Vowel digraphs are two vowels that when placed together generate one sound. This includes double vowels like the long “oo” in “moon” or short “oo” in “foot”. Other vowel digraphs are formed by two different vowels like “ai” in “rain” or “oa” in “boat”.
Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several natural languages.
A diagraph is a pair of letters that make one sound, but a blend is a pair or group of letters that work together using each of their individual sounds. Digraphs have two letters that make one sound. Learn about the digraphs: sh, th, ch, ph and wh.
When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usually long and the second is silent. NOTE: Diphthongs don't follow this rule; In a diphthong, the vowels blend together to create a single new sound. The diphthongs are: "oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others.
Digraphs are one of the letter combinations taught after students master single letter sounds. Consonant digraphs are two or more consonants that, together, represent one sound. For example, the consonants “p” and “h” form the grapheme ph that can represent the /f/ sound in words such as “nephew” and “phone.”
A digraph contains two consonants and only makes one sound such as sh, /sh/. (ch, wh, th, ck) A blend contains two consonants but they each make their own sound, such as /s/ and /l/, /sl/ (st, fl, sk, gr, sw, ect.)
Vowel digraphs include those that are simply doubled letters, such as the oo in moon and the ee in feet. Other vowel digraphs are combinations of two different vowel letters that together represent a single sound, such as oa in coat, ai in rain, and ea as in peach.
A digraph is a combination of two letters that make a single sound, as in the "ph" in "phone." In fact, the word "digraph" contains a digraph. Digraphs can include a combination of consonants or vowels. Let's take a look at several digraph examples, starting with consonants.
A digraph is two letters that combine together to correspond to one sound (phoneme). Examples of consonant digraphs are 'ch, sh, th, ng'. Examples of vowel digraphs are 'ea, oa, oe, ie, ue, ar, er, ir, or, ur '.
Consonants
| Phoneme | IPA Symbol | Graphemes |
|---|
| 1 | b | b, bb |
| 2 | d | d, dd, ed |
| 3 | f | f, ff, ph, gh, lf, ft |
| 4 | g | g, gg, gh,gu,gue |
: a drawing instrument combining a protractor and scale.
Most of the time, that sound is different from the sound that each letter makes individually. Digraphs are important to learn because if you did not know that the two letters in a digraph make one sound, you'd be unable to read many new words. When s and h are together in a word, they make a new sound, /sh/.
But before you go into the blends, you should teach the consonant digraphs - the two-letter combinations that stand for one sound - such as th, sh, ch - so that the child can read such words as wish, rich, the, that, this, with, etc. You can begin teaching the blends before you even teach the long vowels.
Some phonics programmes start children off by learning the letters s, a, t, n, i, p first. This is because once they know each of those letter sounds, they can then be arranged into a variety of different words (for example: sat, tip, pin, nip, tan, tin, sip, etc.).
Cluster 1:
- Step 1:Introduce the vowels and their short sounds. [
- Step 2:Introduce the consonants and their sounds. [
- Step 3:Begin blending short vowels with consonants. [
- Step 4:Begin blending and reading one vowel words and short sentences. [
- Step 5:Introduce the long vowel sounds. [
The clear difference is that digraphs are letters and diphthongs are sounds. The morpheme phthong means “sound”, making the word diphthong refer to a sound that has two parts. If you understand the meaning of the morphemes in each word, you will never confuse them again. A digraph is two letters that spell one sound.
How to teach Phonics: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Step 1 – Letter Sounds. Most phonics programmes start by teaching children to see a letter and then say the sound it represents.
- Step 2 – Blending. Children are taught how to blend individual sounds together to say a whole word.
- Step 3 – Digraphs.
- Step 4 – Alternative graphemes.
- Step 5 – Fluency and Accuracy.
