Phonetic Analysis of Fry’s 25 Most Common Sight Words

In the two previous posts we examined why teaching a long list of sight words should not be necessary when students are taught to read using a strong phonics reading program.  In fact, many struggling readers find memorizing these words very difficult.  In the chart below we will examine the 25 most common sight words to show why most of them do not need to be taught separately to beginning reading students.

The regular phonetic components in each word are underlined. The irregular parts of words are not underlined (including the schwa sound, although it is very common). Notice which words on this list need to be learned as sight words and how many can be learned as part of a strong, intensive phonics reading program.