Year 1 English · Key Stage 1 · Reading – word reading

Year 1 phonics: sounds, blending and tricky words

Phonics is the main route into reading in Year 1. Children learn which letters or groups of letters stand for each of the more than 40 sounds in English, and use that knowledge to blend the sounds in a word they have never seen. They also learn a set of common words, often called tricky words, where the spelling doesn’t follow the usual pattern.

Phonics, blending and tricky words, explained

English has a little over 40 sounds, called phonemes, but only 26 letters, so many sounds are written with more than one letter. The written version of a sound is called a grapheme. In “ship”, the letters s-h-i-p make three sounds: sh, i and p. The grapheme “sh” is a digraph (two letters, one sound), and “igh” in “night” is a trigraph (three letters, one sound). Year 1 also covers split digraphs such as a-e in “cake”: the a and the e work together to make one sound, even though another letter sits between them.

Children are taught to respond quickly and correctly to each grapheme, so they see “ee” and say the sound without stopping to think. Teachers often say the sounds in a pure, clipped way: “mmm”, not “muh”, and “sss”, not “suh”. This makes blending much easier. Because the same grapheme can stand for different sounds, they also learn alternatives: “ow” says one sound in “cow” and another in “snow”, and “ea” is different in “eat” and “head”.

Year 1 starts by revising and securing the sounds and tricky words taught in Reception, then adds new ones. Blending is the core skill at this stage. A child says each sound in order, then pushes them together to hear the word: c-r-a-b becomes “crab”. Children practise this on real words and on made-up “nonsense” words, which makes sure they are reading the letters rather than recognising a word by sight or guessing from a picture. Reading books are chosen to match the sounds the child has been taught, so every word can be worked out.

A small group of common words can’t be fully sounded out, or contain a surprising spelling. Words such as “the”, “said”, “was”, “one”, “friend” and “school” are examples. The curriculum calls them common exception words, and schools often say “tricky words”. Children are taught to notice which part is unusual: in “said”, s and d are as expected, and it is only the “ai” that makes a different sound. The number and order of these words depends on the school’s phonics programme.

In June of Year 1, children take the phonics screening check, a short one-to-one test with a teacher in which they read a list of real and made-up words aloud. It shows the school whether a child has learned the sounds securely. Children who don’t meet the standard get extra help and take it again in Year 2. It is meant to be a quiet, low-key activity, not a formal exam.

Words your child will hear

Phoneme: A single sound in a word. “Chip” has three phonemes: ch, i, p.
Grapheme: The letter or letters that stand for one sound, such as s, sh or igh.
Digraph: Two letters that make one sound, such as ai, oa or th.
Blend: Say the sounds in order and push them together to read the word.
Split digraph: Two letters that make one sound but are split by another letter, such as a-e in “name”.
Decodable book: A book that uses only the sounds and tricky words a child has been taught, so every word can be worked out.
Tricky word: A common word with an unusual spelling, such as “said” or “was”. The curriculum calls these common exception words.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 1, pupils should be taught to:

Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words
Respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes
Read accurately by blending sounds in unfamiliar words containing GPCs that have been taught
Read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word

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

Try it: reading a new word by blending

Your child sees the word “shrimp” for the first time. How is it read using phonics?

Look at the whole word and find the graphemes, putting a dot under each single letter and a line under groups that make one sound. The word has five sounds: sh, r, i, m, p.
```
sh  r  i  m  p
__  .  .  .  .
```
Say each sound in order, using pure sounds, and point to the grapheme as you go: “sh… rrr… i… mmm… p”. Pointing stops the eyes jumping ahead and guessing.
Blend the sounds together, getting faster each time: “sh-r-i-m-p”, then “shrimp”. If the child gets stuck on the first two sounds, practise just “shr” on its own before adding the rest.
Check that it makes sense. “Shrimp” may be a new word, so say what it is: a small sea creature. Talking about the meaning builds vocabulary as well as reading.
Now try a made-up word, such as “frelp” or “plib”. A child who can read “frelp” is using the letters, not guessing, which is exactly what the screening check looks for.

“Shrimp” is read by saying sh, r, i, m, p and blending them. The same method works for any word made of sounds the child has been taught.

Common mistakes and how to help

Saying letter names instead of sounds

Most children know the alphabet song before they start school, so a child sees “cat” and says “see-ay-tee”. Letter names don’t help with blending.

What helps: When reading, use the sounds: the letter c makes the “k” sound at the start of “cat”. Letter names still matter, and Year 1 teaches them for spelling, so there is no need to stop singing the alphabet song. Just keep the two jobs separate.

Guessing a word from its first letter or the picture

Children are often rewarded for a sensible guess. A child who reads “house” as “home” makes sense in the story, but hasn’t read the letters.

What helps: Cover the picture and ask “What does each sound say?” Point under each grapheme. Show you value the accurate reading, not just the one that fits.

Knowing all the sounds but not being able to blend them

Saying c… a… t… and then “dog” is common. Blending needs the child to hold the sounds in memory and join them, and that takes practice.

What helps: Play “robot talk”: you say the sounds, your child says the word, with no print needed. Slide the sounds closer together each time, and keep sessions short.

Trying to sound out tricky words, or treating them as a mystery

If a child sounds out “said” as s-ai-d, the word doesn’t come out right. At the other extreme, some children decide a tricky word has to be learned whole and ignore the sounds that are regular.

What helps: Look for the tricky part together: “Which bit is different?” Decode the regular letters, then point out the odd one.

How to help at home

Read the decodable book twice. Books sent home are matched to the sounds your child knows. Let them read it first by sounding out, then again smoothly. Don’t jump in too early, as a pause usually means they are blending.
Play sound-talk games. Say “Can you pass me the c-u-p?” or “Put your h-a-t on” and let your child blend the word and do the action. It builds the skill without a book in sight.
Hunt for graphemes. Choose a sound the class is learning, such as “ai” or “sh”, and find it on cereal boxes, signs and shopping lists. Ask “What sound does it make here?” so they learn that graphemes can have more than one sound.
Make a tricky-word wall. Write one tricky word a week on a card and stick it where you’ll see it. Underline the unusual part together and use the word in a spoken sentence.
Keep practice short and calm. Ten relaxed minutes beats a long, tense session. If your child is stuck, sound out the first one or two letters with them and let them finish the word.

Leads on to

Year 2: Longer words and suffixes
Year 2: Tricky words and fluent reading