PHONICS is the study of sound-symbol relationships in learning to read and spell.

English has an ALPHABETIC WRITING SYSTEM: that is, individual spoken sounds are represented by individual written symbols. Letters and sounds work together in a systematic way to connect spoken language to its written equivalent.

Spoken sounds are called PHONEMES. Phonemes are basic, minimal, indivisible sound units in words.

Written symbols are called GRAPHEMES. Graphemes are basic, minimal, indivisible units of writing, the letters of the alphabet.

Through phonics, children learn the basics of these phoneme-grapheme relationships as part of the process of learning to read and write.

English orthography (or written English) is based on the ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE: that is, alphabetic symbols represent spoken sounds. The alphabetic system of written English is not perfect, however.

Some words have a consistent sound-symbol relationship.

EXAMPLE: Bat has three sounds--/b/ /a/ /t/.

In other words, the sound-symbol relationship is far less consistent.

EXAMPLE: In the word said, the letters s - a - i - d do not correspond in a one-to-one fashion with equivalent spoken sounds. The letter combination ai in said represents an /e/ sound.

Learning sound-symbol relationships is essential in learning to read and spell.