Sunny Academy
Learn common spelling-to-sound patterns, compare tricky words and check what you hear. Pronunciation varies by accent; examples identify US forms where needed.
Vowels · vowel + consonant + e
Difficulty: A1
A final e often makes the earlier vowel say its name; the e itself is usually silent. This is a useful pattern, not a guarantee.
Examples: cap → cape · bit → bite · hop → hope · cut → cute
Other pronunciations and limits: have · give · love · some · done
Example sentence: I made a cake at home.
Vowels · ea
Difficulty: A1
EA often sounds like /iː/, but common words use /ɛ/, /eɪ/ or another vowel. Learn frequent word families.
Examples: eat · sea · teacher · clean
Other pronunciations and limits: bread /brɛd/ · head /hɛd/ · great /ɡreɪt/ · break /breɪk/ · heart /hɑːrt/ (US), /hɑːt/ (UK)
Example sentence: We eat fresh bread by the sea.
Vowels · oo
Difficulty: A1
OO often represents /uː/, but many familiar words have /ʊ/ and a few have other sounds.
Examples: food · moon · school · room
Other pronunciations and limits: book /bʊk/ · good /ɡʊd/ · foot /fʊt/ · blood /blʌd/ · flood /flʌd/
Example sentence: The good cook brought food to school.
Vowels · ai
Difficulty: A1
In many common words, AI represents /eɪ/. Several frequent words use a different vowel.
Examples: rain · train · wait · paint
Other pronunciations and limits: said /sɛd/ · again /əˈɡɛn/ (common US variant) · plaid /plæd/
Example sentence: The train came in the rain.
Vowels · oa
Difficulty: A2
OA commonly represents /oʊ/ in American English. A small group of words does not follow this pattern.
Examples: boat · road · coat · soap
Other pronunciations and limits: broad /brɑːd/ (US), /brɔːd/ (UK) · abroad /əˈbrɑːd/ (US), /əˈbrɔːd/ (UK)
Example sentence: The boat passed the broad road.
Vowels · ou
Difficulty: A2
OU is a spelling family with several productive pronunciations. Use the word and its family to predict the sound.
Examples: out /aʊ/ · soup /uː/ · young /ʌ/ · could /ʊ/ · four /ɔr/ (US)
Other pronunciations and limits: No single sound covers all common OU words.
Example sentence: The young boy could find some soup.
Vowels · ow
Difficulty: A2
OW commonly represents /aʊ/ or /oʊ/. There is no fully reliable rule for choosing between them in every word.
Examples: cow /kaʊ/ · now /naʊ/ · snow /snoʊ/ · grow /ɡroʊ/
Other pronunciations and limits: Learn the pronunciation with each word.
Example sentence: Now the snow is falling.
Vowels · ie
Difficulty: A2
IE can represent different vowel sounds. “I before E except after C” is not a reliable pronunciation rule.
Examples: piece /piːs/ · field /fiːld/ · pie /paɪ/ · friend /frɛnd/
Other pronunciations and limits: friend is a common high-frequency exception to the spelling expectation.
Example sentence: My friend found a piece of pie.
Vowels · ei
Difficulty: A2
EI may represent /iː/, /eɪ/ or /aɪ/. Pronunciation depends on the word.
Examples: receive /rɪˈsiːv/ · ceiling /ˈsiːlɪŋ/ · eight /eɪt/ · height /haɪt/
Other pronunciations and limits: either has more than one standard pronunciation.
Example sentence: They received eight letters.
Vowels · y
Difficulty: A1
Y can function as a consonant or represent different vowel sounds, depending on its place in a word.
Examples: happy /ˈhæpi/ · gym /dʒɪm/ · my /maɪ/ · myth /mɪθ/
Other pronunciations and limits: Compare the sound, not just the letter name.
Example sentence: My happy puppy ran to the gym.
Consonants · c + e/i/y
Difficulty: A2
C often represents /s/ before E, I or Y, and /k/ in many other positions. There are word- and name-specific exceptions.
Examples: city · center · cycle · cat · cup
Other pronunciations and limits: Celtic has multiple established pronunciations depending on context.
Example sentence: The city cycle shop is near the center.
Consonants · g + e/i/y
Difficulty: A2
G often represents /dʒ/ before E, I or Y, but the spelling does not determine the sound in every word.
Examples: giant · gym · general
Other pronunciations and limits: get · give · girl · gear
Example sentence: The giant girl got a green gift.
Consonants · ph
Difficulty: A2
In many established words, PH represents /f/. At word or morpheme boundaries, P and H may be separate sounds.
Examples: phone · photo · elephant · alphabet
Other pronunciations and limits: uphill: P and H are in separate syllables; shepherd is commonly /ˈʃɛpərd/.
Example sentence: The phone photo is on the wall.
Consonants · ch
Difficulty: A2
CH most often represents /tʃ/ in everyday words. Words from different language histories may use /k/ or /ʃ/.
Examples: chair /tʃ/ · cheese /tʃ/ · child /tʃ/
Other pronunciations and limits: chemistry /k/ · character /k/ · machine /ʃ/ · chef /ʃ/
Example sentence: The child chose cheese, not chef’s soup.
Consonants · th
Difficulty: A2
TH commonly represents /θ/ as in think or /ð/ as in this. A few names and words use /t/.
Examples: think /θɪŋk/ · three /θriː/ · this /ðɪs/ · mother /ˈmʌðər/
Other pronunciations and limits: Thomas and thyme begin with /t/.
Example sentence: Three mothers think about this.
Consonants · sh
Difficulty: A2
SH generally represents /ʃ/. When the letters straddle a word-part boundary, they may remain separate sounds.
Examples: ship · fish · shop
Other pronunciations and limits: mishap: S and H belong to separate parts of the word.
Example sentence: The ship left the shop.
Consonants · ng
Difficulty: B1
NG often represents /ŋ/. In some words, including finger, a /ɡ/ follows; compare singer, which normally has /ŋ/ alone.
Examples: sing /sɪŋ/ · ring /rɪŋ/ · long /lɔŋ/
Other pronunciations and limits: finger /ˈfɪŋɡər/ vs singer /ˈsɪŋər/ (US)
Example sentence: The singer put a finger in the ring.
Consonants · -s / -es
Difficulty: A2
The ending is /s/ after a voiceless sound, /z/ after a voiced sound, and /ɪz/ after sibilant sounds.
Examples: cats /s/ · dogs /z/ · buses /ɪz/
Other pronunciations and limits: Choose by the final sound of the base word, not its last letter.
Example sentence: She packs bags and washes dishes.
Consonants · -ed
Difficulty: A2
Regular -ed is /t/ after most voiceless sounds, /d/ after voiced sounds, and /ɪd/ after /t/ or /d/.
Examples: worked /t/ · played /d/ · wanted /ɪd/
Other pronunciations and limits: These are sound-conditioned forms, not random exceptions.
Example sentence: They worked, played and wanted more.
Consonants · double consonant
Difficulty: B1
A doubled consonant spelling usually represents one consonant sound; doubling can also signal vowel or word structure.
Examples: happy · dinner · rabbit
Other pronunciations and limits: Do not pronounce the consonant twice.
Example sentence: The happy rabbit had dinner.
Silent letters · kn-
Difficulty: A1
In many inherited English words beginning KN, K is silent.
Examples: know · knife · knee · knock
Other pronunciations and limits: The K is pronounced in some names and borrowings; check the word.
Example sentence: I know where the knife is.
Silent letters · wr-
Difficulty: A1
In common words beginning WR, W is silent and the word starts with /r/.
Examples: write · wrong · wrist · wrap
Other pronunciations and limits: Compare with words where W is pronounced, such as write vs. white.
Example sentence: Write the wrong word on your wrist.
Silent letters · -mb
Difficulty: A2
B is silent in many common words ending in MB. It is not silent in every word containing those letters.
Examples: lamb · thumb · climb · comb
Other pronunciations and limits: number: B is pronounced.
Example sentence: The lamb climbed with a crumb.
Silent letters · selected l + consonant groups
Difficulty: A2
L is silent in some frequent words, but pronounced in many similar-looking words. Learn these word by word.
Examples: walk · talk · calm · half
Other pronunciations and limits: milk · help: L is pronounced.
Example sentence: We walk half a mile after lunch.
Silent letters · gh
Difficulty: A2
GH has several outcomes depending on the word: it can be silent, sound /f/, or sound /ɡ/ in some positions.
Examples: night · light · right · daughter
Other pronunciations and limits: laugh /f/ · enough /f/ · ghost /ɡ/
Example sentence: The light was bright, but the ghost laughed.
Advanced patterns · ough
Difficulty: B1
OUGH has several pronunciations across common words and dialects. Learn each word with its sound; there is no single fixed sound count for every dialect or word set.
Examples: though /ðoʊ/ (US), /ðəʊ/ (UK) · through /θruː/ · rough /rʌf/ · tough /tʌf/ · thought /θɑːt/ (US), /θɔːt/ (UK) · bought /bɑːt/ (US), /bɔːt/ (UK) · cough /kɔf/ (US), /kɒf/ (UK) · bough /baʊ/
Other pronunciations and limits: thorough and enough add further variation.
Example sentence: Though it was rough, we walked through.
Advanced patterns · -tion
Difficulty: B1
The ending TION commonly represents /ʃən/. Some related spellings and words behave differently.
Examples: nation · station · information
Other pronunciations and limits: question /ˈkwɛstʃən/
Example sentence: The station shared information about the nation.
Advanced patterns · -sion
Difficulty: B2
SION commonly has /ʒən/ or /ʃən/. Word families and stress can help, but learn the word forms together.
Examples: vision /ˈvɪʒən/ · decision /dɪˈsɪʒən/
Other pronunciations and limits: tension /ˈtɛnʃən/ · expansion /ɪkˈspænʃən/
Example sentence: Her decision ended the tension.
Advanced patterns · /ə/ in unstressed syllables
Difficulty: B1
In many accents, an unstressed vowel reduces to /ə/. Stress and connected speech affect how clearly it is heard.
Examples: about · banana · support
Other pronunciations and limits: Vowel reduction varies with accent and speaking style.
Example sentence: A banana was about to fall.
Advanced patterns · word stress
Difficulty: C1
Some noun–verb pairs shift stress. This is a common pattern, not a rule for every pair.
Examples: PREsent (noun) / preSENT (verb) · REcord (noun) / reCORD (verb)
Other pronunciations and limits: Listen for the stressed syllable; capitalization here only marks stress.
Example sentence: I record a record before I present the present.
