Teaching Digraphs in Australian Schools — Two Letters, One Sound
Digraphs are the Year 1 inflection point. Students who secure ch, sh, th, wh and ph with the right accent continue to make strong gains — students who do not, stall.
Used by teachers in NSW · VIC · QLD · WA · SA · ACT
The phonics concept
What Are Digraphs?
Digraphs are two letters that represent one phoneme. They are introduced from Foundation Term 3 and form the backbone of consonant phonics instruction through Year 1 — the point where decoding either gains traction or stalls.
Two letters, one phoneme
A digraph is two letters that together represent a single phoneme. Consonant digraphs include ch (/tsh/ as in 'chip'), sh (/sh/ as in 'ship'), th (/th/ voiceless as in 'bath' or /dh/ voiced as in 'the'), wh (/w/ as in 'where'), ph (/f/ as in 'phone'), and ng (/ng/ as in 'ring'). Each digraph must be taught as an indivisible unit -- splitting 'sh' into /s/ + /h/ produces a word that does not exist in English.
Consonant digraphs vs vowel digraphs
Consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, ph, ng) represent consonant phonemes. Vowel digraphs -- also called vowel teams -- represent vowel phonemes (ai, ea, oa, oo, ou). Both are multi-letter graphemes representing single phonemes, but they behave differently in words and are taught at different points in the sequence. Understanding the distinction helps teachers sequence instruction and explain to students why 'ea' and 'sh' follow the same two-letters-one-sound principle.
The 'th' problem
The digraph 'th' represents two distinct phonemes: voiceless /th/ as in 'bath', 'path', and 'think', and voiced /dh/ as in 'the', 'they', and 'this'. Students often conflate the two, producing the wrong phoneme in one or both contexts. Explicit instruction must model both pronunciations separately, with clear examples of each. The voiced/voiceless distinction also matters for decoding: a student who only knows the voiceless /th/ will misread high-frequency function words like 'the' and 'this'.
Digraphs are a Year 1 inflection point
Students who secure digraphs by the end of Year 1 typically continue to make strong gains in decoding accuracy through Year 2. Students who do not often stall -- not because of wider reading difficulties, but because the digraph gap creates a ceiling on their ability to decode the words they encounter in texts. Securing digraphs is the most leverage-efficient phonics intervention for struggling Year 2 readers.
ch · sh · th · wh · ph · ng · nk — all covered with Australian audio
The accent problem
The Accent Problem with Digraphs
Digraph phonemes are pronounced differently across accents. American TTS produces phoneme targets that sound foreign to Australian students — and in at least one critical case, makes common Australian words unrecognisable during instruction.
The problem
Wrong accent, wrong phoneme target
Digraph phonemes are pronounced differently across accents. American TTS produces phoneme targets that can sound foreign to Australian ears. When students are drilled on digraphs with an American voice, the phoneme they internalise as the target for each digraph may not match the phoneme in words they encounter in Australian English speech and text.
A concrete example
“bath” → /bæθ/ vs /bɑ:θ/
“wh” in Australian English is typically /w/ -- identical to 'w' -- but American TTS often produces an aspirated /hw/ that sounds foreign to Australian ears. More critically, “th” in “bath”: American TTS produces /bæθ/ with the short front vowel /æ/. Australian English uses /bɑ:θ/ with a long back vowel. The digraph /θ/ is correct in both, but the vowel environment makes the word unrecognisable to Australian students during practice.
SoundSnapp solution
ElevenLabs AU voice throughout
SoundSnapp uses ElevenLabs Australian voice for every digraph phoneme. Every time a student hears “sh”, “ch”, “th”, or “wh” in a practice task, the phoneme target they hear is drawn from Australian English -- the accent they speak. Digraph instruction lands because the words sound like words they know.
Two modes for digraph practice
How SoundSnapp Teaches Digraphs
Whiteboard Mode
Whole-class digraph sorting on the board. Tap the “sh” or “ch” tile. Display word families (“ship”, “shop”, “shed”) for pattern recognition. No logins, any device, free forever — perfect for explicit digraph instruction with the whole class.
- Whole-class digraph sorting activities
- Word family display for pattern recognition
- No logins or setup required
- Any device or browser
- Free forever
Assessment Mode
Tracks which digraphs each student has mastered. Surfaces students still confusing “sh” and “ch”, or voiced and voiceless “th”. Individual tracking so intervention targets the right students at the right point.
- Individual digraph mastery tracking
- sh/ch and th voiced/voiceless confusion flags
- Track gains across terms
- Progress data across sessions
- 7-day free trial
Digraph demo
Each digraph is modelled in Australian-accented audio. Students hear the phoneme in words they know — in the accent they speak — so the digraph-phoneme link is accurate for Australian English.
Foundation to Year 2
Digraph Teaching Sequence
Digraph instruction follows a frequency-and-utility sequence -- high-frequency digraphs that unlock the most words first, with less common digraphs and adjacent concepts following as students build their decoding repertoire.
sh, ch (Foundation Term 3-4)
'sh' and 'ch' are the two highest-frequency consonant digraphs and the easiest to distinguish auditorily. They are introduced together as the first examples of the two-letters-one-sound principle, after single consonants are secure. High-frequency words containing sh (ship, shop, she) and ch (chin, chip, chain) provide immediate application in decodable texts.
th voiced and voiceless (Year 1 Term 1)
'th' is introduced with both its pronunciations from the start. The voiceless /th/ in 'bath', 'path', 'think' and the voiced /dh/ in 'the', 'they', 'this'. Because 'the' is the most common word in English, students encounter the voiced form immediately in reading. Explicit instruction on both forms, with sorted word lists, prevents the confusion that arises from teaching only one pronunciation.
wh, ph (Year 1 Term 2)
'wh' is introduced as /w/ -- in Australian English, 'wh' and 'w' are typically identical in pronunciation, unlike in some American dialects where 'wh' is aspirated. 'ph' is introduced as /f/, initially through high-frequency words (phone, photo). Both digraphs are lower frequency than sh, ch, th but important for decoding words students encounter in Year 1-2 texts.
ng, nk (Year 1 Term 2-3)
'ng' represents the velar nasal /ŋ/ in word-final position ('ring', 'sing', 'long'). In words such as 'sink', 'nk' represents the two-sound sequence /ŋk/. These are primarily word-final letter patterns. Students who have not been explicitly taught them often misread 'ring' as /r/ /i/ /n/ /g/ -- four separate phonemes rather than three. Explicit teaching of the nasal velar phoneme and its related spelling patterns prevents this.
Soft c and g (Year 2)
Soft 'c' (/s/ before e, i, y: 'city', 'cent', 'cycle') and soft 'g' (/j/ before e, i, y: 'gem', 'giant', 'gym') are not technically digraphs but are adjacent in the AC scope and sequence. Students who know only the hard pronunciations of c and g will misread common words in Year 2+ texts. Explicit teaching of the positional rule (soft before e, i, y) gives students a reliable strategy.
Pricing
Free to Start, School Licence for Tracking
Run digraph drills today at no cost. Upgrade to track each student's digraph mastery and identify where confusion persists.
Whiteboard Mode
Freeforever
- Whole-class digraph sorting
- No logins required
- All digraph sets
- Any device or browser
- Free forever
School Licence
$199AUD/year per school
- Everything in Free +
- Individual student tracking
- Assessment Mode
- Progress data across sessions
- 7-day free trial
No credit card required for trial
School licence covers your entire school — not per teacher or per class.
Questions & answers
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a digraph and a blend?
A digraph is two letters that represent a single phoneme -- for example, 'sh' in 'ship' represents one sound /sh/. A blend (or cluster) is two or more letters where each letter keeps its own phoneme -- for example, 'st' in 'stop' represents /s/ + /t/, two separate sounds. The distinction matters for phonics instruction because digraphs must be taught as single units, while blends are decoded letter-by-letter. Students who treat 'sh' as /s/ + /h/ will misread words containing digraphs.
When should I teach digraphs in the phonics sequence?
Consonant digraphs sh and ch are typically introduced in Foundation Term 3-4, after students have secured single consonant phoneme-grapheme correspondences. The digraph 'th' (voiced and voiceless) follows in Year 1 Term 1. Less frequent digraphs wh, ph, ng, and nk are introduced in Year 1 Term 2-3. Teaching digraphs too early -- before single consonants are secure -- leads to confusion. Teaching them too late means students are attempting to decode words they are not equipped for.
How does SoundSnapp help students practise digraphs with an Australian accent?
SoundSnapp uses ElevenLabs Australian voice to model every digraph phoneme. In Whiteboard Mode (free), teachers display digraph tiles and students tap the correct one for each word -- whole-class, no logins. Sorting word families by digraph (all the 'sh' words, then all the 'ch' words) helps students build the pattern rapidly. In Assessment Mode (School Licence), the tool tracks which digraphs each student has secured and flags students still confusing 'sh' and 'ch', or voiced and voiceless 'th'.
Does SoundSnapp cover both consonant and vowel digraphs?
Yes. SoundSnapp covers the full digraph set from the Australian Curriculum: consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh, ph, ng, nk) and vowel digraphs (ai, ea, oa, oo, ou -- also called vowel teams). Both are modelled in Australian-accented audio so the phoneme target students hear matches the phoneme in their own speech. The distinction between consonant and vowel digraphs is pedagogically important but both benefit from the same Australian accent accuracy in instruction.
Give your students digraph instruction in the accent they speak — no American substitutes.
Whiteboard Mode is free forever — no logins, no setup, works on any device. Or start a 7-day school trial to track each student's digraph mastery individually with Assessment Mode.