Editing Phonics (section)

===Consonant phonics patterns===
* '''Consonant [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]]''' are those spellings wherein two letters are used to represent a single consonant phoneme. The most common consonant digraphs are ''ch'' for {{IPAc-en|tʃ}}, ''ng'' for {{IPAc-en|ŋ}}, ''ph'' for {{IPAc-en|f}}, ''sh'' for {{IPAc-en|ʃ}}, ''th'' for {{IPAc-en|θ}} and {{IPAc-en|ð}}. Letter combinations like ''wr'' for {{IPAc-en|r}} and ''kn'' for {{IPAc-en|n}} are technically also consonant digraphs, although they are so rare that they are sometimes considered patterns with "silent letters".
* '''Short vowel+consonant patterns''' involve the spelling of the sounds {{IPAc-en|k}} as in ''peek'', {{IPAc-en|dʒ}} as in ''stage'', and {{IPAc-en|tʃ}} as in ''speech''. These sounds each have two possible spellings at the end of a word, ''ck'' and ''k'' for {{IPAc-en|k}}, ''dge'' and ''ge'' for {{IPAc-en|dʒ}}, and ''tch'' and ''ch'' for {{IPAc-en|tʃ}}. The spelling is determined by the type of vowel that precedes the sound. If a short vowel precedes the sound, the former spelling is used, as in ''pick'', ''judge'', and ''match''. If a short vowel does not precede the sound, the latter spelling is used, as in ''took'', ''barge'', and ''launch''.

These patterns are just a few examples out of dozens that can be used to help learners unpack the challenging English alphabetic code. While complex, many believe English spelling does retain order and reason.