Master Consonant Digraph Sounds - Ch, Sh, Th, Wh, Ph

A consonant digraph happens when two consonant letters work as a team to make one sound. You cannot hear each letter separately - they blend together to create something new.

The most common consonant digraphs you will learn are ch, sh, th, wh, and ph. Each digraph makes its own special sound that you can practice and remember.

The "ch" sound appears in words like cheese, chair, and chicken. When you say these words, you hear one sound at the beginning, not two separate sounds.

The "sh" sound helps you read words like shell, shiny, and shush. This sound is like when you tell someone to be quiet by saying "shh."

The "th" sound appears in words like thick, thank, and thing. Your tongue touches your teeth when you make this sound.

The "wh" sound starts words like whale, whisper, and what. You make this sound by putting your lips together like you are going to blow.

The "ph" sound makes the same sound as the letter f, like in the word photos.

Consonant Digraph: Two consonant letters that work together to make one special sound, like ch in cheese or sh in shell.

Ch Sound: The sound you hear at the beginning of words like chair, cheese, and chicken when the letters c and h work together.

Sh Sound: The sound you make when you want someone to be quiet, found in words like shell, shiny, and shush.

Th Sound: The sound you make by putting your tongue against your teeth, found in words like thick, thank, and thing.

Wh Sound: The sound you make by putting your lips together like blowing, found in words like whale, whisper, and what.

Ph Sound: Two letters that make the same sound as the letter f, like in the word photos.

You can practice consonant digraphs by listening for these sounds in your favorite books. Look for words that start with ch, sh, th, wh, or ph.

Try saying words with these digraphs out loud. This helps you connect the blending sounds into words with what you see on the page.

Before learning consonant digraphs, you should know your letter names sounds and familiar word recognition. You also need to understand vowel sounds with spellings and be able to read some high frequency sight words.

Learning consonant digraphs connects to many other reading skills. You will use this knowledge when decoding single syllable words and decoding regular words.

This skill also helps with breaking words into individual sounds and segmenting single syllable word sounds. You will build on these digraph sounds when learning about identifying long short vowel sounds.

As you grow as a reader, you will use consonant digraphs to help with decoding two syllable words and reading words with endings. These skills prepare you for more advanced topics like common vowel team patterns and distinguishing long short vowel sounds.