The 44* Phonemes Following is a list of the 44 phonemes along with the letters of groups of letters that represent

those sounds. Phoneme

(speech sound)

Graphemes**
(letters or groups of letters representing the most common spellings for the individual phonemes)

Examples

Consonant Sounds: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17 18. /b/ /d/ /f/ /g/ /h/ /j/ /k/ /l/ /m/ /n/ /p/ /r/ /s/ /t/ /v/ /w/ /y/ /z/ b, bb d, dd, ed f, ph g, gg h j, g, ge, dge c, k, ck, ch, cc, que l, ll m, mm, mb n, nn, kn, gn p, pp r, rr, wr s, se, ss, c, ce, sc t, tt, ed v, ve w y, i z, zz, ze, s, se, x big, rubber dog, add, filled fish, phone go, egg hot jet, cage, barge, judge cat, kitten, duck, school, occur, antique, cheque leg, bell mad, hammer, lamb no, dinner, knee, gnome pie, apple run, marry, write sun, mouse, dress, city, ice, science top, letter, stopped vet, give wet, win, swim yes, onion zip, fizz, sneeze, laser, is, was, please, Xerox, xylophone

Source: Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002)

Phoneme
(speech sound)

Graphemes**
(letters or groups of letters representing the most common spellings for the individual phonemes)

Examples

Consonant Digraphs: 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. /th/
(not voiced)

th th ng, n sh, ss, ch, ti, ci ch, tch ge, s wh

thumb, thin, thing this, feather, then sing, monkey, sink ship, mission, chef, motion, special chip, match garage, measure, division what, when, where, why

/th/
(voiced)

/ng/ /sh/ /ch/ /zh/ /wh/

(with breath)

Short Vowel Sounds: 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ a, au e, ea i o, a, au, aw, ough u, o hat, laugh bed, bread if hot, want, haul, draw, bought up, ton

Long Vowel Sounds: 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. // // // // // a, a_e, ay, ai, ey, ei e, e_e, ea, ee, ey, ie, y i, i_e, igh, y, ie o, o_e, oa, ou, ow u, u_e, ew bacon, late, day, train, they, eight, vein me, these, beat, feet, key, chief, baby find, ride, light, fly, pie no, note, boat, soul, row human, use, few, chew

Source: Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002)

Phoneme
(speech sound)

Graphemes**
(letters or groups of letters representing the most common spellings for the individual phonemes)

Examples

Other Vowel Sounds: 36. 37. /oo/ // oo, u, oul oo, u, u_e book, put, could moon, truth, rule

Vowel Diphthongs: 38. 39. /ow/ /oy/ ow, ou, ou_e oi, oy cow, out, mouse, house coin, toy

Vowel Sounds Influenced by r: 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. /a(r)/ /(r)/ /i(r)/ /o(r)/ /u(r)/ ar air, ear, are irr, ere, eer or, ore, oor ur, ir, er, ear, or, ar car air, chair, fair, hair, bear, care mirror, here, cheer for, core, door burn, first, fern, heard, work, dollar

Source: Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002). * The number of phonemes is different in some linguistics textbooks; this is evidence of the difficulty of classifying ( Moats, 1998). ** This list does not include all possible graphemes for a given phoneme.

Source: Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002)