What Are Digraphs? A Simple Guide for Parents (with Word Lists)

Once your child can read short words like cat and sun, the next big step is learning that some sounds are written with two letters. These are called digraphs, and they unlock a huge number of everyday words: ship, chin, that, rain, tree. Here’s a clear, parent-friendly guide to what digraphs are and how to teach them.

What is a digraph?

A digraph is two letters that work together to make one sound. The word comes from di (two) and graph (letters).

In ship, the letters s and h don’t make a “sss” then a “huh” — together they make a single new sound: “shh.” That’s a digraph. The same happens with ch in chip, th in that, and ee in tree.

Digraphs vs blends — the key difference

This is the one thing parents most often mix up, so it’s worth getting right.

• A digraph is two letters making one sound. In shop, you hear three sounds: “sh–o–p.”
• A blend is two letters where you still hear both sounds, just close together. In stop, you hear four sounds: “s–t–o–p.” The s and t are blended but distinct.

A quick test: say the word slowly and count the sounds. If the two letters melt into a single new sound, it’s a digraph. If you can still hear each letter, it’s a blend.

Consonant digraphs (with word lists)

These are usually taught first, right after CVC words. Introduce one at a time.

• sh — ship, shop, shed, fish, wish, dish, cash, brush
• ch — chip, chop, chin, chat, rich, much, lunch, bench
• th — this, that, then, them (soft, voiced) · thin, thick, bath, with, moth (hard, unvoiced)
• wh — when, what, which, white, wheel, whale
• ck — duck, sock, kick, back, lock, rock (comes at the end of a word)
• ng — ring, sing, song, long, king, bang
• ph — phone, photo, dolphin, graph (says “f”)

A note on th: it actually makes two slightly different sounds — a soft one in this and a harder one in thumb. You don’t need to label them for your child; just model both naturally as they come up.

Vowel digraphs (two vowels, one sound)

Here two vowels team up to make a single vowel sound. These come a little later, as your child grows in confidence.

• ai — rain, tail, sail, pain, paint, train
• ay — play, day, say, stay, may, tray
• ee — see, tree, feet, green, sleep, three
• ea — sea, eat, read, beach, leaf, team
• oa — boat, coat, road, soap, goat, toast
• oo — moon, food, zoo, spoon (long) · book, look, good, foot (short)

You may have heard the old rhyme, “when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking” (as in rain = “rayn”). It’s a handy memory hook, but it’s only true some of the time, so treat it as a gentle nudge rather than a rule.

When should my child learn digraphs?

The natural time is once CVC words are solid — when your child can comfortably read and blend three-letter words without much help. If you’re still working on those, start with our guide to CVC words first and come back to digraphs after.

How to teach digraphs

1. Introduce the sound first. Show the two letters together and say the single sound they make: “These two letters say shh.”
2. One digraph at a time. Master sh before moving to ch. Crowding them together causes confusion.
3. Sort and spot. Give your child a handful of words and have them highlight or circle the digraph. Noticing the pattern is half the battle.
4. Read decodable words and sentences. Move from single words (ship) to short sentences (The fish is in the dish).
5. Practise with worksheets. Our sounds worksheets are a calm way to reinforce a digraph your child has been learning.

The tricky ones to go gently on

A couple of digraphs make more than one sound — oo (as in moon vs book) and th (as in this vs thumb). Don’t rush these. Teach the most common sound first, get it comfortable, then introduce the second sound later as your child meets it in real books.

Keep building, one sound at a time

Digraphs are a big leap toward fluent reading, because so many common words depend on them. After digraphs, the next pieces are sight words — the high-frequency words worth recognising instantly — which we cover in sight words vs phonics.

If you’d like an educator to guide your child through blends, digraphs and beyond in the right order, our live phonics courses do exactly that. Book a free demo to see how it works.