North Carolina Foundations of Reading Practice Test

Disable ads (and more) with a membership for a one time $2.99 payment

Prepare for the North Carolina Foundations of Reading Test. Study with interactive flashcards, multiple choice questions, hints, and detailed explanations. Master reading concepts and excel in your exam!

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

Practice this question and more.


What are the underlined letters in the words "phone," "they," and "church" examples of?

  1. Consonant digraph

  2. Vowel teams

  3. Silent letters

  4. Consonant clusters

The correct answer is: Consonant digraph

In the words "phone," "they," and "church," the underlined letters represent different types of sounds and letter combinations. The correct answer emphasizes how these particular letters work together to produce unique sounds that differ from the sounds expected based on their individual names. In "phone," the letter combination "ph" represents a single sound, /f/, which is characteristic of a consonant digraph—two letters that together create one distinct sound. Similarly, in "they," the "th" combination produces a voiced dental fricative sound /ð/, another example of a consonant digraph that changes the expected sound of the letters when they stand alone. In "church," the "ch" also forms a single sound /ʧ/, marking it as yet another instance of a consonant digraph. Understanding these examples as consonant digraphs is essential for teaching phonics, as it demonstrates how certain letter pairings influence pronunciation and contribute to the complexity of the English language. This focus on how specific letters can work together to form sound units underlines the importance of phonemic awareness in early literacy development.