Decoding, blending and syllables

Decoding is turning printed letters into the sounds they stand for and blending those sounds into a word. Once one-syllable words are easy, decoding longer words depends on syllables: finding the vowels, splitting the word into chunks, and knowing what each chunk's vowel is likely to say.

English has six common syllable types: closed, open, silent e, vowel team, r-controlled and consonant plus le. Knowing the type tells a student which vowel sound to try first. Division patterns such as VC/CV in "napkin" and V/CV in "robot" tell them where to split.

The articles in this section explain how to teach blending to a student who says the sounds but cannot put them together. They show how to move from one syllable to two, how to teach the syllable types and division patterns, and what to do when the first try at a vowel sound is wrong. They also cover word families and why rimes are useful for early readers.

Our syllable and word family pages carry word lists already split into syllables, so you can practice each pattern with real words.