How to sound out a word
Helping Kids Sound Out Words (+ FREE Downloads!)
by Marie Rippel
When you read, you probably don’t spend much time decoding the individual words. You just read, and as you get to each word, you instantly recognize it. But beginning readers don’t have that kind of instant recall yet, so it is important to teach them how to sound out words.
What Does “Sounding Out Words” Mean?
When you sound out a word, you say each sound in the word slowly (s…i…t), and then say the sounds together more quickly (sit). The technical term for this process is blending because sounds are blended together to form a word. Here’s a quick demo:
Our free Blending Procedure PDF has complete step-by-step instructions for both one-syllable and multisyllabic words.
Why Is Sounding Out (or Blending) Important?
When a child can say the sounds of the letters in the order in which they appear, and can then blend those sounds into a recognizable word, she is able to read thousands of phonetically regular words.
Because it unlocks so many words, blending is an important step toward the goal of reading comprehension. In fact, research shows that learning to sound out words has a powerful effect on reading comprehension.1
What Kids Should Know Before Sounding Out Words
Before you attempt to teach your child to sound out words, check to see if he is ready. Here’s a free Reading Readiness Checklist for you to download. If you discover that your child isn’t quite ready for reading instruction, you can use the All About Reading Pre-reading program to prepare.
After you’ve used the checklist to ensure that your child is ready to learn to read, it’s time to teach the letter-sound correspondences of several letters of the alphabet.
The letters M, S, P, and A are a good place to start because the sounds are easy to pronounce and several interesting words can be formed right away.
Before we get into the four easy steps for teaching blending, let’s discuss a problem that many beginning readers encounter. Recognizing this problem will help you better understand the steps for blending.
Short-term Memory Issues Can Affect Blending
When kids first learn how to decode three-letter words, they have to juggle several cognitive processes simultaneously:
- They must recognize the letters.
- They must retrieve the sounds of those letters.
- They must hold all three sounds in the memory while they sound out the word.
There is a lot going on in their brains! In fact, it is very common for beginning readers to have difficulty with standard blending procedures. Just about anyone who has taught blending has encountered a situation like this:
What just happened there? Here’s the problem: by the time the child got to the third letter, he had forgotten the sounds of the first two letters, and then had to resort to guessing.
But it’s not that kids can’t remember three things in a row—it’s just that there are too many competing processes going on in their heads at once.
It’s easy to understand the problem. But what can we do to help?
“Cumulative Blending” Solves This Problem
Cumulative blending is quite simple. Start by building a phonetically regular word with the Letter Tiles app or physical letter tiles and then follow the steps below. We’ll demonstrate with the word map.
- Touch one letter at a time and say the sound of each letter.
- Go back to the beginning of the word and blend the first two sounds together.
- Start over at the beginning of the word. Slide your finger under the letters and blend all three sounds together.
- Finally, say the word at a normal pace, as we do when we speak.
This is called cumulative blending because there are successive additions of the letter sounds. First we blend the first two sounds (/mă/). Then we start at the beginning of the word again, this time blending all three sounds (/măp/). If there were more sounds in the word, as in split, we’d start at the beginning of the word for each successive addition:
/sp/
/spl/
/splĭ/
/splĭt/
Cumulative blending provides the extra support, or “scaffolding,” that beginning readers need. When you feel your student is ready, he can try blending all three letters without this additional step, but don’t try to withdraw the support too soon. These steps and the support they provide help memory issues immensely.
Download a Free Blending Lesson
Would you like to see how we teach blending in the All About Reading program? Download this sample lesson!
This is the first lesson in AAR Level 1.
The blending activities start on page 4 of the PDF.
The All About Reading program walks you through blending and all the skills your student needs to become a strong reader. The program is multisensory, motivating, and complete. And if you ever need a helping hand, we’re here for you.
What’s your take on teaching kids to sound out words? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
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1 University of Royal Holloway London. (2017, April 20). Phonics works: Sounding out words is best way to teach reading, study suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 1, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com
How to Sound Out Words
(from The Teacher’s Guide: Third Grade to Adult Edition)
If a student encounters a word that he does not know how to decode, he must sound out the word. Sounding out a word refers to the process of decoding a word by identifying the sounds of each individual letter in the word and then blending those sounds together.
A student sounds out a word when he does not know the identity of the word. There is a specific sequence of steps to follow when using this sounding-out procedure. When a student is sounding out a word, have him perform the following steps, and insist that this sequence of activities be systematically followed.
Procedure To Follow When Sounding Out an Unknown Word:
Step One: Always begin by identifying the vowel sound.
Step Two: After accurately identifying the vowel sound, identify the consonant sound that immediately follows the vowel sound.
Step Three: Blend together the vowel sound with the following consonant sound.
Step Four: If two consonants follow the vowel and do not join to together to form a consonant team, isolate the vowel sound and the first consonant that follows the vowel. Blend those two sounds together. Next isolate the sound of the second consonant following the vowel.
Blend the sound of the vowel and the first consonant with the sound of the second consonant.
Step Five: After the vowel sound and all consonant sounds found after the vowel have been blended together, have the student identify the sound of the consonant letter that comes immediately before the vowel.
Step Six: Blend together the consonant sound with the sound of the vowel and the consonant letter or letters that come after the vowel.
Step Seven: If two or three consonant letters come before the vowel and do not join together to form a team, start with the consonant closest to the vowel. Identify that consonant’s sound and blend it with the sound of the vowel and the consonant letters that follow the vowel. Next isolate the sound of the next adjacent consonant letter. Blend that letter’s sound with the sound of the rest of the word that has already been decoded. If a third consonant occurs before the vowel, isolate that letter’s sound last and then blend its sound with the rest of the word.
Teach students always to begin sounding out one-syllable words by identifying the sound of the vowel within the syllable first.
Researchers have discovered that syllables can be subdivided into two component parts. Onsets are that part of the syllable that consist of whatever consonants occur before the vowel; rhymes are that part of the syllable containing the vowel and whatever consonants follow the vowel. Researchers have further identified the fact that students are more easily able to decode a word by being taught to isolate the onsets and rhymes within words. Thus by teaching students to start the decoding process by isolating the sound of the vowel and any subsequent consonants which follow the vowel, you are in effect teaching students to subdivide a syllable into its most basic component parts.
When sounding out a word, your student is being asked to perform two tasks simultaneously: 1) to associate a specific sound with a specific letter and 2) to blend smoothly one sound to another.
The Teacher’s Guide: Third Grade to Adult EditionEither of these two skills can individually be difficult for some. Blending for someone to whom this concept is foreign can be particularly challenging. However with persistence your student will learn to perform both of these skills automatically.
Continue to next page.
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9 insidious words that you have the right to pronounce differently
Remembering all the complex stresses is difficult, but real. And to make it at least a little easier for you and not want to burn the stress dictionary from hopelessness - here are the few words that can (!) be pronounced differently. And no one will accuse you of monstrous illiteracy. But it is not exactly.
Radio and TV announcers have their own orthoepic dictionary - "Russian word stress" edited by Maya Zarva. You can check it online on the website gramota.ru. Look at the column "Russian word stress".
Correct: tv O horn and creation O
The most useful product, especially for those who suffer from calcium deficiency, and even with a double emphasis. "Cottage cheese" has at least two of them: cottage cheese and cottage cheese. Surely there will be defenders of both the first and the second, but there is no need to argue: both options for stress are equal. And to call any of them wrong is wrong. Some dictionaries still insist on stressing the last syllable “tvog”, but Vladimir Pakhomov, editor-in-chief of the indispensable Gramota.ru, assures that variants in Russian are normal. Also, "cottage cheese" does not have a plural, don't even try to form it. And in a related adjective, the stress will be one - "curd". There are no options here.
Correct: pizzas and me and pizzas E ria
We are moving from cottage cheese to less healthy (but very tasty). It's easy with pizza. It is not very clear where they eat it: in a pizzeria or in a pizzeria? Although we have been eating pizza for a relatively long time, the borrowed word "pizzeria" still takes root, so most dictionaries again call the options equivalent.
That is, everyone can choose an option to their liking (or taste). If you want to speak in the Italian manner, then put the emphasis on “pizzeria”, and if you want, like announcers, then you need to say “pizzeria”.
Correct: bases AND lika and basil AND ka
Travelers, this is for you. Surely you shyly lowered your eyes when you didn’t know how to pronounce this word correctly in the guide (it’s good if you read to yourself - it’s easier). A basilica is an elongated rectangular building divided inside by pillars or columns. Most often built in Antiquity or the Middle Ages. With the lexical meaning finished, let's move on to stress. The word comes from the Latin basilica. And it, in turn, is from the Greek basilikos. So - each of these words had its own stress, which was preserved in the Russian language. Previously, the option "basil" was the only correct one, but now most dictionaries give two equal options: basil and basil. Radio and TV journalists are encouraged to speak in the old fashioned way.
Well, if you are not up to basil, but just need to say about the herb (seasoning) - the emphasis on the last syllable is basil.
Correct: m A marketing and branding E ting
Now a bit of a surprise for the marketing people. In a professional environment, they say "marketing", since the word comes from the English "market". And for some reason, linguists prefer the option with an accent in the middle of the word - "marketing". Dictionaries most often give these options as equals.
Correct: kulin A ria and cookery I i
Let's not bore you and say right away that the name of the place where you buy cakes and buns for yourself can be pronounced differently. According to the old norm, the stress was on the third syllable: culinaria (from Latin culinarius - "kitchen"). Now "culinaria" in some orthoepic dictionaries is marked as obsolete. And in the dictionary "Russian verbal stress" preference is given to the stress on the letter "and", that is, "cooking".
In general, in oral speech, if you are not an announcer, the choice is yours: you can speak cooking and cooking. But it is recommended to put the emphasis on "and": go to cooking.
Correct: to be on duty on Wednesdays A m or on Wed E living quarters
Yes, you yourself know everything about the environment. But to remind - it will not be superfluous. In general, they say, it is useful to repeat. If we mean the day of the week (most likely it is), we put the stress on the last syllable "Wednesday". And this is the only way, even if some dictionaries add that in colloquial speech one can also speak on "environments". No you can not. But it is possible if we mean the habitat or environment. Then already - on Wednesdays.
Correct: fen O men and fen E n
Be phenomenal and finally remember the correct pronunciation of this word. But here, as they say, everything is complicated. There are words that you just need to learn by heart.
And the "phenomenon" is one of them. Some dictionaries share the use of the word: "phenomenon" is an exclusively scientific term, and when we talk about something extraordinary or about some person with outstanding abilities, talents, then the options can be different - phenomenal and phenomenon. But the preferred option, so that no one quarrels, is with an emphasis on the second syllable, regardless of the meaning.
Correct: at the same time E at the same time and at the same time E exactly
In the Russian word stress dictionary, the correct options are considered to be “at the same time”. The same options are given by the old dictionaries of Dahl and Dolopchev. But already the modern Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language and the Dictionary of Difficulties of the Russian Language call two forms of pronunciation acceptable - simultaneously. By the way, Yevgeny Grishkovets wrote about double stress in this word. The play is called “simultaneously”.
Correct: character A character and character E character
Again, the difference in meanings, which determines which syllable is stressed. Characteristic means typical, characteristic of someone or something: characteristic speech, gait, characteristic face. And “characteristic” is an adjective that describes a character (wayward, stubborn, heavy) or is used in conversation about performing arts. For example: character actress, role, character person.
how to read and pronounce correctly
Even if you have just started learning English, you probably already know that a word is not always pronounced the way it is written. But it is the correct pronunciation that will bring you as close as possible to the advanced level and will help you not only communicate freely, but also easily understand people with different accents.
For those who do not remember by heart all the rules of reading in English, there is a great alternative - transcription.
However, not everyone can correctly decipher this mysterious, at first glance, character set. In fact, everything is quite easy, and today we will prove it.
In this article we will understand how to read transcription in English correctly and why you need to study reading English transcription at all.
Sounds in English
Let's start with the fact that despite the fact that there are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, there are much more sounds - 44. Some of them are difficult for foreigners because of the peculiarities of the speech apparatus, and simply out of habit. Sometimes more active articulation and long training are required to pronounce complex sounds without errors.
Each of the sounds in the English language has its own graphic expression and designation in phonetic transcription. Without it, it is not always possible to understand exactly how a word is pronounced: a syllable closed there or open, how long a vowel lasts and which consonants are not pronounced.
Therefore, reading transcription in English is a skill that needs to be developed in parallel with learning words.
An open syllable is one that ends in a vowel (take, nose, cute), while a closed syllable, the most common in English, ends in one or more consonants, and the vowel in it will be read short (hat, red, pin).
In addition to these two basic variations, there are many pronunciation rules, such as when the letter r follows a vowel, or the syllables re and le.
Vowels, in turn, are divided into: single, diphthongs (a combination of two vowels) and triphthongs (a combination of three vowels). In transcription, they are also denoted differently.
The number of sounds in a word does not always coincide with the number of letters. So, an interesting example is the word daughter (daughter), the transcription of which looks like [ˈdɔ: tə] and consists of four sounds.
One of the most difficult sounds for us is the combination th, which is denoted phonetically as [ð].
So how do you read English transcription? Let's figure it out together.
Transcription
The first thing you need to know is that transcription is written in square brackets [] as in the examples above. Second: the same word can have a different transcription depending on the pronunciation (British or American).
There are two types of stress in English transcription: primary and secondary.
‘ is the main stress. It is placed before the stressed vowel in whatever place of the word it is.
, is a secondary stress. It is placed before a vowel in long words where necessary.
There is another important sign that will indicate the length of the vowel sound. It can be placed either in the middle or at the end of a word:
: - vowel length
Signs in transcription can repeat the English letters themselves, or they can be the very “squiggles” that scare beginners so much. Below we will give examples of sounds and phonetic signs with a rough description of how they will sound, so that you can understand how to read the transcription in English.
These consonants are similar to Russian ones and come to us more or less easily:
- [f] - f (energetic, lightly bite the lower lip) - forest
- [v] - in (lightly bite the lower lip) - vocal
- [s] - with (muffled sound, press not the tip of the tongue, but a little more of it) - sofa
- [z] - h (similarly, press the tongue not with the tip, but with the “back”) - zone
- [h] - x (pronounce on a light exhalation) - hall
- [p] - p (sharp exhalation with aspiration) - pen
- [b] - b (sharp exhalation with aspiration) - ball
- [d] - d (put the tip of the tongue just behind the front teeth, on the tubercles of the gums) - drink
- [k] - to (sharp exhalation with aspiration) - kite
- [g] - g (as in Russian, but not as energetic) - green
- [m] - m (as in Russian) - mother
- [n] - n (as in Russian) - note
- [l] - l (as in Russian, but a little softer) - let
- [r] - p (softer sound, tip of tongue on gum bumps) - rose
- [t] - t (softer, the tip of the tongue is not to the teeth, but to the tubercles of the gums above them) - tree
- [w] - in (lips folded into a tube and sharply unclenched) - what
Consonant sounds resembling combinations of Russian letters:
- [ʃ] - sh (something in between sh and sh, but not whistling) - ship
- [ʒ] - f (soft, almost live, but not whistling) - pleasure
- [tʃ] - tch (soft combination, pronounced together) - catch
- [dʒ] - j (soft, almost jj, pronounced as a single sound) - jump
- [j] - yi (something in between these letters) - yet
Consonants not found in Russian:
- [θ] - with (as if "blow" on the tip of the tongue between the teeth) - thin
- [ð] - z (again blow on the tip of the tongue between the teeth, pronouncing the Russian letter "z")
- [ŋ] - n (pronounced "on the nose") - long
Russian-like vowels:
- [ʌ] - a (short and sonorous) - sun
- [ɑː] - a (deep and long sound, as if showing the throat to the doctor) - car
- [i] - and (short sound, something between "and" and "s") - fit
- [i:] - and (long sound and) - sea
- [u] - y (pronounced a little more relaxed) - cook
- [u:] - y (long light "y") - true
- [e] - e (soft sound, something between "e" and "e") - get
- [ə] - e (weak, something in between "e" and "a") - sister
- [ɔː] - o (long sound, as if you are surprised by something) - more
- [ɒ] - o (something between "o" and "a") - hot
Vowels not found in Russian:
- [ɜː] - yo (as if you were ready to say "yo", but say "o") - her
- [æ] - ae (pronounce, relaxing the lower jaw and slightly stretching the lips) - cat
Diphthongs:
- [aɪ] - ai (with emphasis on "a" and at the end it is "and", not "th") - like
- [au] - ау (short, with emphasis on "a") - cow
- [ɪə] - ie (with emphasis on "and") - hear
- [eɪ] - ei (pronounced short, with emphasis on "e") - take
- [eə] - ea (with emphasis on "e") - hair
- [əu] - ow (short, with an emphasis on "o", and "y" practically does not sound) - go
- [uə] - ue (softly, with emphasis on "u") - cure
- [ɔɪ] - oi (pronounced short, with an emphasis on "o") - boy
And finally, there are triple combinations of sounds:
- [aɪə] - aie (with emphasis on "a", quickly and smoothly) - fire
- [auə] - aue (with accent on "a", quickly and smoothly) - our
Tricky transcription and compound words
Always check the transcription of words you don't understand.
For example, it would seem that it can be difficult to pronounce such a simple preposition of? But at the end, not “f”, but “v” is pronounced, and its transcription looks like [ɔv].
But the word halt (stop) in the British version of the transcription will be [hɒlt], and in the American version - [hɑːlt]. In both cases, "o" is pronounced, but not "a" in the German manner.
Often, consonants are omitted altogether in pronunciation. For example, in the word doubt (doubt), the letter “b” is not pronounced, and the transcription in both versions is as follows: [daʊt]. Similarly, in the word comb (comb), there will be no “b” at the end, although the temptation to pronounce it is very great. His transcription is as follows: [kəʊm].
As for long vowels, they are not always pronounced as you think, regardless of the fact that the vowel in the word is double. Good examples of such catchwords are good [ɡʊd] (good), book [bʊk] (book), and look [lʊk] (look).
Always pay attention to where the accent is in the transcription.
Here is an interesting example: the word valet (valet, servant). In the Russian manner, we want to pronounce it with an accent on "e", but we definitely should not do this, because according to its English transcription [ˈvæleɪ], the stress is placed on the first vowel "a".
Where would you place the stress in the word applicable? The correct answer is the second syllable (the vowel "and"), because its transcription looks like [əˈplɪkəbəl].
By the way, even native speakers themselves have problems with pronunciation. So, according to the study, the British are most difficult to give words in which the letters m and n, t and s, and the combination th stand next to each other.
One of the most popular British newspapers, The Daily Telegraph polled people in the UK and identified the 20 most difficult words to pronounce in English. Interestingly, one of these words is the very “pronunciation” or pronunciation, which is not even easy to write. We give examples of all twenty below with transcription:
- Phenomenon [fəˈnɒmɪnən] - phenomenon
- Anaesthetist [əˈniːsθətɪst] - anesthesiologist
- Remuneration [rɪˌmjuːnərˈeɪʃən] - reward
- Statistics [stəˈtɪstɪks] - statistics
- Ethnicity [eθˈnɪsɪt̬i] - ethnicity
- Philosophical [ˌfɪləˈsɒfɪkəl] - philosophical
- Provocatively [prəˈvɒkətɪvlɪ] - defiantly
- Anonymous [əˈnɒnɪməs] - anonymous
- Thesaurus [θɪˈsɔːrəs] - thesaurus
- Aluminum [ˌæljəˈmɪniəm] - aluminum
- Regularly [ˈreɡjələli] - regularly
- February [ˈfebruəri]
- Particularly [pəˈtɪkjələli] - especially
- Hereditary [hɪˈredɪtəri] - hereditary
- Prioritising [praɪˈɒrɪtaɪzɪŋ]
- pronunciation [prəˌnʌnsiˈeɪʃən] pronunciation
- Prejudice [ˈpredʒədɪs] - prejudice
- Facilitate [fəˈsɪlɪteɪt] - facilitate
- Hospitable [hɒsˈpɪtəbəl] - hospitable
- Onomatopoeia [ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiːə] - onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia
Typical mistakes in pronunciation
If the British themselves have difficulty pronouncing sounds, then what about all those who are just starting to learn English? And what to hide, even those who have been studying and practicing the language for many years may pronounce sounds incorrectly or have problems with certain combinations of letters.
This is quite normal, and the main thing here is regular practice and training.
Interestingly, people from different countries have different problems with English sounds. This is how the “typical accent” is formed, by which foreigners can easily determine where you come from. Even if you do not want to tell them this, they will understand what country you come from. Let's see what typical mistakes are found in the speech of Russians, so that we not only know how to read the transcription in English, but also be able to do it like a native.
So, Russians most often:
- Mute voiced consonants at the end of a word
If the word bed is incorrectly pronounced, it can easily turn into bat (bat). Therefore, pronounce the sounds to the end and do not eat the endings.
- Pronounce short and long vowels the same way
If you do not pay attention to how long the vowel sound is pronounced, then you can easily get a ship from a sheep (sheep).
- Pronounce [w] and [v] like the Russian sound “v”
The main problem is that in our language there is only one such sound, and in English it has several pronunciations.
- Pronounce [r] like Russian “r”
This English sound is not as loud and sharp as ours. Practice not "croaking" when you say the word car.
- Pronounce [ŋ] like Russian “n”
Learning how to say this sound “on the nose” can be quite difficult, but once you understand how to do it correctly, you will quickly get used to it and rebuild your speech apparatus.
- Pronounce [h] like Russian “х”
In fact, this sound is a light exhalation, which should be almost inaudible, and we pronounce it clearly and distinctly out of habit.
- Pronounce [p] like Russian “p”
In English, this sound is clearer and sharper. Say it like you're blowing out a candle on a cake. The situation is similar with the sound [t].
