The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning from another.

three sounds

In some words, one letter is two sounds. The x in six is two sounds like k + s.

42

Grapheme Examples Unlike many other languages, English graphemes can consist of up to 4 letters. Here, the phoneme: an /o/ sound, is the same as the grapheme: the ‘o’ letter that represents it. This example falls into the pattern of a CVC grapheme, as the word has a vowel-consonant vowel pattern.

using ‘ph’ words? ‘f’ and ‘ph’ are homophones they are different graphemes that make the same sound, so they are easy to get confused.

Tricky words are those words which cannot be sounded out easily. Emergent readers may find them difficult to read as they have not yet learned some of the Graphemes in those words.

When reading any ‘tricky word’, the teacher should ask the reader to sound the parts of the word that they know e.g. ‘w’ in the word ‘was’ and then point to the spelling the pupil has not yet learned e.g. ‘a’ and ‘s’. The teacher should say the sound for the new spellings.

As a follow up to our article on confusing words, here are ten of the most difficult words in English.

• Literally. If you know a language purist, watch out.
• Ironic.
• Irregardless (instead of regardless)
• Whom.
• Colonel.
• Nonplussed.
• Disinterested.
• Enormity.

pretpulksteņrādītājvirziens

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis