Teaching notes and pronunciation rules

It is not necessary for the child to be specifically taught all the details that follow, but it is
necessary for the person teaching to be aware of these details:
1. Always explain the meaning of the words the child is sounding out, and check for
feedback after your explanation. Its no use the child just saying yes and you
not knowing whether youve been understood. You may as well not bother
teaching in the first place if you do not check your success or failure.
2. Repeat stilted sentences properly after the child has read them out loud, so the
child can hear how it should sound and get a sense of the rhythm of the language
and is better able to understand the meaning. It is difficult for the child in the early
stages to concentrate on both sounding and comprehension.
3. If there are two vowels together, or only one consonant between, very often the
first vowel says its name and the second vowel is not sounded. For example,
real and gate. However, if two consonants intervene the first vowel says its
sound. For example, rabbit.
4. The [k] sound has 3 written representations:
1. c before a, as in cat
c before o, as in cot
c before u, as in cut
2. k before e, as in kept
k before i as in kid
3. ck after a, e, i, o, u and usually at the end of a word e.g. sock, sack,
rock.
5. q is never used alone, it is always followed by u and then another vowel. It is
sounded [kw].
6. y has two sounds: the name of the letter i - [a] - as in my and the sound of
the letter i as in yes - [
7.

jes] or [es] [7] - and funny.

wo has four sounds: [w] as in womb, [w] as in women, [w] as in
woman, and [w] as in wonder.

8.
1. ch can begin a word, e.g. chick, or follow an n, e.g. ranch.
2. tch comes at the end of words after a, e, i, o, u. For example, hitch and
match. There are exceptions such as such, much, which, and
rich, where ch follows instead of tch. Both are pronounced [t]
9. th is sounded voiced - [] - and unvoiced - [] - as in think and this.
10. g, b, t, p, d are not prolonged sounds, but are short, almost whispered
sounds.
11. x is sounded usually as [ks] [e.g. fox], but sometimes as [kz] [e.g.
mixer], [gz] [e.g. exit [8]], and [z] [e.g. xylophone] and as its name

[eks] [e.g. x-ray]. Generally if an x follows a stressed vowel [e.g. with

exists], it has a [kz] or [gz] sound. Remember also tacks and tax sound
similar but have different meanings, point out this sort of occurrence.
12. Plural endings: an s makes an [s] sound or a [z] sound - make sure to
distinguish clearly.
13. Possessive case: explain the possessive case; Johns dog means the dog of John,
the apostrophe and the s is used as a shortening to show possessive or ownership
relationships.
The apostrophe is also used to mark a missing letter, or letters, in shortened forms.
This is especially confusing with its and its, where the form without an
apostrophe (its) is the possessive and the form with an apostrophe (its) is a
shortening for it is.
14. Teach non-phonetic words as specials. There are about 145 non-phonetic words,
which are described as such because the vowels do not behave as expected e.g.
cold, find, piece, bread.
15. Teach ing - [] - as a syllable.
16. There are some syllables that contain vowels whose sound is changed by the letter
r. They are ar, er, ir, or and ur.
er, ir, ur, usually have the same sound as ur - [] in hurt.
or usually sounds as in for - [].

ar usually sounds as in farm - [a].

In the letter combinations ai and ay, the i and the y are silent. For example,
rain and play. The first vowel is sounded following rule 3: say its name. You
should treat the y as a vowel in these situations.
In the letter combinations ee and ea, the final e or a is silent as in tree and
each. Note ea sometimes does not follow the rule whereby with two vowels
the first one says its name. For example, in the word head, the e makes its
sound not its name.
With ie and y, the e is silent and both ie and y are sounded as the name of
i, as in cried or fly.
With oa, oe, and ow, the second letters are silent. For example, loan, toe
and own.
When ce directly follows a vowel, the vowel says its name, e.g. ice, rice,
slice. When ce follows n, the vowel makes its sound, e.g. mince.
ou and ow are sounded as in out and down - [a]. If they forget, try
pinching the child to make them say ow!, and make it into a game.
oi and oy are sounded as in coin or boy - [].
There are some letters and combinations of letters that are silent such as in sigh,
high, daughter, and usually any gh at the end of a word. There is also a
silent g before n as in gnaw, but then there is also the hard g as in ghost
with a silent h. The k is silent in knot and knight. In doubt the b is

silent and in write the w is silent. You need to be aware of these and point
them out to the child.
The combination oo offers two different sounds:
1.
2.

[u] as in moon, soon, too, spoon, goose, food.

[] as in look, took, cook.

17. ew and ue are spelling variations of sounds already taught. Both are
pronounced the same as oo in moon and soon - [u]. For example, few
and due. Fuel is an exception - it is pronounced with an extra schwa sound:

[ful].
18. Note the [z] sound of se in please, cheese, nose.
19. Note the [ f ] sound of ph in elephant, telephone, enough.
20. There is a generalisation for two syllable words ending in le: if the last syllable
ends in le, the consonant proceedingle usually of that last syllable. For
example it is tric-kle, not trick-le.
21. The combinations tion and sion are sounded [n], as in station and
impression.
22. Teach the child to sound out long words by breaking them into syllables. If
necessary cover the other syllables with your finger as the child works along the
word.