Phonics vs. Speech Sounds: Letters, Sounds, and Digraphs Explained

✓ Reviewed against National Reading Panel (NICHD), What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, ASHA Practice PortalEvidence level ALast reviewed October 14, 2026Published October 14, 2026

Phonics is how letters map to sounds in reading; speech sounds are what the mouth produces. They overlap but differ: English has more sounds than letters, and digraphs like SH, CH, and TH spell single sounds. A child can know the letter S and still lisp — reading help and speech help are different jobs.

Phonics, phonemic awareness, and speech sounds

The National Reading Panel defined phonics as the knowledge that letters of the alphabet represent phonemes and that these sounds are blended together to form written words, and phonemic awareness as the knowledge that spoken words can be broken apart into smaller segments of sound. A federal practice guide for kindergarten to 3rd grade likewise recommends developing awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters.^1,2

Three related ideas, three different skills.
Term	What it is	Example
Speech sound (phoneme)	A sound the mouth produces	/ʃ/ — the sound at the start of “ship”
Phonemic awareness	Hearing and manipulating the sounds in spoken words	Saying “ship” without the /ʃ/ → “ip”
Phonics	Knowing which letters spell which sounds	Knowing S + H spells /ʃ/

Three related ideas, three different skills.¹

Digraphs: two letters, one sound

Common consonant digraphs and the speech sounds they spell (IPA symbols).
Spelling	Speech sound	Examples	Speech page
SH	/ʃ/	ship, fish	The SH sound
CH	/tʃ/ (usually)	chip, lunch	The CH sound
TH	/θ/ voiceless or /ð/ voiced	think, this	The TH sound
NG	/ŋ/	sing, ring	The NG sound
PH	/f/	phone	The F sound
CK	/k/	duck	The K sound

Common consonant digraphs and the speech sounds they spell (IPA symbols).⁴

Is it a speech problem or a reading problem?

Says the sound wrong in conversation, even when not reading → a speech sound question.
Says the sound fine but cannot match it to letters → a phonics question.
Struggles to hear or play with sounds in words (rhyming, first sounds) → phonological awareness.

The skills interact. ASHA notes that speech production and phonological awareness develop in a mutually supportive way, that difficulties with listening to, discriminating, or remembering speech sounds can lead to both speech and literacy difficulties, and that a child’s spelling can reflect the errors they make in speech.³

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Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between phonics and speech sounds?＋

Phonics is the knowledge that letters represent sounds, which readers blend to read words. Speech sounds are the sounds themselves, made with the lips, tongue, and voice. Phonics is taught for reading; producing speech sounds clearly is an articulation skill.

Is SH one sound or two?＋

One. SH is a digraph — two letters spelling a single sound, /ʃ/. CH (/tʃ/), NG (/ŋ/), and TH are digraphs too; TH spells two different sounds, voiceless /θ/ in “think” and voiced /ð/ in “this.”

Can phonics fix a lisp or a W-for-R?＋

No. Knowing which letter makes a sound does not teach the mouth to make it. If a child knows the letter S but makes a “th”-like or slushy S, that is a speech sound question for an SLP or articulation practice, not a phonics gap.

Do speech sound problems affect phonics?＋

They can. ASHA notes that speech production and phonological awareness develop in a mutually supportive way, and that difficulties listening to, discriminating, or remembering speech sounds can lead to both speech and literacy difficulties.