What Is Phonemic Awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sound units
(phonemes) in spoken language: to examine language independent of meaning, to see
relationships between sounds in words, and to rearrange sounds to create new words. For
example, the word chick is made up of three phonemes (/ch/ /i/ /k/*); it can be changed to the
word pick by replacing /ch/ with /p/.
*When letters appear between slash marks (such as /k/), the sound rather than the letter name is represented.
Students who are phonemically aware are able to master the following tasks:
Rhyming—The ability to identify and form rhyming words.
Example: Do these words rhyme?
-fun—fan no
-pig—wig yes
-cheer—year yes
-bread—seed no
Sound Matching—The ability to hear and identify similar word patterns.
Example: Which word does not belong?
-sun, sad, sip, tub tub
-mat, bat, hop, cat hop
-bee, meat, sea, fee meat
Syllable Counting—The ability to identify the number of syllables in spoken words.
Example: How many syllables do you hear in these words?
-ticket 2
-dog 1
-bicycle 3
-pencil 2
Syllable Segmenting--The ability to identify onsets and rimes.*
Example: What word do you have when you join these sounds together?
-j-ump jump
-t-an tan
-cl-imb climb
-str-eet street
*An onset is all the sounds in a word that come before the first vowel. A rime is the first vowel
in a word and all the sounds that follow. (For example, in the word splash, the onset is spl- and
the rime is –ash.)
Phoneme Blending—The ability to orally blend individual sounds to form a word.
Example: What word do you have when you join these sounds together?
-/m/ /a/ /p/ map
-/j/ /a/ /k/ jack
-/ch/ /ee/ /p/ cheap
-/b/ /r/ /o/ /k/ broke
Phoneme Isolation—The ability to identify the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in
a word.
Example:
-What’s the beginning sound in toe? /t/
-What’s the middle sound in big? /i/
-What’s the ending sound in plane? /n/
Phoneme Counting—The ability to count the number of phonemes in a word.
Example: How many sounds do you hear in these words?
-at 2
-lake 3
-paint 4
-tent 4
Phoneme Segmentation—The ability to break apart a word into individual sounds.
Example: Which sounds do you hear in these words?
-mud /m/ /u/ /d/
-play /p /l/ /a/
-strike /s/ /t/ /r/ /i/ /k/
Phoneme Addition—The ability to add a beginning, a middle, or ending sound to a
word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you added /b/ to the beginning of low? blow
-What word would you have if you added /r/ to the middle of bed? bread
-What word would you have if you added /s/ to the end of how? house
Phoneme Deletion—The ability to omit the beginning, middle, or ending sound from a
word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you took out the /f/ in flake? lake
-What word would you have if you took out the /l/ in play? pay
-What word would you have if you took out the /t/ in meat? me
Phoneme Substitution—The ability to substitute a new sound for the beginning,
middle, or ending sound of a word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you changed the /b/ in ball to a /t/? tall
-What word would you have if you changed the /o/ in hot to an /a/? hat
-What word would you have if you changed the /p/ in map to a /d/? mad
(phonemes) in spoken language: to examine language independent of meaning, to see
relationships between sounds in words, and to rearrange sounds to create new words. For
example, the word chick is made up of three phonemes (/ch/ /i/ /k/*); it can be changed to the
word pick by replacing /ch/ with /p/.
*When letters appear between slash marks (such as /k/), the sound rather than the letter name is represented.
Students who are phonemically aware are able to master the following tasks:
Rhyming—The ability to identify and form rhyming words.
Example: Do these words rhyme?
-fun—fan no
-pig—wig yes
-cheer—year yes
-bread—seed no
Sound Matching—The ability to hear and identify similar word patterns.
Example: Which word does not belong?
-sun, sad, sip, tub tub
-mat, bat, hop, cat hop
-bee, meat, sea, fee meat
Syllable Counting—The ability to identify the number of syllables in spoken words.
Example: How many syllables do you hear in these words?
-ticket 2
-dog 1
-bicycle 3
-pencil 2
Syllable Segmenting--The ability to identify onsets and rimes.*
Example: What word do you have when you join these sounds together?
-j-ump jump
-t-an tan
-cl-imb climb
-str-eet street
*An onset is all the sounds in a word that come before the first vowel. A rime is the first vowel
in a word and all the sounds that follow. (For example, in the word splash, the onset is spl- and
the rime is –ash.)
Phoneme Blending—The ability to orally blend individual sounds to form a word.
Example: What word do you have when you join these sounds together?
-/m/ /a/ /p/ map
-/j/ /a/ /k/ jack
-/ch/ /ee/ /p/ cheap
-/b/ /r/ /o/ /k/ broke
Phoneme Isolation—The ability to identify the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in
a word.
Example:
-What’s the beginning sound in toe? /t/
-What’s the middle sound in big? /i/
-What’s the ending sound in plane? /n/
Phoneme Counting—The ability to count the number of phonemes in a word.
Example: How many sounds do you hear in these words?
-at 2
-lake 3
-paint 4
-tent 4
Phoneme Segmentation—The ability to break apart a word into individual sounds.
Example: Which sounds do you hear in these words?
-mud /m/ /u/ /d/
-play /p /l/ /a/
-strike /s/ /t/ /r/ /i/ /k/
Phoneme Addition—The ability to add a beginning, a middle, or ending sound to a
word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you added /b/ to the beginning of low? blow
-What word would you have if you added /r/ to the middle of bed? bread
-What word would you have if you added /s/ to the end of how? house
Phoneme Deletion—The ability to omit the beginning, middle, or ending sound from a
word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you took out the /f/ in flake? lake
-What word would you have if you took out the /l/ in play? pay
-What word would you have if you took out the /t/ in meat? me
Phoneme Substitution—The ability to substitute a new sound for the beginning,
middle, or ending sound of a word.
Example:
-What word would you have if you changed the /b/ in ball to a /t/? tall
-What word would you have if you changed the /o/ in hot to an /a/? hat
-What word would you have if you changed the /p/ in map to a /d/? mad