Digraphs Examples

A phoneme is a unit of sound in the English language. Digraphs are sets of two letters that make one unit of sound, or phoneme. When children learn to read, they often learn letters and sounds first and then move to learning digraphs. There are many diagraphs in the English language and understanding the sounds that these letter teams make is essential to having a command of phonics.

There are consonant diagraphs and vowel teams that are diagraphs. The difference between a diagraph and a "blend" is that you only hear one sound with the diagraph. Blends have both sounds. For example, consider "st"-you still hear both the "s" and the "t" sounds. But, consider "sh"-a new sound is formed, and you do not hear the separate "s" and "h" sounds.

These are examples of some of the diagraphs in the English language. There are others, but these are some of the most common:

Consonant Diagraphs: th, sh, ch, wh, kn, wr, ph, ck

Vowel Diagraphs: ai, oi, ei, ay, ie, ea, ee, oa, oe, oo, ui, ue

Some of the vowel diagraphs can make more than one sound. For example, "oo" can make the sound found in "foot" and the sound found in "moo".

Examples of Words Containing Diagraphs

Th: these, tooth, three, there
Sh: shoot, flush, share, sharp
Ch: church, choose, chapter
Wh: who, where, why, when, whether
Kn: know, knife, knee
Wr: wrong, write, wrap, wrung
Ph: phone, telegraph, paragraph, phoneme
Ck: check, wreck, crack, snack
ai: paid, ailment, laid, rail
oi: foil, boil, oil, ointment
ay: pay, relay, play, say
ie: friend, lie, pier,
ea: read, ear, beam, sear
ee: glee, see, peel, leer
oa: boat, oatmeal, oar, moan
oe: shoe, poet, goes, roe
oo: cookie, loose, book, moo
ui: fruit, suit, juice, bruise
ue: blue, rue, fuel, sue