Sign up for our monthly newsletter, and we'll keep you posted as we add new free resources!

  • Phonics Patterns

Build-a-Word: Spelling with 'y' as a Vowel

Video thumbnail for Build-a-Word: Spelling with 'y' as a Vowel
Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
Hide Video Transcript Show Video Transcript

Antonio Fierro: Let's use the build-a-word strategy, working with open syllables. The word is cry. "Don't make me cry." What's the word? Cry. Let's see how many phonemes are in the word cry ... /c/, /r/, /ī/ ... /c/, /r/, /ī/. There are three phonemes, so we have three lines ... /c/, /r/, /ī/. Which grapheme represents that first phoneme, that /c/? The 'c'. The second phoneme is /r/, which grapheme? Ah, 'r'. And the last phoneme here in the word "cry" is /ī/, but this is a one-syllable word, and at the end of a one-syllable word that long /ī/ sound is usually represented by the letter 'y'. Let's spell that ... cry ... 'c', 'r', 'y'. Cry.

Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the AFT; the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; and three anonymous donors.