Word family
The -ash word family
The answer
The -ash word family is every one-syllable word that ends in the rime ash, said /ash/. Our lexicon has 19 public words in it: 8 with one consonant first, 9 with a blend, 1 with a digraph or silent-letter pair and 1 with no sound before the rime.
What is in this family?
The ash family ends in the digraph sh, so every word has a short a and one final sound spelled with two letters. It has a three-sound blend (splash), several two-sound blends (crash, flash, trash, clash, smash) and ash itself, with no onset at all. Gnash is the odd one: its gn says /n/, a silent-letter pair students will see again in gnat and sign.
The words, sorted by what comes before the rime
One consonant before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| bash | b + ash | Lesson 45 |
| cash | c + ash | Lesson 45 |
| dash | d + ash | Lesson 45 |
| hash | h + ash | Lesson 45 |
| rash | r + ash | Lesson 45 |
| lash | l + ash | Lesson 45 |
| mash | m + ash | Lesson 45 |
| sash | s + ash | Lesson 45 |
A blend before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| crash | cr + ash | Lesson 45 |
| flash | fl + ash | Lesson 45 |
| trash | tr + ash | Lesson 45 |
| clash | cl + ash | Lesson 45 |
| slash | sl + ash | Lesson 45 |
| smash | sm + ash | Lesson 45 |
| brash | br + ash | Lesson 45 |
| splash | spl + ash | Lesson 45 |
| thrash | thr + ash | Lesson 47 |
A digraph or silent-letter pair before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| gnash | gn + ash | Lesson 118 |
No sound before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| ash | (none) + ash | Lesson 45 |
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 | crash | start here |
| 2 | trash | change /k/ to /t/ |
| 3 | rash | take away /t/ |
| 4 | ash | take away /r/ |
| 5 | bash | add /b/ |
| 6 | cash | change /b/ to /k/ |
| 7 | dash | change /k/ to /d/ |
| 8 | hash | change /d/ to /hh/ |
| 9 | lash | change /hh/ to /l/ |
| 10 | flash | add /f/ |
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 |
|---|---|
| -ache | cache |
How do you teach it?
Teach ash after sh. Begin with ash alone, then put one sound in front: cash, dash, mash, rash. Then add blends (clash, crash, flash, smash) and finish with splash, which has three sounds before the rime.
"Start with ash, /ash/. Add /d/: dash. Change /d/ to /k/: cash. Add /r/ after the /k/: crash. Now take away /r/ and add /s/ /m/ in front of ash: smash."
What is the common error, and the fix?
Students write "ach" or "as" for the last sound, or try to say s and h separately. The fix is to treat sh as one sound with two letters, and to point under it with one finger, not two, when sounding out.
Sort it: a hands-on activity
Write the ash words on cards and sort them by how many sounds come before ash: none, one, two or three. Splash ends up alone in the last pile, which makes a good talking point.
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 -ash family?
Our lexicon has 19 one-syllable words ending in ash 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 does gnash start with g?
The g is silent. Gn at the start of a word says /n/, as in gnat and gnaw. It is a leftover from an older pronunciation.
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.