Word family
The -ank word family
The answer
The -ank word family is every one-syllable word that ends in the rime ank, said /angk/. Our lexicon has 17 public words in it: 6 with one consonant first, 10 with a blend and 1 with a digraph or silent-letter pair.
What is in this family?
The ank family uses a welded sound: the a before nk is not a clean short a, because the n is said as /ng/. That is why many programs teach ank, ink, onk and unk as units. Our list sorts the family by what comes before ank, and blends dominate: drank, crank, plank, prank, shrank. Every word is one syllable, so the family is quick practice with four-sound words once students blend well.
The words, sorted by what comes before the rime
One consonant before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| bank | b + ank | Lesson 52 |
| tank | t + ank | Lesson 52 |
| rank | r + ank | Lesson 52 |
| sank | s + ank | Lesson 52 |
| dank | d + ank | Lesson 52 |
| yank | y + ank | Lesson 52 |
A blend before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| blank | bl + ank | Lesson 52 |
| drank | dr + ank | Lesson 52 |
| frank | fr + ank | Lesson 52 |
| clank | cl + ank | Lesson 52 |
| crank | cr + ank | Lesson 52 |
| flank | fl + ank | Lesson 52 |
| plank | pl + ank | Lesson 52 |
| prank | pr + ank | Lesson 52 |
| stank | st + ank | Lesson 52 |
| shrank | shr + ank | Lesson 52 |
A digraph or silent-letter pair before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| thank | th + ank | Lesson 52 |
Word ladder: change one sound at a time
Every step is a real word from the list, and each one changes exactly one sound. Say the change aloud before the student writes the new word.
| Step | Word | The change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | bank | start here |
| 2 | tank | change /b/ to /t/ |
| 3 | thank | change /t/ to /th/ |
| 4 | rank | change /th/ to /r/ |
| 5 | sank | change /r/ to /s/ |
| 6 | dank | change /s/ to /d/ |
| 7 | drank | add /r/ |
| 8 | frank | change /d/ to /f/ |
| 9 | crank | change /f/ to /k/ |
| 10 | clank | change /r/ to /l/ |
Rhymes spelled another way
These words rhyme with the family but spell the rime differently, so they belong to other families. Expect students to mix them up when spelling.
| Spelling | Words |
|---|---|
| -anc | franc |
How do you teach it?
Teach ank as one chunk, after students know ng. Say it, write it and build with single consonants first (bank, tank, sank, rank, yank), then blends (blank, drank, clank, plank, crank), then thank and shrank.
"Our chunk is a-n-k. Say it with me: /angk/. Now add /b/: bank. Change /b/ to /t/: tank. Add /d/ and /r/ instead: drank. How many sounds come before the chunk in drank? Two."
What is the common error, and the fix?
Students write "bak" or "bangk", hearing /ng/ and /k/ separately. The fix is to teach ank as a unit with a fixed spelling: the /ng/ sound before k is spelled with just n.
Sort it: a hands-on activity
Give students ank, ink and unk cards with a set of onsets. They build as many real words as they can in five minutes, then sort them by chunk and count each pile.
How this list was built
Every word comes from our lexicon of about 19,000 common words, each checked against a pronouncing dictionary and split into spelling units. Words a student meets in our assessments and progress-monitoring probes are left out, so practicing a list never rehearses a test. A family is every one-syllable base word (no suffix, not a compound) whose rime, the vowel unit and every unit after it, has the same spelling and the same sounds, so bead and bread are in different families. Ladders use only words from the list, and each step changes exactly one sound.
"Readable after" is the first lesson in the lesson sequence at which our decodability engine finds every sound-spelling in the word taught; "not taught" means the word has a spelling the sequence does not cover, so it is read with help. You can check your own lists and passages with the free decodable text checker.
Questions people ask
How many words are in the -ank family?
Our lexicon has 17 one-syllable words ending in ank that a student can practice. Words used in our assessments are left out, so a few common words may be missing from the list.
Why is there no g in bank?
Before k, the /ng/ sound is spelled with n alone: bank, pink, junk. The k right after it tells the reader to say /ng/.
What is a word ladder?
A chain of real words where each step changes one sound: swap a sound, add one, or take one away. Students say the change before they write it, which trains them to hear every sound in the word.