A phonemeis the smallest unit of sound in a word — swap one and the word changes meaning (“cat” → “bat” → “bit”). English has 26 letters but 44 phonemes in American English: 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds. Letters combine to make many of them — sh, ai and igh are each one sound, not two or three.
Below is the full list with example words. Tap any sound to open its page with native-voice audio, the mouth shape and more example words. The 44 are spread across Stages 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the phonics roadmap.
Download the 44 sounds as a PDF
Letter Sound Flashcards — all 44 sounds (Free PDF) — one card per sound spelling (49 cards): letters, keyword picture, example word. 4-up layout, ready to print and cut.
49 Mouth Shape Cards (Free PDF) — one page per sound spelling with a mouth-shape guide, example words, and a 4-step how-to-teach routine. No email required for either download.
The 24 consonant phonemes
| Sound | Common spellings | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /b/ | b | bat, web, cab |
| /d/ | d | dog, dry, odd |
| /f/ | f, ff, ph | fan, off, phone |
| /g/ | g | goat, egg, leg |
| /h/ | h | hat, house, hold |
| /dʒ/ | j, ge, dge | jam, giant, edge |
| /k/ | c, k, ck | cat, kit, duck |
| /l/ | l, ll | lip, bell, ill |
| /m/ | m | map, moon, cram |
| /n/ | n, kn | net, pin, knee |
| /ŋ/ | ng | ring, sing, king |
| /p/ | p | pan, spin, tip |
| /r/ | r | run, very, road |
| /s/ | s, ss, c | sun, pass, city |
| /t/ | t | tap, bet, sting |
| /v/ | v | van, have, five |
| /w/ | w, wh | wet, win, whale |
| /j/ | y | yes, yell, yard |
| /z/ | z, s | zip, rose, dogs |
| /ʃ/ | sh | ship, sure, station |
| /tʃ/ | ch, tch | chin, teach, match |
| /θ/ | th | thin, think, bath |
| /ð/ | th | this, mother, feather |
| /ʒ/ | s, ge | treasure, vision, beige |
Two letters on this site are not a sound of their own: x is two sounds (/k/ + /s/, as in fox) and qu is two sounds (/k/ + /w/, as in queen). They get their own pages because children still need to learn to read them.
The 20 vowel phonemes
| Sound | Common spellings | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /æ/ | a | cat, ant, map |
| /ɛ/ | e, ea | bed, egg, head |
| /ɪ/ | i, y | sit, ink, gym |
| /ɑ/ | o | hot, pot, box |
| /ʌ/ | u, o | up, run, love |
| /eɪ/ | ai, ay, a_e | rain, day, cake |
| /i/ | ee, ea, e | tree, sea, me |
| /aɪ/ | igh, ie, i_e, y | night, pie, bike, my |
| /oʊ/ | oa, ow, o_e | boat, snow, home |
| /ju/ | u_e, ew, ue | cube, few, cue |
| /u/ | oo, ue, ew | moon, blue, flew |
| /ʊ/ | oo, u | book, good, put |
| /aʊ/ | ow, ou | cow, out, cloud |
| /ɔɪ/ | oi, oy | coin, boy, oil |
| /ɔ/ | aw, au | saw, paw, haul |
| /ɑr/ | ar | car, star, park |
| /ɔr/ | or, ore | fork, more, corn |
| /ɝ/ | ur, er, ir | burn, her, bird |
| /ɪr/ | ear, eer | hear, near, deer |
| /ɛr/ | air, are | hair, chair, care |
Five short vowels, five long vowels, two oo sounds, three more vowels (ow, oi, aw) and five r-controlled vowels. See the vowel sounds chart for every spelling of each one.
Phoneme vs. grapheme — the distinction that trips people up
A phoneme is a unit of sound; a grapheme is the letter or letters used to write that sound down. The phoneme /f/ has three common graphemes in English — f (fan), ff (off), and ph (phone). Same sound, three spellings. It works the other way too: the letters oo spell two different phonemes, in moon and in book, and th spells two, in thin and in this.
Why American and British counts don’t match
British charts also say 44, but it’s a different 44. General American and British Received Pronunciation don’t have the same vowels:
- Rhoticity.American English pronounces the r in “car,” “near” and “hair”, so those are r-controlled vowels (/ɑr/, /ɪr/, /ɛr/). British English drops the r and glides instead, so its chart lists them as diphthongs (/ɑː/, /ɪə/, /eə/).
- No short-o split.British English has a separate rounded short o (/ɒ/ in “hot”); American English uses /ɑ/, the same vowel as “father”.
- The cot–caught merger.Many American speakers say “cot” and “caught” the same way. We still teach aw (/ɔ/) as its own sound because many others don’t.
Neither chart is “wrong” — they describe different accents, and the underlying skill (blending sounds into words) is identical. This site teaches the American 44; the example-word buttons on each phoneme page play both an American and a British voice.
How to teach all 44 in 9 months
Most synthetic-phonics programs spread these sounds over about a school year. At 5–10 minutes of practice per day:
- Months 1–3: the single letters (25 sounds — q only comes as qu).
- Months 4–6: consonant blends, digraphs (including both th sounds) and the first vowel teams.
- Months 7–9: the rest of the vowel teams, oo/aw/ow/oi and the r-controlled vowels.
That’s an aggressive but achievable timeline for a kid starting at age 4. For a 3-year-old, double it. The free phonics lesson plan lays all 44 out as dated sessions.
The 1 phoneme everyone gets wrong
The schwa /ə/ — the “uh” sound in the unstressed syllable of “sofa,” “banana,” “the.” It’s the most common vowel sound in English and almost nobody teaches it explicitly. Phonics charts don’t count it separately because it doesn’t map cleanly to a spelling, but it’s worth knowing it exists when your kid hits words like “about” or “along.”
Go deeper on each group
Each group above has its own full breakdown: consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th), vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, consonant blends, and magic e / silent e words.
See every sound, with audio
Open the full phoneme map with a 4-year-old and let them tap to hear each of the 44 sounds, one at a time, with a native voice and a keyword picture. Then try Sound Match to test sound-to-picture recognition. The whole catalog is free in the browser.