Trigraphs (Thoughts on Bad Curricula)

I just need to say it. There is something that riles me up about #EdTech companies and #curriculum #publishers that are sloppy with the Science of Reading.

A lot of curricula – and various self-proclaimed experts – tell you the wrong thing about certain things with phonics.

My sister recently asked me to clarify what a trigraph is. She’s been an early elementary teacher for a long time, and she’s had a lot of literacy training. She honestly already knew the answer, but her curriculum presented something that didn’t seem right, and it made her doubt herself.

By definition, a trigraph only has one sound.

Truth be told, I've gotten this same question countless times from teachers because so many curricula are sloppy. They say they're based on the Science of Reading, but then you come across basic errors, and you realize they're just a hodge-podge of instructional practices.

Here’s the thing. A lot of curricula – and various self-proclaimed experts – tell you the wrong thing about certain things with phonics. One common error I see that annoys me is with digraphs and trigraphs.

NO…spl, chr, and str are not trigraphs. Honestly, it really bugs me how many programs get this wrong.

I’ll spare the guilty publishers from public embarrassment, but the link to my sister's (very mainstream, and very expensive) curricular program’s scope and sequence literally calls the same phonics concept two different things. It gets “blends” right when discussing blends that have two consonants, but then it bombs when it transitions to three consonants, calling a three consonant blend a “trigraph”. That is patently false!

Here’s the lowdown.

The word digraph is made of up the parts di- (two) plus graph (write). In other words, it's one written thing combined of two parts. More precisely, it's one sound (phoneme) that is written with two letters. Examples are ph, ch, sh, and ea. A digraph can appear for both consonant and vowel sounds. By definition, though, one digraph = one sound.

One. That’s all.

As soon as you hear another sound, it’s not part of the digraph.

A trigraph is the same idea. Tri- (three) plus graph (write). A trigraph is one sound written with three letters. There are very, very few. The main trigraphs students need to know are tch, dge, and igh. There might, just maybe, be others (e.g., -gue as in plague, and -que as in plaque), but those others are very obscure.

By definition, a trigraph only has one sound.

When you search online for examples of trigraphs, you get a load of trash.

Check out this result from ChatGPT, for example. I gave the prompt: Give a list of English trigraphs. It scoured the internet, and got the definition right, but it used all the garbage results on all the websites out there and gave a list of 15 examples (top six shown for brevity). Only 13% of this list is accurate. 13%!!!! (Ok, so 20%, if I give it credit for eau, but I don't. That's an obscure remnant from French, just like the -gue and -que above.)

Every single top search result that I found was wrong!

Be mindful of where you get your information. Every single top search result that I found was wrong! I found many professional sites that define a trigraph as representing one sound (good so far), but then they list things like spl, chr, and str like the ChatGPT response. What?!? Each of those examples has 2-3 sounds. Not trigraphs. 

You’ll find other sites that give you the wrong definition outright. They say something like this: a trigraph is a set of three letters that blend together.

Wrong again! See the word blend in that definition? That’s what they are…blends.

When two, three, or four letters blend together, but still make distinct sounds, they are called “blends”. The main category is a consonant blend. Here are some examples.

• sch in school (/s/ + /k/)

• sm in small (/s/ + /m/)

• scr in screw (/s/ + /k/ + /r/)

• cl in clip (/c/ + /l/)

• br in brake (/b/ + /r/)

• -ct in fact (/k/ + /t/)

• -nd in bend (/n/ + /d/)

Initial consonant blends are at the beginning of a syllable. Final consonant blends are at the end of a syllable. But notice, they all still have multiple sounds.

Sometimes people call a blend a consonant cluster. I like blend better because it describes what's happening with the sounds, but I'm ok with the term cluster. However, back to the point, a blend combines multiple sounds. A digraph or trigraph only has one sound.

So, here are the definitions.

If you have 2 letters that say one and only one sound, it’s a digraph.

If you have 3 letters that say one and only one sound, it’s a trigraph.

If you have 2 or more letters that kind of smash together but still have separate sounds, it’s a blend (and NOT a digraph or trigraph).

To the Teachers, Principals, Curriculum Directors and Superintendents: If you find factual errors like these in your curricula, you should consider adopting a different program. There’s a chance you’ve been sold a bill of goods. If your curriculum provider can't tell the difference on the basics, you would likely get better results from another program designed by people who truly understand phonics and word structure.  

If you find factual errors like these in your curricula, you should consider adopting a different program.

To all the EdTech and Publishing Vendors, please do better. You need to ensure accuracy in your content. It’s just not right that you have errors like these that, at best, cause teachers to get confused and doubt themselves, and, at worse, cause teachers to teach errors to students.