The ten patterns English spelling is usually taught in, from simple consonant-vowel-consonant words to schwa and challenge words.
Spelling patterns
CVC short vowels
CVC words — consonant, vowel, consonant — are the first words most children read and spell on their own: cat, sun, bed, pig, mud. Each letter stands for exactly one sound, and the vowel in the middle is short. Because …
Digraphs & blends
This band covers two things that look alike on the page and behave differently. A digraph is two letters making one new sound — sh in 'ship', ch in 'much', th in 'thin', ng in 'ring'. A blend is two …
Silent e (VCe)
Silent e — often called magic e or split digraph — is the pattern where a final e changes the vowel before it from short to long. The e itself is never pronounced: it works at a distance, turning 'cap' …
Vowel teams
A vowel team is two letters — sometimes three — working together for a single vowel sound: ai in 'rain', oa in 'boat', ee in 'tree', ea in 'team', ay in 'play', igh in 'night'. Not every team makes a …
R-controlled vowels
When r follows a vowel it changes it. The vowel is no longer short or long — it merges with the r into a single sound, which is why these are called r-controlled or 'bossy r' vowels. There are three …
Doubled consonants & closed syllables
These are two-syllable words that split between two consonants: rab-bit, sun-set, nap-kin, but-ton, bas-ket. Both halves are closed syllables — they end in a consonant, so the vowel inside stays short. Many of them double a consonant in the middle …
Two-syllable open/VCe patterns & compounds
This band mixes two ways a longer word can be built. Some words split before a single middle consonant, leaving a syllable that ends in a vowel — an open syllable, where the vowel says its name: pa-per, ti-ger, ro-bot, …
Inflected endings & suffixes
Adding an ending to a word sometimes changes the word first. Three things can happen. The base stays as it is — jump/jumping, paint/painted, help/helpful, slow/slowly. It doubles its last consonant — hop/hopped, run/running, skip/skipped, sun/sunny. Or it drops a …
Three syllables & schwa
In a word of three syllables only one syllable is stressed, and the vowels in the others often collapse into a single lazy 'uh' sound called the schwa. In 'banana' only the middle a is really an a; the first …
Challenge words
This last band is not a single pattern. It is the long words that combine everything already learned and add the endings that come with older texts: the -tion of 'information' and 'celebration', the -ture of 'adventure', the -cious and …