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:

• Phonetic Skill #1: When one guardian consonant — and nothing more — follows the vowel, the vowel will be short.
• Phonetic Skill #2: When the vowel is followed by two guardian consonants and nothing more, the vowel will be short.
• Phonetic Skill #3: When a vowel stands alone, it will be long.
• Phonetic Skill #4: Silent E makes the first vowel long.
• Phonetic Skill #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.