Quick answer: what is the difference between a digraph and a tricky word?
A digraph is a spelling made from two letters that work together to represent one phoneme, such as sh in ship, ch in chip or ng in ring. A tricky word is different: it is a word containing at least one spelling-to-sound correspondence that is unusual or not yet taught in the child’s current phonics sequence. The important parent rule is therefore simple: decode every part the child can decode, and give extra attention only to the part that is genuinely unexpected at that stage.
This distinction prevents a common reading problem. If children are told to memorise every common word as a visual shape, they lose opportunities to use phonics. If they are told that every word must be perfectly regular, they can become confused by genuine exceptions. Good phonics teaching keeps both ideas together: use the alphabetic code wherever it works, and explicitly mark the exceptional part when it does not.
Digraphs are still phonics: two letters can represent one sound
Beginning readers first learn that letters represent sounds. They then discover that one phoneme may be represented by more than one letter. A digraph is one of these spelling patterns. The child should learn the digraph as a grapheme and apply it while blending the complete word.
- sh → ship, shop, fish
- ch → chip, much, chat
- th → thin or this; the same spelling can represent different phonemes in English
- ng → ring, song, long
Only use examples whose other grapheme–phoneme correspondences have already been taught. A word can contain the target digraph and still be a poor practice word if another spelling pattern inside it is beyond the child’s current scope.
A digraph is not the same as a consonant blend
In a digraph, two letters represent one phoneme. In a blend such as st in stop, both consonant phonemes remain audible: /s/ + /t/. This matters because a child who treats every two-letter cluster as one sound may misread blends, while a child who tries to pronounce each letter of sh separately may break a digraph apart incorrectly.
“High-frequency”, “sight word” and “tricky word” are not the same thing
Parents often receive lists labelled sight words, tricky words or high-frequency words as if these labels mean the same thing. They do not. A high-frequency word is simply a word that occurs often in print. Many high-frequency words are fully decodable once the relevant phonics patterns have been taught. A sight word is any word a reader can recognise automatically after it has become stored in long-term word memory. A tricky or common-exception word contains a correspondence that is unusual or not yet known to the learner.
This means a common word should not automatically become a memory-only word. If the child can decode it using taught correspondences, let the child decode it. Automatic recognition should grow from secure word knowledge, not from guessing the visual outline of the word.
Some tricky words are only temporarily tricky
A word can be tricky today and more decodable later. For example, a word may contain a vowel team the child has not yet been taught. At the current stage, that part is temporarily unexpected. Once the spelling pattern enters the taught phonics sequence, the same word may no longer need to be treated as exceptional.
Other words contain a genuinely unusual correspondence. In said, for example, s and d behave predictably while ai represents /e/, which is unusual. The useful teaching move is not “memorise said as a picture”; it is “map the sounds, decode the regular parts, and learn the unusual correspondence in the middle.”
Pronunciation and what counts as unusual can vary slightly by accent and by the phonics programme’s taught order. Parents should therefore follow the child’s programme rather than assume that one universal tricky-word list applies identically to every learner.
The Tiny Steps four-question decode-or-remember check
When a child meets a common word, use these four questions before deciding that it must be memorised:
1. Are all the sound-spelling correspondences already taught?
If yes, treat the word as decodable. Ask the child to look through the whole word, identify the graphemes and blend. High frequency does not make a regular word irregular.
2. Is one part regular in English but not taught yet?
If yes, the word may be temporarily tricky for this child. Decode the known parts, explain the untaught correspondence briefly, and revisit it when that pattern is formally taught.
3. Is one correspondence genuinely unusual?
If yes, map the word sound by sound and mark only the unexpected grapheme or grapheme group. The rest of the word should still be connected to phonics knowledge.
4. Can the child read and spell the word outside the original list?
Check the word in isolation, in a new sentence and through spelling or word building. Transfer matters more than reciting a familiar flashcard sequence.
This four-question check is Tiny Steps editorial guidance, not a standardized assessment tool. It is designed to help parents decide whether a word should be fully decoded, partly decoded with an exception highlighted, or reviewed because a pattern has not yet been taught.
How to teach a digraph without turning it into a word list
- Hear it — say a word and help the child notice the target phoneme.
- Map it — show that two letters together represent that phoneme.
- Blend it — read several words containing the digraph with all other patterns already known.
- Contrast it — compare the new digraph with a nearby pattern only when that comparison helps rather than overloads the learner.
- Encode it — spell or build one or two words so sound-to-print knowledge develops as well as print-to-sound reading.
- Transfer it — read the same digraph in a fresh word and a short decodable sentence.
For the broader order of introducing phonics patterns, use Phonics Rules for Beginners. For the first simple decoding stage before digraphs, use CVC Words Explained for Parents.
How to handle a tricky word without encouraging guessing
Start with the spoken word, then map the sounds to the letters. Identify the correspondences that behave as expected and mark only the exceptional or not-yet-taught part. Read the complete word, spell or build it, and then meet it again in a sentence. This keeps the word connected to the alphabetic system instead of teaching it as an unrelated visual symbol.
How to Teach Tricky Words to Kids Without Encouraging Guessing, is the dedicated teaching-routine owner later in this series. This guide explains the conceptual difference between digraph decoding and exception-word learning so parents know what kind of task they are dealing with.
What parents should avoid
- Do not call every high-frequency word “tricky”. Many common words are fully decodable with taught phonics.
- Do not ask the child to memorise the whole visual shape when most of the word can be mapped sound by sound.
- Do not use pictures or sentence context as the main strategy for identifying an unknown printed word. Meaning can confirm a decoded word, but it should not replace attention to the letters.
- Do not introduce a large mixed list containing several untaught digraphs and irregular words at once.
- Do not judge mastery because the child can recite a flashcard deck in order. Mix the order and check the word in new text.
- Do not push reading speed before the child can map and read the word accurately.
Common error patterns and what they may mean
The child splits the digraph into two separate sounds
Return to the grapheme as one spelling unit and practise it in a few simple words containing only known surrounding patterns.
The child recognises the digraph on a card but misses it inside a word
The isolated correspondence has not transferred yet. Reduce card-only practice and increase fresh-word blending and short matched sentence reading.
The child guesses a tricky word from the first letter
Slow down and map the full sound sequence. Highlight the exact exceptional part so the child has more information than a first-letter cue.
The child reads the tricky word but cannot spell it
Reading recognition may be ahead of sound-to-print recall. Add explicit mapping and spelling practice rather than more visual flashing.
The child keeps forgetting many different tricky words
Check whether the active set is too large and whether each word has been connected to sounds and spellings. If broader decoding is also unstable, reduce the word-memory load and strengthen the underlying phonics stage.
How to know when a digraph or tricky word is becoming secure
- The child identifies the taught digraph inside a word without needing it pointed out first.
- The child can read a fresh word containing the digraph, provided the rest of the word uses known patterns.
- The child can explain or locate the unusual part of a taught exception word rather than saying only that “the whole word is tricky”.
- The child can spell or build at least some target words by mapping sounds to graphemes.
- The pattern or word remains available after cumulative review and appears correctly in a new sentence.
There is no evidence-based universal number of digraph words or tricky words that every child must master before moving on. Follow the programme sequence and look for accuracy, independence, retention and transfer.
When to ask for more support
Ask the child’s teacher or a reading professional for a closer review when the child persistently cannot learn taught grapheme–phoneme correspondences, cannot blend known patterns into words, relies mainly on guessing, or cannot retain a small carefully taught exception-word set despite explicit mapping and cumulative review. This article helps classify the learning task; it does not diagnose dyslexia, language, hearing, attention or other learning conditions.
Evidence behind this decode-or-remember approach
The Tiny Steps four-question check is editorial teaching guidance rather than a standardized research protocol. The evidence below supports the underlying principles: children should use taught grapheme–phoneme correspondences to decode unfamiliar words, common exception words should be taught by noting where unusual correspondences occur, high-frequency words are not automatically irregular, and most irregular words remain at least partly decodable.
- UK Department for Education — National curriculum in England: English programmes of study: requires children to apply phonics to decode unfamiliar words and to read common exception words while noting unusual spelling–sound correspondences and where they occur.
- UK Department for Education — Validation of systematic synthetic phonics programmes: expects programmes to teach decoding and spelling of common-exception words at the appropriate point in the programme and to align them with taught phonics and decodable text.
- University of Florida Literacy Institute — Irregular and High Frequency Words: distinguishes temporarily and permanently irregular words and recommends decoding the regular parts while explicitly teaching the small part that must be learned by heart.
- Reading Rockets — A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words: distinguishes fully decodable high-frequency words from words with irregular spellings and recommends integrating both into phonics instruction rather than relying on whole-word memorisation.
Useful next steps
- Review the CVC milestone first if simple three-phoneme decoding is not yet secure.
- Track the blending pathway if the child can recall sounds but cannot join them into words.
- See the beginner phonics sequence if you are unsure what pattern should come next.
- Use the spelling roadmap if reading patterns are stronger than encoding.
- Explore Tiny Steps Phonics if your child needs a structured cumulative pathway rather than isolated word lists.
Where this fits in the learning pathway
Use this route only if it matches the need you identified above: review the Early Phonics stage.
