Blends, digraphs, and diphthongs, oh my!

Added: 2026-04-28

[00:00:00]One of the most common questions I get is what is the difference between a diagraph, a blend, and a diff thong.

[00:00:07]That could be really confusing and that's something I struggled with a lot.

[00:00:10]So, let me help you with breaking it down. So, diagraphs, di means to graph as written down letter. So, graphs. So, diraph is two letters that come together, but they are going to say one sound. and like sh coming together saying shh. Shh is one sound made with two letters. Diagraph. These are some other diagraph examples. Ch.

[00:00:36]Even the silent letters are diagraphs because we're not saying like that like they used to in like way old days in old English we say. So two letters making an original sound. N those are diagraphs. Then we have blends. Blends mean you are taking two or more letters and you're blending the sounds. They're keeping their same original sound. You're just squishing them together. You're blending them together. And this is helpful for blending words because you can group G together. See how the G and the R make they keep their sound G. And that will help if they can recognize these beginning blends like these and even triple blends or diagraph blends that will really help their being able to decode words. There are some blends like SP that are good at the beginning of the word or even at the end of the word. St is another one that can be in any part of word. Then you have the ending blends or some more ending blends. So diff thongs. Diff thongs are two or more letters that come together to make a kind of glidy vowel sound. Oi is a really big one. And oi, these are diff thongs. This is not a vowel team. This is a diff thong. Then you have things like a and a.

[00:02:00]And you can use this one beginning in the middle of the word. You can't end an English word in a u. So you got the w.

[00:02:06]I've made a few videos on that. But these are also diff thongs. like ig gh to say I and these a lot are hold outs from old English. ei gh for a. So blends, diagraphs and diff thongs are three very different spelling elements.