Blends and digraphs are both essential components of phonics and help students learn to read and spell correctly. A blend is two consonants that come together, each making a sound. For example, in the word “flop,” the /f/ and the /l/ keep their sounds forming the /fl/ blend. A digraph is two consonants that come together and make one sound. In the word “chop,” the /ch/ is a digraph.

A blend is two consonants that come together and keep their sounds.

Examples of blends:
l-blends (BL, CL, FL, GL, PL, and SL),
r-blends (BR, CR, DR, FR, GR, PR, and TR),
s-blends (SC, SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, ST, and SW),
t-blends (TR and TW),
and ending blends ( FT, LK, LD, LT, MP, ND, and NT).

When teaching kids about blends, it is important to emphasize that they are two different letters that create two distinct sounds. Blends are an important phonemic awareness skill that helps students to decode words and comprehend texts.

A consonant digraph is two consonants that come together to form one sound.

Examples of digraphs:
CH, SH, TH, and WH,
WR, KN, GN, GH, and PH are less common examples.

Teaching digraphs can help students recognize and decode words more quickly and help them develop reading fluency.

QU can be both: a digraph and a blend. When used as a blend, it produces a /k/ and /w/ sound combination, like in a word quake. When used as a digraph, it typically has a single /k/ sound, like in a word unique.

Instead of teaching -ng and -nk as separate blends, teach them as glued sounds (or welded sounds).