What is a CVC word?

A CVC word is a word built from a consonant, a vowel and a consonant, in that order, where the vowel makes its short sound: cat, dog, sun, pin, hop. They are the first real words children read in phonics, because every letter makes exactly one sound and the sounds blend cleanly. Word families such as at (cat, hat, mat) and op (hop, mop, top) group CVC words by their last two letters.

Examples

• cat, dog, sun, pin, hop, red, bug and jam are all CVC words.
• ship is not a CVC word, because sh is a digraph that makes one sound.
• cake is not a CVC word, because the a is long and the e is silent.

Quick facts

• CVC words are the first words most phonics programmes teach children to blend and segment.
• Longer patterns follow: CCVC words like stop and CVCC words like jump.
• The vowel in a CVC word is always short: a as in apple, e as in egg, i as in ink, o as in orange, u as in umbrella.