Phase 5 Phonics Sounds with Tricky Words

Phonics is a method of teaching children to read. Phonics works by breaking words down into its sounds. There are 44 different sounds in the English language. Learning to read with phonics is, therefore, a bit like learning a code, after learning just a few sounds, you will be able to use it to read 100’s of words. The more sounds you know, the more words you will be able to work out how to understand. 

Children entering Phase Five will already be able to read and spell words with adjacent consonants, such as trap, string and flask. They will also be able to read and spell some polysyllabic words. 

Phase 5 Letters and Sounds

In Phase Five, children will learn more graphemes and phonemes. For example, they already know ‘ai’ as in rain, but now they will be introduced to ‘ay’ as in the day and ‘a-e’ as in make. Alternative pronunciations for graphemes will also be introduced, e.g. ‘ea’ in tea, head and break. With practice, the speed at recognizing and blending graphemes will improve. Word and spelling knowledge will be worked on extensively. 

As schooling progresses, children are taught simple; single letter sounds from the alphabet before moving on to learning about digraphs, trigraphs, and splits digraphs. 

Phase 5 introduces some graphemes one at a time. Phase 5 letters and sounds typically follow this order: 

Letters: a, c, e, g, i, o, u, y 

Consonant Digraphs: ch, ph, wh 

Vowel Digraphs: au, aw, ay, a-e, ea, ee, ei, er, ew, ey, e-e, ie, ir, i-e, oe, ou, ow, oy, o-e, ue, ui, ur, u-e 


Grapheme
ExampleGraphemeExample
auhauntawsaw
ayday a-ecame
chchaptereasea
eegreeneiheist
erneverewchew
eymoneye-ethese
iebelieveirgirl
i-elikeoetoe
ououtownow
oyboyo-ebone
phphotoueclue
uisuitableurturn
u-ehugewhwhen
LettersWords
aapply
ccat
eegg
ggoal
iidea
oorange
uuncle
yyear

During Phase 5, the following tricky terms are introduced: 

Phase 5 Tricky Words List

Tricky words are the words that children will commonly encounter when they are reading, but they are words that they cannot use their existing phonic knowledge to decode. Tricky words should be taught in a discrete manner so that children can access a broader range of texts without always facing words that they cannot read. 

Tricky WordsExamples 
Oh Oh, God! I have lost my keys! 
Their The green one is their house. 
People I made friends with many people on the train. 
Mr We are lodging with Mr Brown. 
Mrs How long are you here, Mrs Dina? 
LookedShe looked up at him. 
Called The people called them the Indian. 
Asked I asked him if he ever wished to write his thoughts. 
Cloud A black cloud seemed to cover the earth. 
Don’t Don’t worry about it. 
Old I am saving money for my old age. 
I’m I’m an attentive student. 
By That work was done by me. 
Time The value of time is immense. 
House A house without a child is not a home. 
About Do you want to know about me? 
Your Did you forget all your good manners? 
Day “This may be the last great day”, he said. 
Made This made him very proud of his skill. 
Came I came to talk to you. 
Make Did you make any real progress? 
Here He didn’t come here to talk to me. 
Saw It seems like years since I saw you last. 
Very I love my parents very much. 
Put The dog was put to sleep. 

We hope that this short guide gave you a brief overview about letters and sounds taught in phase 5 phonics.

Keep exploring EnglishBix for quality resources on phonics for your kids.

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