All 44 Phonics Sounds in English: A Complete Reference Guide

The English language contains 44 distinct sounds, known as phonemes. These are the building blocks of every word your child will read and write. Whether you are a parent supporting your child at home or a teacher planning phonics lessons, having a clear and complete phonic sounds list is an essential reference.

This guide covers all 44 phonics sounds in English, organised by the phase in which they are typically taught. You will find each sound alongside its grapheme (how it is written) and example words to help with recognition and practice.

If you are new to phonics, you may want to start with our guide on what phonics is and why it matters before diving into this reference.

What Are Phonemes?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word. For instance, the words “cat” and “bat” differ by just one phoneme – the initial sound. Swap /c/ for /b/ and the meaning changes entirely.

English has approximately 44 phonemes: around 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds. This may seem surprising when you consider that the alphabet has only 26 letters. The mismatch exists because many sounds in English are represented by combinations of letters rather than a single letter.

A grapheme is the written representation of a phoneme. It can be a single letter (such as s for /s/) or a group of letters (such as sh for /sh/ or igh for /igh/). Understanding the relationship between phonemes and graphemes is at the heart of phonics teaching.

Here are the key terms you will encounter throughout this guide:

• Phoneme – a single unit of sound (written between forward slashes, e.g. /s/)
• Grapheme – the letter or letters that represent a phoneme in writing
• Digraph – two letters that make one sound (e.g. sh, ee, ai)
• Trigraph – three letters that make one sound (e.g. igh, ear, air)
• Split digraph – two letters that make one sound but are separated by a consonant (e.g. a-e in “cake”)

When children learn phonics, they learn to match each phoneme to its grapheme – and this is what enables them to decode (read) and encode (spell) words independently.

How Phonics Sounds Are Organised

In England, the phonic sounds of letters and letter combinations are taught using a structured, phased approach. The most widely used framework is Letters and Sounds, which organises the 44 phonemes into phases:

• Phase 1 focuses on developing listening skills and an awareness of sounds in the environment. No letter-sound correspondences are formally taught.
• Phase 2 introduces the first set of letter sounds – 19 of the most common phonemes – along with blending and segmenting skills.
• Phase 3 completes the phoneme set by teaching the remaining sounds, including consonant digraphs, vowel digraphs, and trigraphs.
• Phase 4 does not introduce new phonemes. Instead, children practise blending and segmenting words with adjacent consonants (consonant clusters), such as “st” in “stop” or “nd” in “band”.
• Phase 5 introduces alternative spellings for phonemes already learned. Children discover that the same sound can be written in multiple ways (e.g. the /ai/ sound can be spelled ai, ay, or a-e).

This structured progression ensures children build their knowledge systematically, starting with the most frequent sounds and moving towards more complex patterns. The tables below follow this phase structure so you can see exactly what is taught and when.

For a detailed look at how these sounds are assessed, see our Phonics Screening Check guide.

Phase 2 Sounds

Phase 2 is where formal phonics teaching begins, usually in Reception (ages 4–5). Children learn 19 letter sounds, introduced in a carefully chosen order that allows them to start blending words almost immediately. The very first sounds taught – /s/, /a/, /t/, /p/ – can be combined to read simple words like “sat”, “tap”, and “pat”.

By the end of Phase 2, children can read and spell simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as “sit”, “man”, “dog”, and “cup”. They also begin to read a small number of common exception words (also called tricky words), such as “the”, “to”, “I”, and “no”.

Phase 3 Sounds

Phase 3 builds on the foundation laid in Phase 2 by introducing digraphs and trigraphs. This is where children learn that two or three letters can work together to represent a single sound. Phase 3 is typically taught in Reception and into the first term of Year 1.

Consonant Digraphs

These are pairs of consonant letters that combine to produce one sound. Note that th represents two different phonemes – one unvoiced (as in “thin”) and one voiced (as in “this”).

Vowel Digraphs and Trigraphs

Vowel digraphs and trigraphs represent the wide range of vowel sounds in English. These are often the sounds that children find most challenging, as vowel sounds have more variation than consonant sounds.

By the end of Phase 3, children have been introduced to all 44 phonemes. They can read and write a much wider range of words and will be gaining confidence with blending longer words that include digraphs and trigraphs.

To see how these sounds are marked up in reading activities, take a look at our guide to sound buttons in phonics.

Phase 5 Sounds: Alternative Spellings

Phase 5 is typically taught in Year 1 and is the phase assessed in the Phonics Screening Check. In this phase, children learn that many phonemes can be spelled in more than one way. They also encounter new graphemes for sounds they already know.

This is a critical step in reading development. When a child sees the word “play”, they need to recognise that ay makes the same /ai/ sound they first learned with the grapheme ai in Phase 3.

Alternative Vowel Spellings

The table below shows the Phase 3 spelling alongside the alternative spellings introduced in Phase 5.

Split Digraphs

Split digraphs are one of the trickiest concepts for children to grasp. A split digraph is a pair of vowel letters that work together to make one sound, but are split apart by a consonant in between.

For example, in the word “cake”, the letters a and e work together to make the /ay/ sound, but the letter k sits between them: c-a-k-e. This is written as a-e and described as the split digraph a-e.

There are five split digraphs in English:

A useful way to explain split digraphs to children is to say that the vowels are “best friends” who have been split apart – they still work together even though another letter has come between them. Many teachers use the term “magic e” or “bossy e” to describe the silent e at the end that changes the vowel sound.

Consonant Sounds: A Complete List

Below is a comprehensive reference table of all 24 consonant phonemes in English, along with the most common graphemes used to represent each one.

Note that some consonant phonemes have many possible graphemes. The sound /s/, for example, can be written as s (sun), ss (miss), c (city), or sc (scene). Children encounter these alternative consonant spellings throughout Phases 3 and 5.

Vowel Sounds: A Complete List

English vowel sounds are more complex than consonant sounds because there are around 20 vowel phonemes but only 5 vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u). This means vowel sounds rely heavily on digraphs, trigraphs, and split digraphs.

Short Vowel Sounds

Long Vowel Sounds

Other Vowel Sounds

The schwa sound (/er/ in the final row) is the most common vowel sound in spoken English. It is the unstressed, neutral vowel heard in words like “about”, “doctor”, and “colour”. Although it appears frequently, it is not formally taught as a separate phoneme in early phonics phases – children tend to pick it up naturally through reading experience.

Tips for Practising Phonics Sounds

Knowing the 44 phonics sounds is one thing; helping children remember and use them fluently is another. Here are some practical ways to reinforce phonic sounds at home or in the classroom:

• Use flashcards daily. Write the grapheme on one side and the phoneme with an example word on the other. Keep sessions short – five to ten minutes is plenty for young children.
• Play “I spy” with sounds. Instead of letter names, use phonemes: “I spy something beginning with /sh/.” This encourages children to think about sounds rather than letters.
• Read together every day. When you come across a word your child does not recognise, encourage them to segment it into its individual sounds and blend them back together.
• Practise writing sounds. Spelling and reading go hand in hand. Ask your child to write words by listening for each sound and choosing the correct grapheme.
• Make it multisensory. Use magnetic letters, write sounds in sand or foam, or build words with letter tiles. The more senses involved, the stronger the memory.
• Use a phonics app. Digital practice can be a brilliant way to keep children engaged. The KS1 Phonics app lets children practise reading real words and pseudo-words in the same format as the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, building both confidence and fluency.
• Focus on accuracy, then speed. When a child first learns a new sound, give them time to think. Fluency will come with practice.
• Revisit earlier phases. If a child is struggling with Phase 5 alternative spellings, it often helps to go back and consolidate their Phase 2 and Phase 3 knowledge first.

The Phonics Screening Check in Year 1 assesses whether children can decode words using the phonics knowledge they have built across these phases. Regular, consistent practice with the sounds listed in this guide is the best preparation for that assessment – and, more importantly, for becoming a confident, independent reader.