Sh words: beginning and ending sh
Sh 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.
Sh words list (42 words)
Tap a word to hear it.
Sh at the beginning
Sh at the end
Sh words game: listen and find
Hear a word from the list and pick it from four look-alike words. Eight rounds, about two minutes.
Sh words 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 sh words?
Sh words are words that contain the consonant digraph sh, two letters that together spell the single sound /sh/, as in ship, shop, fish and brush. The sound can come at the beginning of a word (shell, sheep) or at the end (dish, wash). Sh is often the first digraph children learn, because the sound is common and easy to hold, which makes it a good way to show that two letters can spell one sound.
- Sh is a digraph: s and h together make one sound, /sh/, not /s/ plus /h/.
- Sh appears at the beginning of words (ship), at the end (fish), and inside longer words (bishop).
- Fish has four letters but only three sounds: /f/ /i/ /sh/.
- The sound /sh/ can also be spelled ti in nation, ci in special and s in sugar, but sh is the spelling taught first.
About sh words
The /sh/ sound is made by pushing the lips forward a little and letting air rush out over the tongue, with no voice. It is a continuous sound, so a child can hold it as long as they like: shhhhhip. That makes sh one of the easiest digraphs to blend, and a good first example of the rule that two letters can make one sound that neither letter makes by itself.
The list is split by position. Start with the words where sh comes first, such as ship, shop, shed and shut: the child sees sh, says /sh/, and blends the rest as a normal CVC word. Then move to words ending in sh, such as fish, dish, cash and rush, where the child has to keep going to the end of the word and not stop at the s. Short-vowel words like these come first; words with long vowels or other vowel spellings (sheep, shoe, shirt, shout) come once those patterns have been taught.
A few words on the list are worth pointing out. In wash and push, the vowel does not make its usual short sound: wash rhymes with gosh for most American speakers, and push has the vowel from put. Treat these as words to practise until they are known, rather than words to sound out letter by letter. Also note that /sh/ has other spellings later on, such as the ti in nation, but sh is by far the most common one in early reading.
Sh words in sentences
Decodable sentences: every word can be sounded out with the patterns on this page, plus a few very common words.
- A fish is in the dish.
- I wish I had a red shell.
- Shut the shed and the shop.
- The sheep is in the shade.
- A shark has a big fin.
- Wash the dish and the cup.
- Push the ship to the shore.
- Hush, the cat is on the shelf.
- Brush the mud off the shoe.
Common mix-ups with sh words
Sh and ch (ship and chip)
Both sounds are made with the lips pushed forward, but /sh/ is a long, soft rush of air and /ch/ is a short, sharp burst, like a sneeze. Say pairs and let your child point to the one they hear: ship or chip, shop or chop, wash or watch.
Reading s and h separately
If ship comes out as sip or suh-hip, the child is reading each letter. Have them loop the sh with a finger before reading, and say the two letters as one sound.
Writing s instead of sh
When spelling, children often write fis for fish, because they hear one sound and write one letter. Remind them that /sh/ needs two letters, and count sounds and letters together: three sounds, four letters.
Sh words activities
Quiet sound hunt
Put a finger to your lips and say shhh. Read words from the list and ask your child to make the shhh gesture only when they hear /sh/. Mix in s words like sip and sock so they have to listen carefully.
Beginning or end sort
Draw a long line with a ship at the start and a fish at the end. Read a word card, then place it at the start if sh comes first (shop) or at the end if it comes last (dish).
Two letters, one box
Draw sound boxes for fish: three boxes, not four. Push a counter in for each sound, /f/ /i/ /sh/, then write the letters, with s and h squeezed into the last box together.
Shaving foam sh
Write sh in shaving foam or sand while saying /sh/, then build a word by adding letters around it: sh-i-p, d-i-sh. Saying the sound while tracing links the hand, eye and ear.
Sh words: frequently asked questions
What are some easy sh words for kindergarten?
Start with short-vowel words where each other letter makes one sound: ship, shop, shed, shut, fish, dish, wish, cash and rush.
Is sh a digraph or a blend?
A digraph. In a blend like st, you hear both letters. In sh, the s and h combine into one new sound, /sh/.
What words have sh in the middle?
Longer words such as bishop, cushion, fashion and marshmallow have sh in the middle. They are best practised after the beginning and ending sh words on this page.
Are there other ways to spell the sh sound?
Yes. Later on children meet ti (nation), ci (special), s (sugar, sure) and ch (chef). For early reading and spelling, sh is the spelling to learn first.
Practise next
- Ch wordsCh is the sharp sound in chin and lunch, a bit like a small sneeze. Hear every word, learn when to write tch instead of ch, and try the listening game.
- Th wordsTh is the digraph where the tongue peeks out between the teeth. It has two sounds, the quiet one in thin and the buzzing one in this. Hear every word and try the game.
- Ck wordsCk is the /k/ sound at the end of duck, sock and kick. It only comes after a short vowel, which makes it a clear rule to learn. Hear every word and try the game.
- Short i wordsShort i is the sound in pig, sit and lip. After short a, it is usually the next vowel children learn to blend. Tap any word to hear it, read the sentences, and try the game below.