The difference in one table
| Blend | Digraph | |
|---|---|---|
| Letters | Two or three consonants | Two letters |
| Sounds | One per letter, said quickly together | One sound in total |
| Example | stop: s, t, o, p (four sounds) | ship: sh, i, p (three sounds) |
| Can you hear both? | Yes | No |
| Teach when | After single letter sounds are secure | Alongside or just after the first blends |
Say the word slowly and listen. If you can hear both consonants, it is a blend. If you hear one new sound, it is a digraph.
The blends children meet
Note that thr contains a digraph and a blend at once: th is one sound, then r is another. That is normal and worth pointing out rather than avoiding.
- Starting with l: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl (black, clap, flag, glad, plan, slip).
- Starting with r: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr (brick, crab, drum, frog, grin, prize, tree).
- Starting with s: sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw (scab, skip, smell, snap, spin, stop, swim).
- Three-letter blends: scr, spl, spr, str, thr (scrap, splash, spring, string, three).
- Ending blends: nd, nk, nt, mp, st, ft, lt (hand, bank, tent, jump, best, left, belt).
The digraphs children meet
Consonant digraphs come first because there are few of them and each is reliable. Vowel digraphs take much longer, because English usually has several spellings for the same vowel sound.
- Consonant digraphs: sh (ship), ch (chip), th (thin and then, two different sounds), ck (duck), ng (ring), wh (when), ph (phone).
- Vowel digraphs: ai (rain), ay (day), ee (tree), ea (beach), oa (boat), ow (snow), oo (moon and book, two sounds), ie, ue, oi, oy, ou, aw.
- Split digraphs, sometimes called magic e: a_e (cake), i_e (bike), o_e (home), u_e (cube). Two letters making one sound with a consonant between them.
Why the difference matters
It changes how many sounds a child counts, which changes how they spell. A child who thinks sh is two sounds writes s-h-i-p as four boxes and often drops a letter. A child who thinks st is one sound writes sop for stop. Sound counting is the diagnostic: ask how many sounds are in ship (three) and in stop (four).
It also changes what to do when a child gets stuck. On a blend, slow the two sounds apart and rejoin them. On a digraph, cover the pair and remind them of the single sound it makes, because sounding the letters separately will never produce the word.
How to teach each
- Digraphs: teach as a unit from day one. Write them on one card, underline them as one, and say the sound, not the letters. Sound buttons get one dot under the whole pair.
- Blends: do not teach as units. Teach them as two known sounds said quickly, so the child keeps the skill of blending rather than memorising pairs. Sound buttons get one dot per letter.
- Sound counting daily: say a word, the child counts the sounds on their fingers. This one exercise catches both errors.
- Sort words: a pile of cards to sort into blends and digraphs, saying each aloud. Discussion of the tricky ones (thr, shr, sch) teaches more than the sorting.
The awkward cases, answered
- th makes two different sounds: voiced in then and this, unvoiced in thin and bath. Both are digraphs; children rarely need the terminology, only the two sounds.
- ck is a digraph even though both letters make a k sound on their own, because together they make one k, not two.
- qu behaves like a blend (kw, two sounds) but is always written together, so most programmes teach it as a unit.
- x is one letter making two sounds (ks), the mirror image of a digraph, and worth mentioning when a child asks.