Resources › For Educators A Simple Guide to Word Families Print Photo Janelle Cox For Educators Elementary Education Reading Strategies Classroom Organization Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Secondary Education Special Education Teaching Homeschooling By Janelle Cox Janelle Cox Education Expert M.S., Education, Buffalo State College B.S., Education, Buffalo State College Janelle Cox, M.S., is an education writer specializing in elementary school education. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on January 22, 2020 Word Families are sometimes referred to as groups, chunks or rimes. A word family has something in common with each other, have it be the prefix, suffix or root word. For example, green, grass, grow all have the "gr" sound in the beginning of the word. Benefits Word families are important because they help young children recognize and analyze word patterns when they are learning to read. When teaching analytic phonics, teachers use word families to help children understand these patterns and that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds. Most Common Word Families According to researchers Wylie and Durrel, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk. ack: back, hack, pack, rackain: brain, chain, main, plainake: awake, bake, cake, fakeale: ale, bale, sale, taleall: all, ball, call, hallame: blame, came, game, samean: an, ban, can, panank: bank, drank, sank, tankap: cap, map, rap, tapash: bash, dash, rash, sashat: bat, cat, fat, matate: fate, gate, late, rateaw: claw, draw, paw, saway: day, hay, may, sayeat: beat, feat, meat, seatell: bell, fell, tell, wellest: best, rest, vest, westice: dice, mice, nice, riceick: brick, kick, pick, sickide: bride, hide, ride, sideight: bright, fight, light, nightill: bill, hill, pill, stillin: bin, chin, grin, tinine: dine, fine, mine, vineing: bring, king, sing, wingink: drink, link, pink, sinkip: chip, dip, lip, sipit: bit, fit, hit, sitock: block, clock, rock, sockop: cop, hop, mop, topore: bore, more, sore, toreot: got, hot, not, rotuck: buck, duck luck, tuckug: bug, hug, mug, rugump: bump, dump, jump, pumpunk: bunk, dunk, junk,sunk Source: Richard E. Wylie and Donald D. Durrell, 1970. "Teaching Vowels Through Phonograms." Elementary English 47, 787-791. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Cox, Janelle. "A Simple Guide to Word Families." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/simple-guide-to-word-families-2081410. Cox, Janelle. (2020, August 27). A Simple Guide to Word Families. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/simple-guide-to-word-families-2081410 Cox, Janelle. "A Simple Guide to Word Families." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/simple-guide-to-word-families-2081410 (accessed April 18, 2024). copy citation