Finding your way around the world of phonics jargon can be intimidating. And it can feel daunting for any parent to try to support their child with reading when they don’t know the terminology to use! Here are the most important phonics words and phrases and what they mean in layman’s terms. While this list is by no means exhaustive, it should help you feel more confident in your role as your emerging reader’s biggest cheerleader!
Blending
This is when we put the individual sounds in words together to form the whole word.
Ex: “t/o/p = top.
Consonant
These are all of the letters in the alphabet that are not vowels. They are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y (usually), and z.
CVC Words
These are words that follow the format consonant-vowel-consonant, like the word ‘cub.’ There are other types of words that use similar shorthand, too. There are CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, and so on.
Example: CVC – cub, rip, sat; CCVC – flip; CVCC – sand; CCVCC – slump
Digraph
This is a combination of two letters that make a single sound when put together. Digraphs can be made up of consonants (as in ‘sh’), vowels (as in ‘ea’), or one of each (as in ‘ow’).
Grapheme
A grapheme is a single written unit of sound. There are one-letter graphemes, like the sounds made by p, d, b, etc. There are also two-letter graphemes like the digraphs ‘th’ and ‘oa.’ Some graphemes are even three and four letters long, like ‘igh,’ and ‘ough.’
Letter-Sound Correspondence
This refers to the idea that for every letter of the alphabet, there is a sound that it represents. The letter correspondence for the /b/ sound is the letter b, and so on.
Phoneme
A phoneme is a single auditory unit of sound. (Graphemes are sounds we read, while phonemes are sounds we hear!)
Segmenting
Segmenting is similar to blending. Instead of blending letters together, students hear the whole word, then identify the individual parts of the word (or the segments).
Split Digraph
A split digraph happens when the two letters of a digraph are interrupted by another letter in between, but still make the same sound. For example, ‘oe’ and ‘ue’ are vowel digraphs, and they make the long /o/ and /u/ sound respectively. When they are split, as in o_e and u_e, they still make the same long sound.
Example: toe and tone, cue and cube
Trigraph
A trigraph is a combination of three letters that together made one single sound (as in ‘igh’ pr ‘ugh’)
Vowel
Vowels are all of the letters a, e, i, o, and u.
English 
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