Foundational Literacy•Advanced Sounds
Counting Sounds in Words
Practise counting the number of sounds in words.
10 min
🎯 What You'll Learn
You will get better at counting the number of individual sounds in words.
🌟 Let's Start
Amina and Emeka are playing the sound-counting game. Amina says "go" and holds up two fingers — /g/ - /o/. Emeka says "stop" and holds up four fingers — /s/ - /t/ - /o/ - /p/. Who has more sounds? Emeka! Let us play this game.
📚 New Concept
Remember: sounds are different from letters! Some words have more letters than sounds.
Two-sound words:
- go → /g/ - /o/ = 2 sounds
- me → /m/ - /ee/ = 2 sounds
- up → /u/ - /p/ = 2 sounds
Three-sound words:
- cat → /k/ - /a/ - /t/ = 3 sounds
- big → /b/ - /i/ - /g/ = 3 sounds
- shop → /sh/ - /o/ - /p/ = 3 sounds (sh is one sound)
Four-sound words:
- frog → /f/ - /r/ - /o/ - /g/ = 4 sounds
- clap → /k/ - /l/ - /a/ - /p/ = 4 sounds
- desk → /d/ - /e/ - /s/ - /k/ = 4 sounds
🎮 Let's Practice
- How many sounds in hat?
- How many sounds in drum?
- Which word has more sounds: at or flat?
Click to see answers
- hat = /h/ - /a/ - /t/ = 3 sounds.
- drum = /d/ - /r/ - /u/ - /m/ = 4 sounds.
- flat has more sounds! at = 2 sounds. flat = /f/ - /l/ - /a/ - /t/ = 4 sounds.
💡 Remember
Count sounds, not letters! Say the word slowly, stretch each sound, and count. This skill will help you spell and read words.