In the English language there are 44 phonemes. Phonemes are individual sounds, such as, “i” or “ee”, and when you put different phonemes together, they create words.

The 44 phonemes are made up of consonants and vowels, as you have seen in the alphabet, but digraphs are also involved. Digraphs are when two letters are used to represent a single phoneme, or sound. An example would be, “ph” like in the word “phone”. There are 26 digraphs in English.

Lets take a look at the phonemes below. Show this to  your children and see how many they know!

S strawberry	a apple	t tractor	i igloo	p pen	n nail
c,k cat	e egg	h heart	r rabbit	m mountain	d dog
g grapes	o octopus	u umbrella	l lolly	f fish	b ball
ai rain	j jigsaw	oa boat	ie field	ee tree	or fork
z zebra	w whale	ng ring	v violin	oo book	oo boots
y yellow	x axe	ch chair	sh shadow	th the	th theatre
qu queen	ou sound	oi soil	ue tissue	er jumper	ar star

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To help children learn these sounds, it is useful to place a picture with the phoneme so it gives them something to recognise. You could also include an action to match each sound, as an alternative.