Five Phonetic Skills

The Five Phonetic Skills allow students to identify the five common patterns of English words and “prove” the vowel sound in a word. Proving words using the Five Phonetic Skills is an indispensable tool used to decode, pronounce, and spell new words.

The Five Phonetic Skills are:

1. When one guardian consonant — and nothing more — follows the vowel, the vowel will be short.
2. When the vowel is followed by two guardian consonants and nothing more, the vowel will be short.
3. When a vowel stands alone, it will be long.
4. Silent E makes the first vowel long.
5. When vowels are adjacent, the second vowel is silent, and the first vowel is long.

These skills are gradually internalized and become automatic, resulting in greater reading speed and fluency.