The Alphabet & Letter Sounds

Hook

Look at a street sign, a shop name or your own name. Every English word is built from just 26 letters. When someone spells a word for you, on the phone or in class, you need to know how each letter sounds. The good news: the letters fall into seven sound groups, so you don’t have to learn 26 separate sounds.

Notice

Say these letters out loud:

  • A, H, J, K: they all rhyme with day.
  • B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V: they all rhyme with see.
  • F, L, M, N, S, X, Z: they all start with the sound in get.

Can you hear the pattern? Letters in the same group share the same vowel sound.

Rule

Learn the alphabet in these seven groups:

LettersSound (rhymes with…)
A, H, J, Kday
B, C, D, E, G, P, T, Vsee
F, L, M, N, S, X, Zget (Z is “zed” in British English, “zee” in American English)
I, Ymy
Ogo
Q, U, Wyou (W is “double-u”)
Rcar

The five vowels are A, E, I, O, U. All the other letters are consonants. Y can work as both.

Watch Out

  • ✗ E sounds like “eh” → ✓ E sounds like “ee” (see) (A and E are often mixed up)
  • ✗ I sounds like “ee” → ✓ I sounds like “eye” (my)
  • ✗ G and J sound the same → ✓ G = “jee” (see group), J = “jay” (day group)

Practice

  1. Which letter does NOT rhyme with day? a) H b) K c) F d) A
  2. Which group do B, C, D and E belong to: day, see or my?
  3. Which two letters rhyme with my?
  4. Which letter rhymes with car?
  5. How many vowels are there in English? Name them.
  6. Say these letters and write the group: J, T, U.
  7. Someone spells “B-E-D”. What is the word?
  8. Someone spells “J-A-M”. What is the word?
Show the answers
  1. c) F
  2. see
  3. I and Y
  4. R
  5. Five: A, E, I, O, U
  6. J = day, T = see, U = you
  7. bed
  8. jam

Your Turn

Say the whole alphabet out loud from A to Z, group by group. Then spell three words you can see around you right now (for example, door: D-O-O-R).

Connect

Our Spelling Quiz reads a word aloud and you type it: perfect practice for hearing letters and sounds.

Try our Spelling Quiz →

Our Word Ladder game changes one letter at a time, so you practise recognising letters fast.

Play Word Ladder →

CEFR A1 — Listening: I can recognise familiar words and letters when people speak slowly and clearly.

Azizul Hakim
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Printable worksheet (PDF) Pro

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