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Home > Reading and Spelling Lessons & Word Lists> Word Lists Index >Word List Samples > Initial Consonant Blends List

 

Initial Consonant Blends (list)

Two consonants at the beginning of a word or syllable make up a "blend." The two sounds flow together smoothly. Students can discover which consonants make good blends; this is a good way to help the students become aware of what they are doing with their mouths when they make these sounds. "bb," "bc," and "bd" just don't blend smoothly; the chart below shows which letters blend.

It's not perfect... dw and tw are blends used in the English language, but w is utterly blendable with most other consonants (ask any speech therapist!). Just ignore this little detail unless the student brings it up.

Also, it is important that student's don't get into the habit of saying "sluh" for the blend, since this can lead to sounding out words with that extra vowel as well (sluh-eep). As soon as possible, practicing the blends as part of syllables will help keep this from happening.

bl

squ

br

st

cl

sw

cr

tr

dr

tw

dw

fl

scl

fr

spl

gl

scr

gr

spr

pl

str

pr

sc

chl*

sk

chr*

sl

phl

sm

phr

sn

shr

sp

thr

*when ch is in a blend, it has the /k/ sound. You may want to wait and teach this when the student encounters words where ch sounds like /k/ (as in school and Christmas and chlorine).

 

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