Guide
Glossary
Use the Jolly Phonics glossary to understand key phonics terms, classroom language and teaching concepts in the programme.
Glossary
Glossary of Phonics Terms
Phoneme represented by the symbols / /
Definition:
represented by the symbols / /
- The smallest unit of sound in a word.
Grapheme represented by the symbols ‹ ›
Definition:
represented by the symbols ‹ ›
-
The letter, or group of letters, that represent a sound (phoneme).
Example: The sound /f/ can be written with the grapheme ‹f› as in ‘fun’ or ‹ph› as in ‘phone’.
Blending
Definition:
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Putting individual sounds together to read a word.
Example: /s-a-t/ blended becomes ‘sat’ and /ch-ai-n/ blended becomes 'chain'.
Segmenting
Definition:
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Breaking a word into its individual sounds to help with writing.
Example: The word ‘dog’ can be segmented into /d-o-g/.
Encode
Definition:
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To write a word by listening to the sounds and choosing the correct letters.
Example: Hearing /c-a-t/ and writing ‘cat’.
Decode
Definition:
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To read a word by sounding out the letters and blending them together.
Example: Seeing ‘ship’, sounding out /sh-i-p/, and blending the sounds to hear the word.
Digraph
Definition:
-
Two letters that work together to make one sound.
Examples: ‹sh› in ‘ship’ or ‹ch› in ‘chip’.
Trigraph
Definition:
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Three letters that make one sound.
Examples: ‹igh› in ‘night’; ‹air› in ‘hair; ‹ear› in ‘bear’; ‹are› in ‘stare'.
Quadgraph
Definition:
-
Four letters that make one sound.
Examples: ‹ough› in ‘rough’; ‹eigh› in ‘eight’; ‹aigh›, in ‘straight’.
Split Digraph (also known as a ‘magic e’ or ‘hop-over e’ digraph)
Definition:
(also known as a ‘magic e’ or ‘hop-over e’ digraph)
-
A long vowel digraph where the two vowel letters are not next to each other but are separated by a single consonant.
The main split digraphs are ‹a_e›, ‹e_e›, ‹i_e›, ‹o_e› and ‹u_e›. Example words: ‘cake’, ‘eve’, ‘bike’, ‘note’, ‘cute’.
Sound Dots (also known as a ‘sound button’)
Definition:
(also known as a ‘sound button’)
-
A dot placed under the letter/s (grapheme) that represents a sound (phoneme) in a word.
● ● ●
CVC Word
Definition:
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A word that follows a consonant-vowel-consonant sound pattern. That means it has three phonemes (sounds): one consonant sound, followed by a vowel sound, then another consonant sound.
Example: cat, pen, boat, rain, ship, moth, such.
Alternative spellings
Definition:
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Different ways of writing the same sound.
Example: The /ai/ sound in ‘day’, ‘cake’, ‘rain’, ‘they’.
Decodable Words
Definition:
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Words that use letter sound correspondences that have already been taught.
These words change depending on which letter sounds have been taught. After teaching Group 1 sounds (s, a, t, i, p, n), some example decodable words include: sat, pin, sit, and pan.
Tricky Word
Definition:
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Frequently used words that are not fully decodable at the time they are needed and taught.
Example: ‘was’, ‘said’, ‘to’, ‘your’, ‘there’, ‘what’, ‘made’, ‘eight’.
High-frequency words
Definition:
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Commonly used words that may be decodable or non-decodable.
Examples: ‘and’, ‘it’, ‘went’, ‘was’, ‘said’.