Consonant blends word list
Printable list of blend words · 4 pages
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A consonant blend is two consonants side by side where you can still hear both sounds: the f and l in flag, the s and t in stop, the m and p in jump. That's the difference from a digraph, where two letters make one new sound.
This list holds more than 200 blend words in four sets: l-blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl), r-blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr), s-blends (sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw) and ending blends (-st, -nd, -nt, -mp, -sk, -ft, -lt, -lp, -lk). Nearly all have one short vowel, so they're decodable once a child reads CVC words and digraphs.
Blends are where many young readers start dropping sounds (reading flag as fag, or jump as jup). Sound boxes help, because each sound in a blend gets its own box.
Tips for using it
- If your child drops the second sound, say the word slowly and hold the first sound: fffl-ag.
- Ending blends are often harder to hear than beginning blends. Practice -nd and -nt words out loud before reading them.
Variations
All word lists for kidsQuestions
What is a consonant blend?
Two or three consonants together in which each keeps its own sound, like bl in black, str in string or mp in lamp.
What's the difference between a blend and a digraph?
In a blend you hear each letter (s-t in stop). In a digraph, two letters make one new sound (sh in shop).