Consonant blends are pairs or groups of consonants that come together in a word while each sound can still be heard. Early readers meet blends at the beginning of words such as stop, clap, and frog. Learning blends helps students read new words more smoothly instead of sounding out every letter as a separate step.
It also helps with spelling because students learn to listen for each sound in the blend.
Key Facts
- A consonant blend has two or more consonants together, and each consonant sound is heard.
- Beginning blends come at the start of words, such as bl in black, st in stop, and cr in crab.
- In the blend bl, you hear /b/ and /l/ close together.
- In the blend st, you hear /s/ and /t/ close together.
- A blend is different from a digraph because a digraph makes one new sound, such as sh in ship.
- To read a blend, say the sounds quickly together, then add the rest of the word: /s/ + /t/ + op = stop.
Vocabulary
- Consonant
- A consonant is a letter sound made by blocking or partly blocking the air, such as b, t, or m.
- Blend
- A blend is a group of consonants said close together while each sound is still heard.
- Beginning blend
- A beginning blend is a consonant blend that appears at the start of a word.
- Sound
- A sound is what you hear when a letter or group of letters is spoken.
- Digraph
- A digraph is two letters that work together to make one sound, such as ch, sh, or th.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Dropping one sound in the blend is wrong because both consonant sounds must be heard, such as saying top instead of stop.
- Stretching the blend into two separate syllables is wrong because the sounds should be close together, such as /c/ /l/ ap becoming clap smoothly.
- Calling every two-letter consonant group a blend is wrong because some pairs are digraphs that make one sound, such as sh in ship.
- Guessing from the first letter only is wrong because the second consonant changes the word, such as black being different from back.
Practice Questions
- 1 Circle the beginning blend in each word, then count how many words have blends: clap, frog, sun, stop, blue, map.
- 2 Write the blend you hear at the start of each word, then count the total number of beginning blend sounds: crab, flag, swim, brick.
- 3 Explain why the word stop has a beginning consonant blend but the word shop does not.