What is a digraph?
A digraph combines two letters to make a single sound in written or spoken English. Digraphs can consist of consonants and vowels. These shouldn’t be confused with adjacent consonants, where each letter makes a distinct sound rather than combining to make one sound.
What is a vowel digraph?
During year 1, there are many vowel digraphs that children will learn. These can come at the start of a word, an ‘initial’ digraph, or the end, a ‘final’ digraph. Vowel digraphs are groups of two letters that make one sound, where at least one is a vowel. Vowel digraphs are typically placed in the middle of words, although this isn’t always the case.
Vowel digraph list
Check out this list of vowel digraphs your pupils will learn.
- ow – as in know or snow
- ui – as in fruit or bruise
- oe – as in toe or goes
- oa – as in boat or road
- ea – as in thread or lead
- ea – as in read or beach
- ie – as in pie or lie
- ie – as in field or chief
- ue – as in glue or fuel
- oo – as in wood or flood
- ey – as in they or prey
- ai – as in rain or pain.
