Consonant blends: word lists with audio
A consonant blend is two consonants side by side where you still hear both sounds, like fr in frog and st in nest. Hear every word, read the sentences, and play the game.
Consonant blends list (38 words)
Tap a word to hear it.
l-blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl)
r-blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, tr)
s-blends (sk, sn, sp, st, sw)
Ending blends (st, lk, nd, mp, nt, lt, sk, ft)
Consonant blends game: listen and find
Hear a word from the list and pick it from four look-alike words. Eight rounds, about two minutes.
Consonant blends spelling game: build the word
Hear a word and build it from letter tiles, one sound at a time. Letter pairs like sh or ck come as one tile, because they spell one sound. Six rounds.
Short answer
What are consonant blends?
Consonant blends are two or three consonants next to each other in a word where each letter keeps its own sound, such as bl in blob, fr in frog, st in stop and mp in jump. Blends at the start of a word are usually grouped as l-blends, r-blends and s-blends; blends at the end include st, nd, mp, lt and ft. They are different from digraphs such as sh or ch, where two letters make one new sound.
- In a blend, you hear every letter: f and r in frog, s and t in stop.
- Common beginning blends are l-blends (cl, fl, pl), r-blends (cr, dr, tr) and s-blends (sn, sp, st).
- Common ending blends include st, nd, mp, nt, lk, lt and ft.
- Three-letter blends such as str, spl and scr, as in street and splash, usually come later.
About consonant blends
A blend is simply two consonant sounds said quickly one after the other. In frog, you hear /f/ and then /r/ before the vowel; in nest, you hear /s/ and then /t/ at the end. Nothing new has to be learned about the letters themselves. What makes blends hard is the extra sound: a CVC word like fog has three sounds, but frog has four, and children who are still working on blending often drop one of them and read frog as fog.
Most programmes start with s-blends or l-blends at the beginning of a word, because s and l can be stretched: ssstop, flllag. Then come r-blends, then ending blends such as st, nd and mp. Ending blends are often harder than beginning ones, because the final sounds are quieter and children tend to drop the first of them, reading hand as had or jump as jup. Every word on this page uses a short vowel and single-letter sounds apart from the blend, so the only new challenge is holding four sounds in order.
Blends are often confused with digraphs. In a blend, like bl or st, you can hear both letters. In a digraph, like sh, ch or th, two letters make one new sound, and you cannot hear the s or the h in ship. Keep the two apart when teaching: practise blends as two quick sounds, and digraphs as one sound. For children who find reading hard, systematic phonics instruction of this kind, taught in small steps, is the approach with the strongest research support.
Consonant blends in sentences
Decodable sentences: every word can be sounded out with the patterns on this page, plus a few very common words.
- The frog can swim in the pond.
- A crab is on the sand.
- Stop and clap your hands.
- I can jump on the sled.
- The drum is on the desk.
- Dad has a gift and a plum.
- Spin the top on the flat step.
- The flag is in the tent.
Common mix-ups with consonant blends
Dropping the second letter (frog as fog)
The child reads the first consonant and skips the second. Ask them to count the sounds on their fingers, one finger for each: f, r, o, g is four. Then read it again, slowly, touching each finger.
Adding a vowel between the letters (flag as fuh-lag)
Saying fuh for f makes blending hard: fuh-lag sounds nothing like flag. Keep consonant sounds short and clipped, without an uh, so the two sounds slide into each other.
Losing the first ending sound (hand as had)
Ending blends are easy to swallow. Say the word slowly and stretch the ending: ha-n-d. Practise pairs such as had and hand, lap and lamp, and ask your child which one they hear.
Consonant blends activities
Blend slide
Draw a slide on paper. Put the first letter at the top, the second halfway down and the rest of the word at the bottom. Your child runs a finger down the slide, saying each sound without stopping: fffrrrog. Sliding helps them avoid chopping the blend apart.
Add a letter
Start with a CVC word and add a letter to make a blend: lap to clap, top to stop, pin to spin, had to hand. Your child reads both words and says which sound was added.
Blend sort by family
Write words on cards and have your child sort them into l-blends, r-blends and s-blends. Read each pile at the end. Then mix in ending blend words and add a fourth pile.
Tap and sweep
Your child taps a finger on the table for each sound in a word, then sweeps a hand across to say the whole word. For stop: tap s, tap t, tap o, tap p, then sweep: stop. Tapping makes each of the four sounds physical.
Consonant blends: frequently asked questions
What is a consonant blend?
Two or three consonants next to each other where you still hear each sound, such as fr in frog, st in stop or mp in jump.
What is the difference between a blend and a digraph?
In a blend you hear both letters, like b and l in blob. In a digraph, two letters make one new sound, like sh in ship, where you hear neither s nor h.
What are the three types of beginning blends?
l-blends (bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl), r-blends (br, cr, dr, fr, gr, tr) and s-blends (sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st, sw). There are also three-letter blends like str and spl.
When do children learn consonant blends?
Usually in kindergarten or early first grade, once they can read CVC words easily. Blends are the step between three-sound words and longer words.
Practise next
- Short a wordsShort a is the sound in cat, map and bag, and it is usually the first vowel children blend. Hear every word, try the sentences, and play the game at the bottom.
- Sh wordsSh is the quiet sound in ship and fish, the one you make when you ask someone to be quiet. Hear every word, read the sentences, and try the listening game.
- Silent e wordsIn silent e words, the e at the end makes no sound but changes the vowel before it: cap becomes cape, kit becomes kite. Hear every word, read the sentences, and play the game.
- Nonsense wordsNonsense words are made-up words like vap, mip and blom. Because a child has never seen them, the only way to read them is to sound them out. Hear every word, try the sentences, and play the game.