Word family
The -ine word family
The answer
The -ine word family is every one-syllable word that ends in the rime ine, said /ine/. Our lexicon has 15 public words in it: 8 with one consonant first, 5 with a blend and 2 with a digraph or silent-letter pair.
What is in this family?
The ine family is long i with silent e, and it is big: line, mine, nine, fine, shine, spine. The family also holds a reading trap. Shine, spine, twine and shrine have a blend or digraph before ine, so students must hold two or three sounds before they reach the vowel and look ahead to the e. Sign rhymes with the family but is spelled another way.
The words, sorted by what comes before the rime
One consonant before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| fine | f + ine | Lesson 55 |
| line | l + ine | Lesson 55 |
| mine | m + ine | Lesson 55 |
| nine | n + ine | Lesson 55 |
| dine | d + ine | Lesson 55 |
| sine | s + ine | Lesson 55 |
| pine | p + ine | Lesson 55 |
| vine | v + ine | Lesson 55 |
A blend before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| brine | br + ine | Lesson 55 |
| spine | sp + ine | Lesson 55 |
| swine | sw + ine | Lesson 55 |
| twine | tw + ine | Lesson 55 |
| shrine | shr + ine | Lesson 55 |
A digraph or silent-letter pair before the rime
| Word | Onset + rime | Readable after |
|---|---|---|
| shine | sh + ine | Lesson 55 |
| whine | wh + ine | Lesson 55 |
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 | fine | start here |
| 2 | line | change /f/ to /l/ |
| 3 | mine | change /l/ to /m/ |
| 4 | nine | change /m/ to /n/ |
| 5 | dine | change /n/ to /d/ |
| 6 | sine | change /d/ to /s/ |
| 7 | shine | change /s/ to /sh/ |
| 8 | pine | change /sh/ to /p/ |
| 9 | vine | change /p/ to /v/ |
| 10 | whine | change /v/ to /w/ |
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 |
|---|---|
| -ign | sign |
How do you teach it?
Teach after silent e. Contrast pin and pine, fin and fine, spin and spine, shin and shine. Then build the rest: line, mine, nine, twine, shrine.
"Read 'fin'. Now add an e: f-i-n-e. The e makes the i say its name: fine. Try 'spin'. Add an e: spine."
What is the common error, and the fix?
Students read "pine" as "pin". The fix is to look at the end of the word first: an e one letter after the n means the i is long.
Sort it: a hands-on activity
Pair short and long cards: pin and pine, fin and fine, spin and spine, shin and shine. Students read each pair, then sort a mixed pile into short i and long i.
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 -ine family?
Our lexicon has 15 one-syllable words ending in ine that a student can practice. Words used in our assessments are left out, so a few common words may be missing from the list.
Does mine follow the silent e rule?
Yes. The e at the end makes the i long, and every word in this family works the same way.
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.