Phonics Sound Player
Every English sound, properly pronounced. Tap any of the 44 phonemes to hear it, see example words, and check the spelling patterns that make it.
Single-letter consonants
The basic building blocks. Six of these (b, c, d, g, k, p, t) are "stop" sounds that can’t be said cleanly on their own — for those you’ll hear the sound inside a word.
Single-letter vowels
Every vowel has a short sound (taught first) and a long sound (which "says its name"). These five letters do a lot of heavy lifting.
Consonant digraphs
Two letters that team up to make a single sound. Notice that th has two versions — a voiced one and an unvoiced one.
Vowel teams & r-controlled vowels
Longer vowel patterns and the vowels that change when an r follows them. Two pairs sound almost alike but are different — the oo in moon vs. book, for example.
Why pure sounds matter
There are 44 distinct sounds in English, and getting them right matters. A child who has been taught /b/ as "buh" — with a strong vowel stuck on the end — will struggle to blend the word bat, because they are really saying buh-a-tuh, which comes out as buhatuh rather than bat.
But knowing which sound is which — and how to make it cleanly — isn't something most parents have memorized. This is a free interactive reference with every English phonics sound, clearly pronounced, with example words and the spelling patterns that build each one. Bookmark it; you'll come back to it. If you're just getting started, our guide to teaching phonics at home walks through the order to introduce these sounds.
What's in it
The tool covers all 44 phonemes, organized into four groups:
- Single-letter consonants — the basics: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z. Tap any letter to hear the sound with example words.
- Single-letter vowels — a, e, i, o, u in their short forms (the sounds taught first), plus the long-vowel sound for each.
- Consonant digraphs — two letters making one sound: ch, sh, th (voiced and unvoiced — the th in this and the th in thin are different sounds), ng, wh, qu.
- Vowel teams and r-controlled vowels — oo (long and short — the oo in moon and the oo in book are different), ou/ow, oi/oy, ar, or, er/ur/ir, air.
Each sound has an audio button, 3–5 example words, its most common spellings, and a note on common confusions where relevant. One sound spelled many ways is completely normal in English — here's why the same sound is spelled so many ways.
Why it's useful
A few specific situations parents bookmark this for:
When teaching a new sound. Hear it once, copy it. Better than guessing.
When your child says a sound oddly. Check whether they're producing the right phoneme or a slightly distorted version. Often the answer is "that's actually fine — those are physically hard sounds."
When you meet an unfamiliar digraph. The same spelling can stand for different sounds — oo in moon is not the oo in book — and each card lists the spellings that share its sound, so you can check which one you're looking at.
When you don't trust your own accent. Worth checking if you grew up speaking a different variety of English than your child's school teaches. Use the US/UK toggle above to hear either accent.
What it doesn't do
It doesn't teach phonics — it's a reference, not a curriculum. It's the thing you reach for when you're already doing the teaching and need to check something. If you're weighing how much to lean on memorized words, this piece on sight words vs. phonics is a good next read, and you can put these sounds into practice with our free phonics worksheets.
For a structured curriculum, Picture This! covers all 44 sounds in the right teaching order, with each sound introduced and practiced in context. The sound player is the reference; the app is the practice.
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