English Spelling System

remained as t was , greatly diminished the transparency of English spelling in relation to pronunciation. The result is that English spelling patterns vary considerably in the degree to which they follow rules. For example, the letters ee almost always represent /i□/but the sound can also be represented by the letters I and y. Similarly , the letter cluster ought represents /□,f / as in enough , / o□/ as in though , / u □ / as in through, □ f / as in cough , / a □ as in bough , /□□/ as in bought , and / □ p / as in hiccough , while in slough and ought , the pronunciation varies . Although the patterns are inconsistent, when English spelling rules take into account syllable structure, phonetics , etymology and accents, there are dozens of

The ai in sail is a vowel digraph. Because the first letter in a vowel digraph sometimes says its long vowel sound , as in sail , some phonics programs once taught that " when two vowels go walking , the first one does the talking ". This convention has been almost universally discarded, owing to the many non examples . The au spelling of the / □□ / sound and the oo spelling of the / u □ / and / □ / sound do not follow this pattern,

• Vowel – consonant- E spellings are those wherein a single bowel letter, followed by a consonant and the letter e makes the long vowel sound. The tendency is often referred to as the " Silent – e Rule " , with examples such as bake , theme , hike , cone , and cute . ( The ee spelling, as in meet is sometimes, but inconsistently, considered part of this pattern)

• R- controlled syllables include those wherein a vowel followed by an r has a different sound from its regular pattern. For example, a word like car should have the pattern of a " closed syllable " because it has one vowel and ends in a consonant. However , the a in car does not have its regular "short" sound ( / æ / as in cat ) because it is controlled by the r. The r changes the sound of the vowel that precedes it . Other examples include : park , horn , her , bird , and burn

The most common consonant digraphs are ch for / t □ / , ng for / η, ph for / f / , sh for / □ / , th for / θ / and δ / . Letter combinations like wr for / r / and kn for / n / are technically also consonant digraphs , although they are so rare that they are sometimes considered patterns with " silent letters " .

• Short vowel + consonant patterns involve the spelling of the sounds / k / as in peek , / d □ / as in stage , and / t □ / as in speech . These sounds each have two possible spellings at the end of a word , ck and k for / k / dge and ge for / d □ /, and tch and ch for / t □ /. The spelling is deter mined by the type of vowel that precedes the sound . If a short vowel precedes the sound , the former spelling is used , as in pick , judge , and match . If a short vowel does not precede the sound , the latter spelling is used, as in took, barge , and launch . These patterns are jut a few examples out of dozens that can be used to help children unpack the challenging English alphabetic code. While complex, English spelling does retain order and reason .

Different phonics