The 44 Phonemes of English

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One of the most comment questions or concerns I see is teachers and parents worrying about how to teach the 44 phonemes. After years of focusing on the 26 letters, what do we do with this info about 44 phonemes? And how does this fit into our literacy lessons?

In this post, I explain what a phoneme is, share a list of the 44 phonemes, and give you teaching tips and ideas for the 44 phonemes in English.

What is a Phoneme?

At its core, a phonemes are as the smallest unit of sound in a language. English has 44 phonemes, or sounds (even though we have 26 letters).

For example, the word pot has 3 phonemes: /p/ /ŏ/ /t/, and the word phone also has 3 phonemes: /f/ /ō/ /n/.

The 44 Phonemes

The 44 phonemes include two kinds of phonemes: consonants and vowels.

Consonant Phonemes

Consonant phonemes are sounds that when said, the air is blocked before leaving the mouth by the tongue, lips, or throat. Say the /b/, /k/, and /t/ sounds and you’ll notice your lips, throat, or tongue blocking the sound.

Consonant phonemes include single consonant letters, consonant digraphs, and consonant trigraphs.

Vowel Phonemes

Vowel sounds are not blocked when being produced. You’ll notice your mouth opens wider when making vowel sounds in comparison to consonant sounds. Say the /ē/, /ŭ/, and /ō/ sounds and notice the shape your mouth makes and how nothing blocks the sound from coming out.

Vowel phonemes include short, long, r-controlled, diphthong, and digraph vowel teams.

List of 44 Phonemes

I created a list of 44 phonemes that displays them along with their graphemes and a keyword. You can get a free copy by joining my email list below.

Sign up below to get this 44 phonemes chart straight to your email.

There are 24 consonant sounds in English:

1. /b/ as in bat
2. /d/ as in dog
3. /f/ as in fish
4. /g/ as in goat
5. /h/ as in hat
6. /j/ as in jug
7. /k/ as in cat
8. /l/ as in lamp
9. /m/ as in map
10. /n/ as in nap
11. /p/ as in pan
12. /r/ as in rat
13. /s/ as in sun
14. /t/ as in top
15. /v/ as in van
16. /w/ as in wet
17. /y/ as in yes
18. /z/ as in zip

Additionally, there are consonant digraphs:

19. /ch/ as in chip
20. /sh/ as in ship
21. /th/ (voiced) as in this
22. /th/ (unvoiced) as in think
23. /ng/ as in sing
24. /zh/ as in treasure
25. /hw/ as in whale

Short Vowel Sounds

1. /a/ as in apple
2. /e/ as in bed
3. /i/ as in sit
4. /o/ as in octopus
5. /u/ as in cut
6. /oo/ as in book
7. /ə/ as in balloon

Long Vowels

1. /ā/ as in cake
2. /ē/ as in bee
3. /ī/ as in bike
4. /ō/ as in boat
5. /ū/ as in ruby
6. /yū/ as in cube

Diphthongs

1. /oi/ as in oil
2. /ow/ as in cow
3. /aw/ as in claw

R-Controlled Vowels

1. /ar/ as in car
2. /er/ as in her
3. /or/ as in corn

How to Teach Phonemes

The 44 phonemes should be taught explicitly following a scope and sequence. Teach them along with letter names.

The order of teaching them isn’t as important as it is to simply follow a sequence that introduces one at a time and teaches it explicitly and systematically. If you don’t have a good scope and sequence, I recommend this one from UFLI.

How to Pronounce the 44 Phonemes

Correct pronunciation of the phonemes is crucial, but many will accidentally add a schwa (/uh/) sound to the end of letter sounds when teaching. You don’t want your students repeating that sound when learning to read, so it’s so important to pay attention to this so you don’t do it.

Watch the video below to see exactly how to pronounce each phoneme.

Teaching Tips & Ideas for phonemes

Use a Sound Wall

This is a non-negotiable! Every classroom should have one (yes, even middle and high schoolers can benefit from one).

A sound wall displays the 44 phonemes in an organized way that helps students match the phonemes to their graphemes. Sound walls can be used to introduce and review the sounds, or just for reference for students who already know all the sounds. When students are reading and writing they can reference the sound wall to help them.

Read more about how to set up and use a sound wall in this post about implementing a sound wall.

Incorporate Movement

Using hand gestures or body movements associated with each sound helps reinforce learning through kinesthetic memory.

Map Phonemes to Graphemes

You should always emphasize the relationship between phonemes and their graphemes, so phoneme-grapheme mapping activities are an excellent way to do this.

When you match phonemes to their graphemes, students make the connection that that sound is spelled a certain way. And since there are so many ways to spell each sound, this helps students orthographically map them to improve reading and spelling fluency.

Read more about mapping phonemes to graphemes in this post: Phoneme Grapheme Mapping Activities That Develop Orthographic Mapping

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

Research has shown us that instruction that includes phonemic awareness is highly effective and significantly improves reading more than instruction without phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness skills include blending, segmenting, rhyming, alliteration, isolation, and more. You can learn more about teaching phonemic awareness in this post about phonemic awareness strategies and activities.

Extensive Practice & Repetition

As always, students need a lot more practice and repetition than we realize.

Bottom Line

The 44 phonemes are the building blocks of English, so it’s important we teach them to our students so they have the tools to become fluent readers. Make sure you grab the free phonemes list download to help you incorporate phonemes into your lessons.

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