Sight Words vs Phonics: Which Spelling Words to Sound Out and Which to Memorise

2026-09-22

A common puzzle: a child who's doing well in phonics, who can read and write ship and chain and frost without trouble, keeps writing sed for said and wot for what. And the more they try to "sound it out", the wronger it gets.

That's not a phonics problem. It's that English spelling lists contain two kinds of words, and they need two different methods. Using the wrong method on the wrong word is the cause of a large share of spelling-test mistakes in the early years.

Two kinds of words

Decodable words follow the letter-sound patterns your child has been taught. They can be built up from sounds: c-a-t, sh-o-p, r-ai-n. Most words on a Year 1 or Year 2 list are decodable.

Sight words — schools also call them tricky words, common exception words or high-frequency words — don't follow the patterns, or use patterns not yet taught. Said, was, the, one, because, people. They come up constantly in reading, so children have to know them early, but sounding them out gives the wrong answer.

The confusion arises because both kinds sit on the same list, and children are told to "sound it out" as a general rule.

How to tell which is which

You don't need to know the phonics scheme. A quick test:

Ask your child to sound the word out slowly, sound by sound.
Write down exactly what they say.
If it matches the real spelling — decodable. If it doesn't — sight word.

Frost → f-r-o-s-t → matches. Decodable. Was → w-a-s → wass. Doesn't match. Sight word. Said → s-ai-d → sayed. Doesn't match. Sight word.

Many schools mark tricky words on the list — often in a different colour or with a symbol. If yours does, that's your answer.

The method for decodable words: sound-counting

For decodable words, phonics is the tool, and the key skill is counting the sounds rather than the letters.

Say the word. Count the sounds on your fingers: ship = /sh/ /i/ /p/ = three.
Write one chunk per sound. "Which sound needs two letters?" — sh.
Check: three sounds, three chunks, four letters.

This makes digraphs (sh, ch, th, ai, oa, igh) visible as units, which is where most decodable-word errors happen. A child who counts sounds rarely writes sip for ship.

Don't use flashcards or mnemonics for these. They're not needed, and they teach the child that every word has to be memorised individually — which is exactly the belief you want to avoid.

The method for sight words: look, cover, write, check — and a hook

For sight words, phonics is set aside and the word is learned as a whole picture.

Look, cover, write, check:

Look at the word. Say it. Trace the letters with a finger.
Cover it.
Write it from memory.
Uncover and compare, letter by letter.

Three rounds, over three days, is usually enough for a Year 1 sight word.

Add a hook for the stubborn ones. A mnemonic or a picture gives the memory something to hold on to:

said: Sally Ann Is Dancing
because: Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants
people: people eat oranges, people like eggs
what / when / where / why: the "wh" family — learn them together
one: it looks like on with an e on the end

Don't ask a child to sound out a sight word. It produces a confident wrong answer and, over time, makes them distrust phonics for the words where it does work.

Practising both on the same list

The mistake is running the whole list through one method. Instead:

Split the list into two columns: sound-out and learn-by-heart.
Practise the sound-out column from dictation: hear, count sounds, write.
Practise the learn-by-heart column with look-cover-write-check plus a hook.
From the second day, mix them back together for the dictation run — the test won't separate them, so the last practice shouldn't either.

An app helps with step 4. Save the full list in DictationEasy and it dictates the words in order, with repeats and pauses matching the teacher — so the final run is under real conditions, whatever method each word was learned by.

As they get older

The two-kinds idea doesn't disappear after Year 2; it changes shape. By Year 3 and 4, almost every word is "decodable" in the sense that it follows some pattern — but there are many patterns, and the child doesn't know them all yet. Enough, thought, island: sight words for now, decodable later when the pattern is taught.

So the question to ask about any word stays the same: "Can you build this one from sounds you know? If not, we learn it by heart — for now."

Frequently Asked Questions

What are sight words?

High-frequency words that don't follow the phonics patterns a child has learned — or don't follow any regular pattern at all — and so are learned as whole words rather than sounded out. Schools also call them tricky words or common exception words. Said, was, the, one and because are typical.

How many sight words should a Year 1 child know?

Schemes vary, but most introduce somewhere between 40 and 100 tricky words across Reception and Year 1. They're learned a few at a time alongside phonics, not as a separate list to cram.

My child sounds out everything. Is that a problem?

Only for the sight words, where it produces a wrong answer. Teach the two-column habit: "Is this one we sound out or one we know by heart?" Most children pick up the distinction quickly once it's made explicit.

Should sight words be learned with flashcards?

Flashcards work well for sight words specifically — they're whole-word recognition, which is what flashcards train. Just don't use them for decodable words, where they teach the wrong habit.

Why does my child spell a sight word correctly in the test but wrongly in their writing?

Because in the test, the word is isolated and they're thinking about it. In free writing, attention is on the ideas and the hand reverts to the phonetic version. It settles with reading volume — the more often the word is seen, the more automatic it becomes.