Phonics Terminology For Teachers

Front 1

Affixes

Back 1

A term that includes both prefixes and suffixes. Un and ible are both affixes.

Front 2

Base word

Back 2

A word to which prefixes and/or suffixes can be added (root word)

Front 3

Blending

Back 3

Putting phonemes together to form a word.

Front 4

Breve

Back 4

A diacritic mark (') put over a vowel to indicate it has the "short" sound.

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Closed syllable

Back 5

Syllable that ends in a consonant sound, such as the second syllable in ho-tel.

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Compound words

Back 6

Combination of two words

Front 7

Consonant

Back 7

A letter that is not a vowel.

Front 8

Consonant Blends

Back 8

Two or more consonants in which you can hear both sounds blended. The world blend begins and ends with a consonant blend. Squall and scrub begin with blends.

Front 9

Consonant Clusters

Back 9

Another term for consonant blends

Front 10

Consonant Digraph

Back 10

Two consonant letters with a single sound different from that of either of the letter: sh, ch, ph, th, etc

Front 11

Consonant le Syllables

Back 11

Syllables that end in consonant le like table.

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Decode

Back 12

To figure out the pronunciation of a word.

Front 13

Derivational Suffix

Back 13

A suffix that changes the word meaning. The new word has a separate dictionary entry. The most common of these derivational suffixes include less, ful and er.

Front 14

Dipthong

Back 14

Two vowel letters that produce a gliding sound.

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Encode

Back 15

To write or spell a word

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Homographs

Back 16

Words with the same spelling but different pronunciation.

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Homophones

Back 17

Words with different spellings and meaning but are pronounced the same.

Front 18

Inflected Endings

Back 18

Endings added to words to change where in sentences they are used. S, ing, ed, ly are the most common ones.

Front 19

Long Vowels

Back 19

Vowels that say their names. They can be spelled in lots of ways.

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Macron

Back 20

A diacritic mark (-) put over a vowel to indicate it has the long sound.

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Morphemes

Back 21

Meaning bearing units in a word, usually roots, prefixes and suffixes. Many words have multiple morphemes.

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Onsets

Back 22

All the beginning letters up to a vowel.

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Open Syllable

Back 23

Syllable that ends in a vowel sound, such as the first syllable in ho-tel.

Front 24

Phonemes

Back 24

The smallest unit of speech. Bad has three phonemes, for example.

Front 25

Phonemic Awareness

Back 25

The ability to manipulate the sounds in words.

Front 26

Phonograms

Back 26

Rimes in printed words.

Front 27

Phonological Awareness

Back 27

The awareness that spoken language is composed of separate words that make up sentences and that words are made up of syllables.

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Phonology

Back 28

The study of speech sounds.

Front 29

Prefix

Back 29

Something before a root word that usually changes meaning.

Front 30

R-Controlled vowels

Back 30

Vowels in which the vowel sound is affected by the r as in car, her, girl, etc

Front 31

Rimes

Back 31

Also called phonograms or word families, the vowel following consonants within a syllable.

Front 32

Roots

Back 32

Base words. Roots are often of Latin or Greek origin. Roots are bound if they are not words by themselves.

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Schwa

Back 33

The vowel in an unaccented syllable, sounds kind of like "uh". Alone, for example.

Front 34

Segmenting

Back 34

The ability to separate the phonemes in a word.

Front 35

Sight Word

Back 35

Another term for a high-frequency word

Front 36

Silent E Syllables

Back 36

Syllables that end in a silent e as in decide.

Front 37

Soft G and C

Back 37

C and g are sometimes pronounced like s and j when followed by e, i or y as in cent, city, cyclone, gentle, gist, and gym.

Front 38

Speech sounds

Back 38

Phonemes

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Stem

Back 39

Root or base word

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Structural analysis

Back 40

Identifying word parts such as compound words, affixes, roots, syllables

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Suffix

Back 41

Something added to the end of a base or root word. Sometimes inflectional and some derivational.

Front 42

Syllables

Back 42

Units of sound that contain a vowel and may be preceded or followed by one or more consonants.

Front 43

Vowel Diagraphs

Back 43

Two vowel letters that make one sound. Coat, yield, tie, and soul.

Front 44

Vowels

Back 44

Letters that are not consonants (Sometimes y too)

Front 45

Vowel Team Syllables

Back 45

Syllables that have two vowels with one sound.