Letters and Their Sounds

The alphabet has 26 letters. Each letter has a NAME (like "A" or "B") and a SOUND (like "ah" or "buh"). When you know all the letter sounds, you can START READING words! Today we will meet the letter-sound connection.

Most letters have a sound you can remember with a word:\n\n- **A** sounds like "ah" as in APPLE\n- **B** sounds like "buh" as in BALL\n- **C** sounds like "kuh" as in CAT\n- **D** sounds like "duh" as in DOG\n- **E** sounds like "eh" as in EGG\n\nEvery time you see a letter, say its sound. That is how you start READING.

Five letters are called VOWELS: **A, E, I, O, U**.\n\nEvery word needs at least one vowel. Vowels are special because they have TWO sounds:\n\n- **Short** — A in CAT, E in BED, I in SIT, O in HOT, U in SUN\n- **Long** — A in CAKE, E in TREE, I in BIKE, O in BOAT, U in MOON\n\nHearing the difference is a SUPERPOWER of reading.

The other 21 letters are CONSONANTS: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.\n\nConsonants make up most of our words. Some have tricky sounds:\n\n- **C** can sound like "kuh" (cat) OR "ss" (city)\n- **G** can sound like "guh" (go) OR "juh" (giant)\n- **Y** can sometimes be a vowel (my, fly)\n\nReaders learn these tricks over time.

When you see the word CAT, say each letter sound:\n\n- **C** = "kuh"\n- **A** = "ah"\n- **T** = "tuh"\n\nNow say them FAST: kuh-ah-tuh = CAT! This is called "sounding out" or "decoding."\n\nTry with these words:\n\n- DOG = "duh-ah-guh"\n- RUN = "ruh-uh-nuh"\n- HAT = "huh-ah-tuh"