General Phonics Rules by Literacy Tutor

I was a literacy tutor for adults for twelve plus years and I'll be sharing some some of my tips for both literacy tutors and students. May you find something helpful and useful here.

Literacy and phonics go together. Although many words cannot be decoded using phonics alone, most words can.

Knowing common sight words lays a great foundation and should be included in any literacy program.

Knowing common rules for letter sounds and common letter patterns is a good basis for sounding out new words.

Most letters only represent one sound. Some letters represent two or more sounds. For example, the letter X represents four sounds. Sometimes a letter is actually silent, or changes the sound it represents when it's combined with different letters. The letter C represents the hard sound in the word car, and the soft sound in the word cent. Here is some basic info to help you out.

It's okay to start with little words.

Small words, such as cat, may be considered baby words by some people. However, by understanding that the letters CA in cat represent the same sound that starts the word Cathy can be a big help in sounding out the word Cathy.

Also knowing that the letter C, when immediately followed by the letter A in the same syllable, will represent the same sound that the letter K represents, is an extra plus.

Whereas the letter C immediately followed by the letter I in the same syllable, as in city, represents the same sound as the letter S does in the word silly.

Any size word is made up of common letter combinations. Multiple letter groups added together make bigger words, called multi-syllable words.

Understanding and recognizing smaller letter patterns can be helpful in decoding and sounding out larger multi-syllable words.

Some basics on vowels and syllables and when W and Y act like vowels:

There are five letters in the English language that are always vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. Vowels can be long, which means that they say their name; be short and represent a more breathy sound; or they can be paired with other vowels to represent a new sound.

The letters W and Y can also act like vowels depending on the word that they are in, and their location in the word. Y acts like a silent E in the word play; like a long E, as in the word silly; and as a long I, as in the word byte. W acts like a silent E, as in the word grow.

In the English language, the majority of syllables, at least 99.9% of them, have a vowel in them. One exception that I know of is the word rhythm, in which there are two syllables and only one vowel.

Other than the word rhythm, there will normally be at least one vowel in each syllable and up to three. Your jaw will drop with the voicing of each new syllable. (Place your hand under your chin and say a word. How many times did your jaw lower? That will tell you how many syllables are in that word.)

Some Basics on Consonants:

There are 19 letters that are always consonants, B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X, and Z. There are 21 when counting the letters W and Y, which sometimes act like consonants and sometimes act like vowels.

Most consonants are usually known for a specific sound: B, D, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, T, V, and Z, with only a few exceptions.

Three consonants can also represent a hard or soft sound; they are C, G, and S. The C can be hard as in the word cat or soft as in the word city. The G can represent its hard sound as in the word go, or its' soft sound as in the word gel. The S can represent its hard sound as in the word seal, or its soft sound as in the word rise, in which the S sounds like the Z sound. See more below under General Spelling/Phonics Rules.

The X represents four sounds. X sometimes represents the Z sound as in xylophone, says its name as in x-ray, sounds like the K sound as in tuxedo, or the CKS sound as in fox.

B, K, and W are also sometimes silent, like in the words: climb, knew, and wrap.

Alphabet Sounds:

Here are the basic consonant and short vowel sounds. Please note that some of the consonant sounds here include a short vowel sound after the consonant sound. As best you can, leave the vowel sound off when making the consonant sound by itself. The vowel sound will change depending on the actual vowel that follows the consonant in a word. For example, the vowel sound in the word cup sounds different than in the word cap. But they both start with the sound of /k/.

I do think that it is easier to learn phonics when you have something or someone to listen to as the various sounds are given when the letter is being shown.

If you are a tutor, or a literacy student who already knows quite a bit of the basics, then I recommend The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns, to use as a reference book. Any letter and or letter pattern can be looked up alphabetically, and examples and rules are given for each one.

Cheryl Paton

Related articles:
Phonics Rules

General Spelling and Phonics Rules

First off, all the spelling and phonics rules are 'usually' true. There can be exceptions. The rules may also only apply to small words and/or individual syllables. Remember that small words and/or syllables are put together to make longer, multi-syllable words.

Short Vowels - A single vowel followed by a single consonant is usually short, as in bag.

Silent E or Long Vowels - A single vowel followed by a single consonant and the vowel E, is usually long, as in cake.

Two vowels together - When two vowels are between two consonants, the first vowel is usually long and the second vowel silent, as in boat.

Silent B - The letter B is silent when it is at the end of the word and following the letter m, as in crumb, pronounced crum with a short U. Note that the sound for B is heard in the word crumble, and that the letter B actually starts the syllable BLE at the end of the word.

Hard C Sound - C represent the same sound that the letter K does, sound when it is followed by the vowels A, O, or U, as in cat, cob, and cut.

Soft C Sound - C represents the same sound that the Hard S does when it is followed by the vowels E, I, or Y, as in cent, city, and cyan.

Hard G Sound - G represents its hard sound when it is followed by the vowels A, O, or U, as in gap, got, and gum. It can sometimes represent its hard sound when it is followed by E or I, as in get and give.

Soft G Sound - G usually represents its soft sound (sounds like a J) when it is followed by E, I, and Y, as in gem, gibe, and gym.

Silent K - The letter K is silent when it is paired with and precedes the letter N in a word or syllable, as in knee.

Hard S - S represents its hard sound when it is at the beginning of a word and not followed by H, as in seal.

Soft S - S usually represents its soft sound, sounds like the Z in haze, when it comes at the end of a word or syllable and when it comes between two vowels, as in has and praise. Some common exceptions to S on the end of the word are bus and this.

Silent W - The letter W is silent when it is paired with and precedes the letter R, is in write.

W is a crossover letter. - W can also act like a silent e when it follows a vowel as in grow.

X represents four sounds. - X says its name in the word x-ray. The sound of X sounds like a Z in the beginning of other words, as in xylophone. The sound of X at the end of most syllables and words sounds like the sound of CKS, as in fox. Now say the word docks. X also represents the sound of K as in the word tuxedo, pronounced tuk-see-doe, with a short u, long e, and long o.

Y is a crossover letter. - Y is a consonant when it is at the beginning of a word or syllable, as in yellow; but acts like a vowel when it's in the middle or at the end of a word or syllable as in symbol and ably.

Here is a video that goes over the various sounds that different letters represent. It goes over the letters that represent single sounds, as well as letters that represent multiple sounds. There are also lessons to help practice.

Sometimes a letter pattern will also represent different sounds. Such as EA. The E in the word lead is long; it says it name and the A is silent. Lead rhymes with seed. The E in the word bread is short; bread rhymes with bed.

This is not to overwhelm you, but just to let you know that sometimes you also might need to use context clues to help you decipher a new word until you become familiar with that particular word. It's good to have a reference book or notes to help you as you are learning.

For a book that goes over various spelling patterns and also has lesson plans, then I recommend The Spelling Teacher's Lesson a Day book. It features lessons on homophones (words that sound alike), silent letters, contractions, prefixes, and more. It can be used by teachers in classrooms, for homeschooling, for ESL students, tutors, and parents. It has 256 pages.



The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns lists various common letter patterns, along with common spelling rules, alphabetically. It is a reference book to help reinforce the student's learning, and can also be used as a guide for what to cover for tutors. It has 104 pages.



Take it a step at a time.
Letters and letter patterns make up words.
The letters include vowels and consonants.
Vowels can be long, say their name, or short.
Phonics are the sounds that the letters represent.
Longer words are made up of syllables.
Understanding phonics helps the reader to decipher both short and long words.

Read more General Phonics Rules here.

Cheryl Paton

Reference book for teaching phonics to adults

Teaching phonics to adults is different, in most cases, than teaching phonics to children. Adults, for the most part, already have a wide vocabulary and know how to say what they want. Some may also have a great recognition of numerous sight words, and others, not so much.

From my own experience of working with adult literacy students, adults who need and want to improve their literacy skills, usually also need to improve their decoding skills. They need help in learning letter patterns, and recognizing them, so that they can decode words on their own. Sometimes context isn't enough to help the learner figure out a new word; sometimes words are shown without any context.

Helping learners to recognize letter patterns can help them decode words by letter pattern recognition.

That is where The Phonics Guide: A Guide to Reading and Spelling Patterns, comes in to play, or any other resource to which they can refer.

In The Phonics Guide, various common spelling patterns and letter combinations are listed alphabetically, enabling the student to more easily find a specific letter pattern, blend, etc., once they know the alphabet.

This guide can be used by both tutors and students. Tutors can refer to various letters patterns and general rules, to help formulate their lesson plans. Students can use this book to help them see examples, and to reinforce the patterns and common spelling rules that they are learning.

Below is a sample page:

Tutors will have examples at their fingertips to help explain the current letter pattern that they are teaching.

Learners will see examples of common letter patterns along with some illustrations to help them remember the sound that a particular pattern represents. They will be able to look up common letter patterns, i.e. blends, alphabetically. It's a great resource for students to use in between lessons.

It gives them answers to questions that they may be asking, such as, When does the letter Y sound like I? The instructor can easily answers these questions during a lesson, and the guide helps to reinforce it when the students need backup learning in between the lessons. It gives the students another aid in becoming independent readers and learners.

The Phonics Guide by Cheryl Paton is easily ordered on Amazon.

Cheryl Paton

Cheryl Paton earns income from qualified purchases made through the links on this page. The above text links go to Amazon.