Bruce Murray, College of Education
The Reading Genie
The top spellings for phonemes and their percentages of the 17,000 most frequent words were investigated by Paul Hanna (see Hodges, R E. (1966). The case for teaching sound-to-letter correspondences in spelling. Elementary School Journal, 66, 327-336, and the update, Fry, E. (2004). Phonics: A large phoneme-grapheme frequency count revisited. Journal of Literacy Research, 36, 85-98). I will only include graphemes that account for at least 3% of the example words. For the reliability of phonics generalizations, see the chart below summarizing Francine Johnston’s research.
Phoneme |
Principal spellings in order of frequency (Hanna, Fry) and example words |
| /a/ | a (sack), 97%; a_e (have), 3% |
| /A/ | a (bacon), 45%; a_e (bake), 35%; ai (raid), 9%; ay (play), 6% |
| /Ar/ | ar (parable), 29%; are (bare), 23%; air (fair), 21%; ere (there), 15%; ear (bear), 6% |
| /ar/ | ar (bar), 89%; are (are), 5%; ear (heart), 3% |
| /aw/ | o (lost), 41%; a (ball), 22%; au (haul), 19%; aw (saw) 10% |
| /b/ | b (big), 97% |
| /ch/ | ch (chair), 55%, t (feature), 31%; tch (catch), 11% |
| /d/ | d (do), 98% |
| /u/ (schwa) | o (other), 24%; u (up), 20%; a (alarm), 19%; i (panic), 18%; e (enough), 11%; ou (famous), 5% |
| /e/ | e (bed), 91%; ea (bread) 4% |
| /E/ | y (very), 41%; e (beware), 40%; ee (feet), 6%; ea (seat), 6% |
| /Er/ | er (experience), 32%; ear (fear), 25%; eer (deer), 18%; e_e (here), 14%; ier (tier), 7% |
| /ul/ | le (table), 95% |
| /er/ | er (hammer), 77%; or (odor), 12%; ar (cellar), 8% |
| /f/ | f (fox), 78%; ph (phone), 12%; ff (stuff), 9% |
| /g/ | g (girl), 88%; gg (egg), 5%; x (exit), 3% |
| /h/ | h (hot), 98% |
| /hw/ | wh (white), 100% |
| /i/ | i (hit), 92%; i-e (give), 6% [y (gym), 2%] |
| /I/ | i_e (pipe), 37%; i (Bible), 37%; y (by), 14%; igh (right), 6% |
| /j/ | ge (age), 66%; j (jet), 22%; dge (edge), 5%; d (soldier), 3% |
| /k/ | c (car), 73%; k (kit), 13%; ck (sick), 6%; ch (choir), 3% |
| /ks/ | x (six), 90%; cs (tocsin), 10% |
| /kw/ | qu (quit), 97% |
| /l/ | l (leg), 91%; ll (tell), 9% |
| /m/ | m (mad), 94%; mm (dimmer), 4% |
| /n/ | n (no), 97% [kn (know)<1%] |
| /ng/ | ng (sing), 59%; n (monkey), 41% |
| /o/ | o (hot), 94%; a (want), 5% |
| /O/ | o (focus), 73%; o_e (hope), 14%; oa (boat), 5%; ow (row), 5% |
| /oi/ | oi (oil), 62%; oy (toy), 32% |
| /oo/ | u (bush), 61%; oo (hook), 35%; o (woman), 5% |
| /Or/ | or (for), 97%; ore (core), 3% |
| /ow/ | ou (shout), 56%; ow (howl), 29%; ou_e (house), 13% |
| /p/ | p (pin), 96%, pp (happen), 4% |
| /r/ | r (run), 97% |
| /s/ | s (say), 73%, c (cereal), 17%; ss (toss), 7% |
| /sh/ | ti (action), 53%; sh (shy), 26%; ci (special), 5%; ssi (fission), 3% |
| /t/ | t (top), 97% |
| /th/ | th (bath) 100% |
| /u/ | u (bus) 86%; o (ton), 8% |
| /U/ or /OO/ | u (human), 59%; u_e (use), 19%; oo (moon), 11%; ew (few) 4% |
| /v/ | v (very), 99.5% |
| /w/ | w (way), 92%; u (suede), 7.5% |
| /y/ | i (onion), 55%; y (yes), 44% |
| /z/ | s (was), 64%; z (zero), 23%; es (flies), 4%, x (xylophone), 4% |
| /zh/ | si (incision), 49%; s (pleasure), 33%; g (garage), 15% |
The frequency of spelling patterns is a matter of scientific discovery. Much of what I learned from Hanna’s study surprised me, e.g., that s is the most common spelling of /z/. We don’t want to burden children and teachers with rare spellings, nor do we want to omit common ones.
From Johnston, F. P. (2001). The utility of phonic generalizations: Let’s take another look at Clymer’s conclusions. The Reading Teacher, 55, 132-143.
Correspondence |
Phoneme, example word, and percent of reliability in common words |
| a_e | /A/ (cake) 78% |
| ai | /A/ (rain) 75% |
| ay | /A/ (play) 96% |
| e_e | /E/ (these) 17% |
| ee | /E/ (feet) 96% |
| ea | /E/ (seat) 64%; /e/ (head) 17% |
| ei | /A/ (rein) 50%; /E/ (either) 25% |
| ey | /E/ (monkey) 77% |
| ie | /E/ (field) 49%; /I/ (tied) 27% |
| i_e | /I/ (five) 74% |
| o_e | /O/ (stove) 58% |
| oa | /O/ (coat) 95% |
| ow | /O/ (snow) 68%; /ow/ (how) 32% |
| oe | /O/ (toe) 44%; /OO/ (shoe) 33%; /u/ (does) 22% [only 9 words in sample] |
| ou | /ow/ (out) 43%; /u/ (touch) 18%; /U/ (your) 7% |
| u_e | /OO/ or /U/ (rule, refuse) 77% |
| oo | /OO/ (boot) 50%; /oo/ (book) 40% |
| ew | /OO/ (blew) 88%; /U/ (few) 19% [some overlap, e.g., new] |
| ui | /i/ (build) 53%; /U/ (fruit) 24% |
| au | /aw/ (cause) 79% |
| aw | /aw/ (saw) 100% |
| oi | /oy/ (join) 100% |
| oy | /oy/ (boy) 100% |
| ia | /E/a/ (piano) 54%; /u/ (Asia) 46% |
| y (unaccented syllable) | /E/ (lucky) 100% |
See also my list of phonemes, common spellings, and meaningful names.
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Last modified: January 26, 2018