Video narration
How do the sounds you know help you read a whole sentence? Try this familiar sentence: "A cat can nap." Phonics connects letters-and sometimes letter groups-with sounds. Spellings vary: a letter group can sound different in another word, and some words are tricky to sound out. In cat, c, a, and t each stand for a sound. Say them close together: k, a, t. Cat. Separate sounds have become a word. Now the printed word is one you can say. Now sound out can and nap, then bring the words back together: "A cat can nap." But sounds alone are not the sentence's meaning. Read the whole sentence, and you can understand its message: a cat can nap. So, how do the sounds help? Sound out the words, blend them, then read your whole sentence to understand what it says.