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Year 1 English · Key Stage 1 · Spelling – English Appendix 1

Year 1 spelling: ai, ay, oi, oy and split digraphs

Vowel sounds are the hardest part of early spelling because one sound can be written in several ways. In this part of Year 1, children learn the vowel digraphs ai, ay, oi and oy, the split digraphs such as a-e in cake, and the spellings ar, ee, ea, er, ir and ur. They begin to choose between spellings using where the sound falls in a word.

Vowel spellings: ai, ay, oi, oy, ee, ea and more, explained

The same vowel sound can be written in many ways. The long a sound is the ai in rain, the ay in day and the a-e in made. A digraph is two letters that make one sound. A split digraph is two letters that make one sound but have a consonant between them: in made, the a and the e work together across the d, and the e makes no sound of its own. Most phonics programmes call this a split digraph, though some schools and families also call it “magic e”. Sorting words by sound and then by spelling is the core activity.

Two patterns help children choose. The spellings ai and oi are virtually never used at the end of English words, so a word that ends with the long a sound is spelt ay (day, play, say) and one that ends with the oi sound is spelt oy (boy, toy, joy). Inside a word, ai and oi are the usual choices (rain, oil, coin). The ay and oy also appear at the end of a syllable in the middle of a word, as in the first part of playground.

Split digraphs are taught for each of the five vowels: a-e in made, e-e in these, i-e in five, o-e in home and u-e in June. The e at the end changes the short vowel sound into a long one, often the letter’s name. Compare cap and cape, hop and hope, kit and kite. The e-e pattern is the least common of the five, so children meet fewer examples of these than of the others.

The other spellings in this topic are about sounds that can be written in several ways. The spelling ar is the sound in car. The long e sound can be written ee (see) or ea (sea). The letters ea can also say the short e sound, as in head, so when reading, children try one sound and then the other to see which makes a real word. Finally, the sound in her, girl and turn is written er, ir or ur, and er is also used for the weaker, quicker sound at the end of better and sister.

There is often no rule for choosing between ee and ea, or between er, ir and ur. At this stage the advice is to say the sounds, have a go, and look hard at the word afterwards. The more often a child sees and writes words like turn and girl, the more likely it is that the right spelling will simply look right. Which spellings are taught first depends on the phonics programme, so the order your child meets them in may vary.

Words your child will hear

Digraph
Two letters that together make one sound, such as ai, ay, oi, oy, ee and ea.
Split digraph
Two letters that make one sound but are separated by a consonant, such as a-e in cake. Some schools call the e “magic e”.
Vowel
A letter such as a, e, i, o or u that stands for a vowel sound, the open sound every syllable needs.
Consonant
A letter that is not a vowel, such as the d in made or the k in cake.
Alternative spelling
A different way of writing the same sound. Ai, ay and a-e are alternative spellings of the long a sound.
Final e
The e at the end of a split digraph word such as five. It makes no sound of its own but works with the vowel before it.
Syllable
A beat in a word. Play-ground has two syllables.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

  • Spell words with the vowel digraphs ai, oi, ay and oy
  • Spell words with the split digraphs a–e, e–e, i–e, o–e and u–e
  • Spell words with ar, ee, ea (/i:/) and ea (/ɛ/)
  • Spell words with er (/ɜ:/), er (/ə/), ir and ur

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: three ways to write one sound

Your child hears the same long a sound in the words “play”, “rain” and “cake”. How do they choose between ai, ay and a-e?

  1. Say each word slowly and count the sounds on fingers. Play is p, l, long a (three sounds). Rain is r, long a, n (three). Cake is c, long a, k (three). Each word has the same long a sound, so the question is which spelling to use.
  2. Look at where the sound falls in each word. In play it comes right at the end. Since ai is virtually never used at the end of a word, the spelling is ay: p-l-ay.
  3. In rain and cake, the sound sits in the middle of the word, between two consonants. Here both ai and a-e are common, and no rule says which one a word uses. Pairs such as tail and tale, or main and mane, show that both spellings are real.
  4. So for these two, your child has to remember the word. Rain is spelt with ai: r-ai-n. Cake uses the split digraph a-e, with the e after the k: c-a-k-e. The a and the e work together to make the long a sound, even though the k sits between them.
  5. Read the three words back and check they look right. Then write the wrong versions, “plai” and “cak”, and talk about why they are not right: ai does not end words, and cak would say the short a sound, as in cat.

play (ay at the end), rain (ai in the middle, remembered), cake (split digraph a-e, remembered)

Common mistakes and how to help

Using ai or oi at the end of a word, such as “plai” or “boi”

Children learn ai for the long a sound and use it everywhere. The end-of-word pattern is a convention they have not yet seen enough to know.

What helps: Show ay and oy side by side with the others: day, play, say; boy, toy, joy. Ask your child to look for them at the end of words in stories.

Leaving the e off a split digraph, writing “cak” or “hom”

A child segmenting “cake” hears three sounds, c, long a and k, and writes three letters. The final e is silent, so it is not heard and is easy to leave out.

What helps: Show pairs that differ only by the e: cap and cape, hop and hope, kit and kite. Explain that the e is silent but still does a job. Count the letters as well as the sounds.

Assuming ea always sounds the same, reading “head” as “heed”

Ea makes the long e sound in sea and the short e in head. Children who have learned one sound first tend to use it every time.

What helps: When reading, try one sound and then the other and listen for which makes a real word that fits the sentence. When spelling, learn common words like head and bread as whole words.

Choosing the wrong spelling of the er sound, such as “gerl” for girl or “tirn” for turn

Er, ir and ur sound exactly the same, so a child can only decide by having seen the word. At this stage, there is no rule to tell them which to use.

What helps: Accept a sensible attempt, then show the right spelling. Collect words in groups, such as girl, bird, first, and turn, burn, hurt, and read the group a few times over the week.

How to help at home

  • Sort the sounds. Write ay, ai and a-e on three pieces of paper. Say words such as day, rain, cake, play, tail and name, and ask your child to put each word on the right pile or write it under the right heading. They can use the position of the sound as a clue.
  • Add an e. Write a short word such as cap, hop, kit or tub, read it, then add an e and read the new word: cape, hope, kite, tube. Your child can say what changes in the sound as well as the letters.
  • End-of-word spotting. Look through a storybook for words that end in ay or oy, such as day, say, play, boy and toy. Count how many you can find on a page, and notice that you are very unlikely to find any that end in ai or oi.
  • Same sound, different word. Say a short sentence with a repeated sound, such as “The girl had a turn with her bird”, and ask your child which words have the same sound. Write the words and underline the er, ir and ur in each.
  • Rhyme chains. Take turns to say rhyming words: rain, train, pain, and then day, play, stay. Writing them in a column, with the matching ending lined up, lets children see that rhyming words often share a spelling. If one turns up with a different spelling, such as lane or weigh, talk about it rather than marking it wrong.

Related topics

Leads on to

More on spelling – English Appendix 1

Everything in Year 1 English

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