English Alphabetic Code with the International Phonetic Alphabet

The English language has a fascinating history but this has resulted in a complex alphabetic code for the writing system whereby the 26 letters of the alphabet
represent the 44 or so smallest sounds identifiable in English speech in three complicated ways:
1. one sound (phoneme) can be represented by one, two, three or four letters: e.g. /a/ a in apple, /f/ ph in photograph, /igh/ igh in night, /oa/ ough in dough
2. one sound can be represented by multiple spelling alternatives (graphemes): e.g. /oa/: o, oa, ow, oe, o-e, eau, ough
3. one grapheme (letter or letter group) can represent multiple sounds: e.g. ough: /oa/ though, /or/ thought, long /oo/ through, /ou/ plough, /u/ thorough
On this Alphabetic Code Chart, the units of sound (phonemes or combined phonemes) are shown in slash marks. Vowel sounds are shown in red and consonant sounds
are shown in blue. The vowel sounds provide the main volume and depth in spoken words whereas the consonant sounds are generally much quieter and sometimes very
high-pitched such as /s/ and /t/. Teachers need to teach the separate units of sounds carefully, avoiding the added schwa or uh sound: e.g. sss not suh; t not tuh.
units of sound simple code complex code graphemes or spelling alternatives
information
+ IPA symbols key words + key words which are code for the sounds
/a/ a The Synthetic Phonics
// apple
Teaching Principles

/e/
e -ea -ai Teach the KNOWLEDGE of the
alphabetic code; that is, the
// egg head said again letter/s-sound correspondences.

/i i -y Teach the THREE CORE SKILLS:

/ // insect cymbals 1. DECODING: Sound out and

/o/ o wa qua alt
blend all-through-the-printed-word
for reading unknown words.
// octopus watch qualify salt
2. ENCODING: Orally segment
/u/
u o -ou -ough
(identify) the sounds all-through-the-
spoken-word for spelling; then select
// umbrella son touch no thoroughfare the correct graphemes AS CODE

/ai/ ai -ay a -ae a-e

FOR the identified sounds in that
particular word.

first aid tray table sundae cake 3. HANDWRITING: Hold the

/e/
-ey -ea eigh -aigh pencil with the tripod grip and form
correctly the 26 upper case and 26
straight lower case letters on writing lines.
prey break eight
Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 1 of 6
/ee/ ee ea e e-e Teach a simple code (basic or
transparent) first; that is, mainly one
spelling for each sound at a rate of
eel eat emu concrete
two to five letter/s-sound
/i:/ -ey -ie -ine
correspondences per week. The
simple code is part of the complex
key chief sardines code a first step towards
teaching the alphabetic code.
-ie
between
/i and ee/ -y -ey Keep the simple code revised and
sunny monkey movie begin to introduce spelling and
/igh/ -igh -ie i -y i-e ei
pronunciation alternatives of
the complex code (extended,
/a/ night tie behind fly bike eider duck advanced or opaque code) at a rate
appropriate to the age, stage and
/oa/
oa ow o -oe o-e ability of the learners.

oak tree bow yo-yo oboe rope APPLICATION

-eau
Provide a cumulative bank of words,
//
-ough plateau
sentences and texts at code level:
1. to model blending, segmenting
dough for spelling, and handwriting
/y+oo/ -ue u u-e ew eu 2. for each learner to practise
his or her growing skills of blending,
/j/ + /u:/ barbecue unicorn tube new pneumatic drill segmenting and handwriting
increasingly independently.
short /oo/
-oo -oul -u -o Provide cumulative, decodable
reading books at code level.
// book should push wolf wolves

long /oo/ oo -ue u-e -ew -ui Two-pronged

teaching approach
Teach a systematic, planned
moon blue flute crew fruit
synthetic phonics programme
/u:/ -ou -o -ough alongside incidental teaching of
any letter/s-sound correspondences
soup move through as required for differentiation, wider

oy
reading and spelling and for the
/oi/ oi wider curriculum - for individuals,
groups and whole classes.
// ointment toy
Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 2 of 6
/ou/ ou ow -ough Accents
Teaching the English alphabetic
code is not an exact science and
/a/ ouch ! owl plough accents need to be taken into
/ar/ ar a alm -alf -alves account at all times along with the
notion of tweaking (modifying)
/:/ artist father palm half calves pronunciation when decoding to
reach the correct target word or
/or/ or oar -oor ore -our preferred pronunciation.

fork oars door snore four Schwa effect for reading

/:/
aw au -al war quar
Modifying pronunciation also helps
to raise awareness of the schwa
or /aw/ dawn sauce chalk wardrobe quarter
effect (unstressed syllables) whereby,
in reality, a sound close to /u/ is the
augh ough
dependent upon
spoken translation of the written
regional or
code in words such as sofa (sofu),
national accents
caught thought faster (fastu), little (littul),
around (uround). This is common.
/ur/or /er/ er ir ur ear wor
Schwa effect for spelling
/:/ mermaid birthday nurse earth world Be aware of the schwa effect when
schwa /er/
or schwa /u/ -er -our -re -ar -or segmenting spoken words for
spelling.
// mixer humour theatre collar sailor
The ability to spell accurately relies
/air/ air -are -ear -ere on a growing awareness of
spelling alternatives and
// hair hare bear where knowledge of spelling word

eer ear
banks (words with the same
/eer/ -ere
//
-ier spelling and sound). This knowledge
takes much longer to acquire.
deer ears adhere cashier Emphasise the process for spelling of
/oor/
-oor -ure SOUND-TO-PRINT rather than
relying on visual memory and recall
// poor sure of letter order and letter names.

/y+oor/
/j/+ // -ure Decoding is the reverse process:
PRINT-TO-SOUND.
pure water
Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 3 of 6
units of sound simple code complex code graphemes or spelling alternatives
information
+ IPA symbols key words + key words which are code for the sounds

/b/ b -bb bu The notion of a code

Root all the teaching for decoding

/b/ bat rabbit building and encoding in the CODE - that is,
/k/ k c -ck ch qu que
the relationship between the sounds
of speech and their spelling
/k/ kit cat duck chameleon bouquet plaque alternatives (the graphemes). This
means avoiding the following ideas:
/d/
d -dd -ed *that letters say sounds - they say
/d/ dig puddle rained nothing, they simply prompt us to
//
f -ff ph -gh generate the sounds either aloud
or silently in our heads
f /f/ feathers cliff photograph laugh
*that there are silent letters as in
/g/ g -gg gu gh -gue kn, wr, mb, gn and so on
these are simply further graphemes
/g/ girl juggle guitar ghost catalogue which ARE CODE FOR the sounds
this is consistent, for example, with
/h/ h wh saying that the grapheme igh is
code for the /igh/ sound (we dont
/h/ hat who ? suggest that gh are silent letters
/j/ j -ge ge gi gy -dge in the grapheme igh)

/d/ jug cabbage gerbil giraffe gymnast fridge *that the end letter e of split
digraphs a-e, e-e, i-e, o-e and u-e
/l/ l -ll make the preceding vowel SAY ITS
NAME this is inconsistent with
/l/ ladder shell modern synthetic phonics teaching

/u+l/
-le -il -al -el
rooted in the alphabetic code.

To work out the code, start

/l/ kettle pencil hospital camel from a whole spoken word said
/m/ m -mm -me -mb -mn slowly. Orally segment the word
into its sounds and map those onto
/m/ map hammer welcome thumb column the graphemes in the written word.
Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 4 of 6
/n/ n -nn kn gn -ne THE SUB-SKILLS OF THE
/n/ net bonnet knot gnome engine
THREE CORE SKILLS

/ng/ -ng -n DECODING SUB-SKILLS:

Without print hear the
// gong jungle individual sounds of a word and
discern the word (= oral
/ng+k/ -nk -nc blending): hear /z/ /i/ /p/, say zip;
hear /k/ /oa/ /t/, say coat
// + /k/ ink uncle With print see the graphemes
/p/ p -pp and say the sounds to automaticity;
see s, say /s/; see oa, say /oa/; see
/p/ pan puppet ph, say /f/

/k+w/ qu -kw Use capital letter resources not

just lower case letters. Capital
/k/ + /w/ queen awkward letters ARE THE SAME CODE AS

r -rr rh
lower case letters.
/r/
//
wr ENCODING SUB-SKILLS:
rat arrow write rhinoceros Without print hear the whole
/s/ -ce cy spoken word said slowly, train the
s -ss ce ci bicycle
learner to split the word into its
constituent sounds from beginning
snake glass palace cents city
to end (= oral segmenting): zip
/s/
-se sc -st- ps /z/ /i/ /p/; coat /k/ /oa/ /t/ (with
no print, you can use any sounds)
house scissors castle pseudonym -use the left hand, palm facing to

/t/
t -tt -ed pt -bt
tally the separate sounds onto the
thumb and fingers from left to right
With print select grapheme tiles
/t/ tent letter skipped pterodactyl debt or magnetic letters, or write the
/v/ v -ve
letters, to spell the sounds identified
[Use manipulatives, such as
/v/ violin dove grapheme tiles, at the basic code

wh -u
stage for young learners as they get
/w/
/w/
w to grips with handwriting skills
then focus on handwriting to spell.]
web wheel penguin
Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 5 of 6
/k+s/ -x -ks -cks -kes -cs HANDWRITING SUB-SKILLS:
Demonstrate the correct tripod hold
for young learners say, Froggy
/k/ + /s/ fox plurals: books ducks cakes I love picnics.
legs with the log under pinch
/g+z/
-x -gs -ggs -gues
the pencil with thumb and forefinger
just above where the cone end
/g/ + /z/ exam plurals: pegs eggs catalogues slopes, make a fist and place the
middle finger beneath the pencil to
/y/ y form the tripod hold, or grip, (small
hands struggle to grip fat pencils
/j/ yawn or marker pens, use regular-sized

/z/ z -zz -s -se -ze x pencils)

Air write, finger-trace and copy-
/z/ write graphemes whilst saying the
zebra jazz fries cheese breeze xylophone
sound this is multi-sensory
/ch/ ch -tch /ch+u/ -ture linking sounds to shapes and
handwriting the shapes (e.g. say /ch/
/t/ chairs patch /t/+// picture for ch not /k/ /h/)
Mini whiteboards are suitable for
/sh/ sh ch -ti -ci -ssi quick-fire show me activities;
for handwriting practice use
// sheep chef station magician admission paper and pencil routines sitting
unvoiced /th/
th voiced /th/ th with good posture at desks, paper
slanted, spare hand holding paper
// thistle // there steady
BE VIGILANT for learners hooking
/zh/ -si -s -z g -ge their wrists around and writing
above the words on the page
// television treasure azure (blue) courgette collage ensure they write below the words.

Please note that this version of an Alphabetic Code Chart is not definitive. Further code may be discovered in both common and unusual words. The word giraffe, for
example, is common but the grapheme -ffe is rare AS CODE FOR the sound /f/. Add discovered code to the chart or to the MAIN PHONICS DISPLAY WALL.
On this chart, a grey dash indicates that the particular letter/s-sound correspondence is unlikely to begin a word.
Hollow letters alert the reader to various possible pronunciations; for example, wa could be the code for /w+a/ as in wag, but is more likely to be /w+o/ as in watch.
This is a generic alphabetic code chart highlighting the vowel sounds followed by the consonant sounds. Alphabetic Code Charts can be designed to be programme-specific
according to the order that the letter/s-sound correspondences are introduced and with specific mnemonic systems (aids to memory for the sounds and/or spellings).
Vowel sounds can be spelled with both vowel letters and consonant letters such as igh, ow, or, ough. Teachers need to make clear when they are referring to vowel or
consonant sounds, or vowel or consonant letters. For further information, see synthetic phonics guidance documents at www.phonicsinternational.com

Copyright Debbie Hepplewhite 2013 Page 6 of 6