Word Family List

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This Word Family List is based on a programme I use every day in my teaching. Alpha to Omega by Beve Hornsby is my bible and it never leaves my bag! Scroll to the bottom for associated products.

Click here for word family and grammar word searches.

First some definitions:
The vowels are a,e,i,o,u.

Sometimes ‘y’ is used as a vowel as in the word ‘happy’ - here it takes the ‘ee’ sound.

It can also take the long ‘i’ sound as in ‘cry'.

The consonants are all the letters in the alphabet that are not vowels.

What is a blend?
A blend is 2 or 3 consonants that run into one another. You should be able to hear the consonants when you say the word. eg. s/t/e/p/ where st is the blend.

What is a digraph?
A digraph is two letters next door to each other that make one single sound.

ch is a consonant digraph because you cannot hear the ‘c’ and the ‘h’ separately but only as one sound.

ai is a vowel digraph as in the word ‘snail’. Again, you cannot hear a separate ‘a’ and ‘i’ but only one vowel sound.

Start with . . .
For teaching purposes the first step is to make sure all the sounds in the alphabet are securely known.

Then the short vowel sounds should be learnt. These feature in CVC words or consonant-vowel-consonant words.

ham	ten	bit	pop	mum
cat	bed	pin	hot	cub

Here is the main word family list.
It is not an exhaustive list but it does cover the main areas in a spelling programme for the English language. Click here to print it as a pdf.

The Blends

bl . . . black	cr . . . crab	fr . . . frog
br . . . brick	dr . . . drum	gl . . . glum
cl . . . clock	fl . . . flag	gr . . . grip

pl . . . plan	sl . . . slip	sp . . . spin
pr . . . print	sm . . . smile	st . . . stand
sc . . . scarf	sn . . . snow	sw . . . swim

tr . . . trip	shr . . . shred	squ . . . squeak
tw . . . twin	spl . . . splash	str . . . string
scr . . . scratch	spr . . . spring	thr . . . three

Consonant Digraphs

ch . . . chip

sh . . . ship

th . . . thing

wh . . . white

ph . . . phone

Other Sounds

-nd . . .
band

-mp . . .
camp

-ng . . .
sing

-nk . . .
bank

ar . . . star	qua . . . quad	-ck . . . back
or . . . short	-ll . . . roll	-ve . . . love
er . . . letter	-ss . . . boss	soft c . . . century
wa . . . watch	-ff . . . cliff	soft g . . . giant

Magic ‘e’
By adding the final ‘e’, the first vowel says its name. So instead of ‘sam’, we have ‘same’ with the ‘a’ saying its alphabet name rather than the sound of ‘a’ at the beginning of ‘apple‘.

a-e . . .
cake

e-e . . .
Pete

i-e . . .
line

o-e . . .
home

u-e . . .
huge

Vowel Digraphs

ai . . . tail	ew . . . chew	oi . . . spoil	au . . . caught
ay . . . tray	igh . . . high	oy . . . boy	aw . . . saw
oa . . . road	ee . . . feet	ou . . . sound	ir . . . stir
ow . . . low	ea . . . beat	ow . . . brown	ear . . . hear

Common endings in more than one syllable words

-ble . . . table	-fle . . . trifle	-gle . . . gurgle
-cle . . . circle	-ple . . . purple	-kle . . . sparkle
-dle . . . candle	-tle . . . little	-zle . . . dazzle

-tion . . . fiction	-cious . . . precious	-ary . . . January
-sion . . . explosion	-cian . . . musician	-ory . . . story
-ture . . . adventure	-ic . . . music	-ery . . . discovery

Click here for a Printable Word Families pdf.

Recommended Spelling Programme

My personal preference - and the programme much of this page is based on - is Alpha to Omega by Beve Hornsby

There are also Alpha to Omega Flashcards available and an Activity Book.

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