letter is

required. Eg funny, carrot, dentist.

Words in which the stressed syllable contains a long vowel:

• Many words use a single letter to represent the long vowel phoneme in the stressed syllable

eg even, basin, lazy, silent.

Words containing a double ‘r’ after a vowel:

• ‘rr’ represents /r/ and does not form a digraph with the vowel to make ‘ar’, ‘er’, ‘ir’, ‘or’, ‘ur’.

Eg marry, parrot, arrow, squirrel

Documents

Phonic Rules