The H Brothers — SH, CH, TH, WH, PH! Two Letters One Sound! The Phonics Lab

Level 2 · Article 6 of 75

The H Brothers! 👬

SH, CH, TH, WH, PH — when H teams up with another letter, something magical happens!

The Secret 🔑

🤫
The Rule
When two letters join together to make one brand new sound — that is called a digraph! The H Brothers are the most common digraphs in English. Two letters, one sound, always together!

What is a digraph? 🔬

Two letters → One NEW sound!
S
+
H
→
SH!
S says /s/ and H says /h/ — but together SH says /sh/ like in ship! A completely new sound that neither letter makes alone!

Meet the 5 H Brothers! 🎨

👆 Tap any card to hear the sound!
SH /sh/
ship
CH /ch/
chin
TH /th/
this
WH /w/
whip
PH /f/
phone

TH is special — it has TWO sounds! 🎭

TH can be soft OR hard — tap to hear the difference!
thin
soft TH — no voice
this
hard TH — with voice

PH and WH are special too! 🌟

PH and WH make surprising sounds — tap to hear!
phone
PH sounds like /f/
whip
WH sounds like /w/

Words you can ALREADY read! 🌟

👆 Tap any word to hear it!
ship
sails the sea!
chin
on your face!
thin
not thick!
whip
mix it fast!
shed
in the garden!
chop
cut it up!
🎯
The Challenge — Read this silly sentence!
"The thin ship had a chin and a shed on the chip!"
A very strange thin ship somehow grew a chin, and had a tiny shed sitting on top of a chip! Completely silly — but can you spot all the SH, CH and TH words? Count them! 😄

⚠️ Rule Breaker Watch!

⚠️ PH and WH are sneaky!
PH sounds like /f/ — not /p/ and /h/ separately! So phone sounds like fone. This is because PH words mostly came from Greek! 🇬🇷

WH in most accents today sounds just like /w/ — so whip sounds like wip. In some older accents WH had a breathy sound — but for now just treat WH as /w/ and you will always be correct!
Home | About | Explore All | Welcome | Contact | Privacy Policy

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blending 101 — How to Push Sounds Together and Read Real Words!

Level 1 · Article 3 of 75 Blending 101! 🔊 You know the sounds. Now learn the SUPERPOWER — push them together and read real words! The Secret 🔑 🤫 The Rule Blending means pushing sounds together without stopping — say each sound, then slide them into one word. /s/… /a/… /t/… say them faster and faster until you hear sat! That is blending! The Blending Machine ⚙️ 👆 Tap each sound box — then tap the word to hear it all blended! Watch the sounds become a word! /s/ + /a/ + /t/ = sat! /p/ + /i/ + /n/ = pin! /h/ + /i/ + /t/ = hit! Step by step — try these! 👣 👆 Tap each row to hear the whole word blended slowly! 1 fan /f/ + /a/ + /n/ TAP TO HEAR ▶ 2 lip /l/ + /i/ + /...
Read more

What Is Phonics? The Secret Code Every Child Needs to Crack

🔍 English is a secret code — and YOU can crack it! Welcome to The Visual Phonics Lab — 75 colourful adventures that turn little readers into word detectives. 🤔 Wait — what even IS phonics? When your child sees the word cat , their brain can either try to memorise it like a photo — or decode it, sound by sound: /k/ /a/ /t/ . Phonics is the superpower that unlocks the second way. Once they have it, they can read words they have never even seen before. 😤 But English is SO confusing! That's because English isn't random — it's a layered code. The alphabet has only 26 letters, but spoken English uses 44 different sounds . No wonder it feels tricky! This blog cracks every single layer, one small piece at a time. 26 letters in the alphabet 44 sounds in spoken English 75 adventures in this blog 🧪 What is Systematic S...
Read more

QU, NG, NK and The FLOSS Rule — Double Letters Explained! The Phonics Lab

Level 2 · Article 8 of 75 QU, NG, NK and The FLOSS Rule! 💍 The married couple, the nasal twins and the double letter rule — all in one article! The Secret 🔑 🤫 The Rule Some letter pairs always stay together — QU never splits up, NG and NK make nasal sounds, and the FLOSS Rule says double F, L, S or Z after a short vowel in a one-syllable word! Meet the special pairs! 🎨 👆 Tap any card to hear the sound! QU /kw/ queen always together! NG /ng/ ring end of words NK /nk/ sink end of words QU — the married couple! 💍 Q and U are ALWAYS together — Q never appears without U! Q 💍 U → QU! Together QU says /kw/ — like in queen, quick, quiz, quilt! Tap the QU box to hear it! The FLOSS Rule 🦷 After a short vowel in a one-syllable word — ...
Read more