Practice Sheets

Practice Sheets

You can print out these practice sheets and use them yourself, or if you are a teacher, you can use them with your class. The important thing is for students to learn how to connect the sounds with the letters in the words.

vowel sounds

consonant sounds

Initial sounds are made at the beginning of the word.

b ch d f g
h j k l m
n p r s sh
t th 1 th 2 v w
y z

Middle sounds are made in the middle of the word.

b ch d f g
h j k l m
n p r s sh
t th 1 th 2 v w
y z

Final sounds are made at the end of the word.

b ch d f g
j k l m
n p r s sh
t th 1 th 2 v w
y z

Final sounds + word endings: plural (s) and past tense (ed)

b ch d f g
j k l m
n p r s sh
t th 1 th 2 v w
y z

Teachers: All of the words in these exercises are real words. (At least 99% of them are real!). I have found that these exercises are also useful when introducing new vocabulary words. For example, a student might ask you what “carve” means among the “ar” words.

Keep this in mind: I’m not an expert in the area of teaching pronunciation. It’s never been the focus of my teaching because I think people develop these skills naturally; however, there are some sounds represented by particular letters that cause problems for students–especially if the alphabet in their first language is different from the Latin alphabet.

If you have suggestions for improving upon these exercises, I welcome your ideas.

Feel free to make photocopies!

Pronunciation

Ar

ar

 Read from left to right and go down the list:

bar car dark park
lark bark stark snark
carb garb card guard
lard carve starve barf
charge large barge bars
barn darn farm harm
cart dart fart heart
start tart part art
stars cars Mars Lars
Bart Mark Marge Sarge

Now you try it:

  1. Record your voice reading these words.
  2. Compare your pronunciation to mine.

Learn about short a.

Pronunciation

Aw

aw

 Read from left to right and go down the list:

raw saw law paw
brawl crawl all stall
ought caught thought taught
flaw slaw gnaw naught
flawed broad brawn lawn
dog flog bog blog
walk chalk talk wok
lost cost crossed tossed
fault salt off cough
Sean Maude Dawn Paul

Now you try it:

  1. Record your voice reading these words.
  2. Compare your pronunciation to mine.

Click here for more vowel sounds.

Pronunciation

Long A

long a

 Read left to right and go down the list:

rate mate great paste
taste snake lake break
tape ape scrape crepe
sank bank rank prank
stain drain main brain
eight straight trait grate
slave crave brave wave
safe waif wail tail
pray slay tray stray
Jane Dane Dave Jake
Teachers: To print and use this in class, click here.

Now you try it:

  1. Record your voice reading these words.
  2. Compare your pronunciation to mine.

Pronunciation

Short A

short a

 Read left to right and go down the list:

bat mat tap lap
flap slap app crap
track stack last fast
crass task bask mask
fad dad glad lads
abs flab grab stab
laugh craft scratch latch
grasp clasp task crash
flash trash crack whack
Tad Jan Anne Rand

Now you try it:

  1. Record your voice reading these words.
  2. Compare your pronunciation to mine.