Which graphemes are ambiguous?

Read this first if you haven’t already:

Phonics Reading Systems — Everything you never wanted to know about teaching your child to read

The first significant problem with reading, as described in the article above is identifying which grapheme structures are present in a given word, and if several overlapping ones are present, which is most relevant.

The second significant problem is, in the case of ambiguous graphemes (graphemes which can represent more than one phoneme) which phoneme in particular is the correct one to choose out of the alternative possible phonemes which can correspond to the grapheme being decoded.

Below is a table of the 49 phonemes in English.

The 49 phonemes (sounds) of English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiqUVnXExTQ

Ambiguous consonant graphemes

• c ci ce — cute cow (c), centre of the circle (s), special and delicious (sh), ocean (sh),
• g — big pig (g), gentle giant giraffe (j)
• s — sit this out, is it his? (z)
• t — time and motion (t sh),
• si — television (“zjh”)

Ambiguous vowel and vowel+r graphemes

• a, al, au, aw — apple (a), apron (ay), what I want (o),
  any of the many (e), orange (i), the past went fast (ar), pizza (er),
  half the calf (ar), yawn at dawn (or),
• ai — snail in the rain (ay), said again (e), certain bargain (n i),
• a_e — gave my mate(ay), have (a)
• ar, are— start the car (ar), too warm to swarm (or), collar (er),
  share and care (air),
• ea and ear — cup of tea (ee), dead in the head (e), great steak (ay),
  year early (er), hear my fear (ear), tear what you wear (air),
• ir and ire — twirl and whirl, hire and fire,
• i_e — bite the kite, live and give,
• ere — were (er), here (ear), where (air),
• or — for my horse (or), worst work in the world (er),
• u — bus (u), bush (oo), busy (i), unicorn (yew), truth (oo),
• oo — look at a book (oo), poo at the zoo (oo),
• ou — shout it out (ow), coupon (oo),
• ow — blow the snow (oa), how now brown cow (ow),
• augh — laugh (ar), caught my naughty daughter (or),

Andrew is a Product Designer at Thortspace, the world’s first collaborative 3D mind mapping software. Breakthrough collaborative thinking whenever and wherever it is needed most. More stories here.