A phoneme is a distinct unit of sound within a given language, made up of either single letters or letter combinations. These units of sound help distinguish similar words from one another, such as “pan,” “pen,” “pin,” and “pun.” The following collection of worksheets provides picture prompts, and invites your students to add or subtract given phonemes from the word representing the picture in order to create different words. Answer keys are provided for instructors.
Print Add and Subtract Phonemes Worksheets
Click the buttons to print each worksheet and associated answer key.
Phoneme Addition
Do phoneme addition in each of the boxes. Say the name of the picture. Then add the phoneme provided to the beginning or the end of the picture to form a new word. Write the new word on the line.
Add Them Again
Another rocking and rolling round for you to handle with care. This exercise can make for some real sound fun.
Phoneme Deletion
Say the name of the picture. Then remove the phoneme provided from the name of the picture to form a new word. Write the new word on the line.
Remove Me
Delete the/s/ sound from each of the following words. Write the new word on the line. Delete the/d/ sound from each of the following words. Write the new word on the line.
Add'em Up!
Say the name of the picture. Then add the phoneme provided to the beginning or end of the picture to form a new word. Write the new word on the line.
Scoop Up!
We work on the taking sounds away and seeing where it gets us. Say the name of the picture and then remove the sound that is indicated.
Round 2 of Deleting Phonemes
See where these sounds go for you. I know the second row, second column looks like a marker, but it's a pen.
Making New Words with Phoneme Deletion
Delete the /t/ and /b/ sound from each of the following terms. Write the new one that you make on the line.
Adding and Deleting Phonemes
ADD the /n/ and /p/ sound from each of the following words. Write the new word on the line. DELETE the /n/ and /p/ sound from each of the following words. Write the new term that you create on the line.
Phoneme Addition/Deletion
Work on both skills to make it happen for us. This worksheet makes for a great skill review on this section as a whole.
Both Skills
Two adds for you followed by 4 removes. Both skills follow the same process. Take your time and sound them out and then add or remove sounds.
More Space For You
We make a cab from a crab, a nail from a snail, oats from goats. Take your time and sound out the picture and then break off or add the sounds that are indicated.
Phoneme Addition
Add the sound in the box to each of the given term anf then create a new word. Write it on the line.
Phoneme Deletion Worksheet
This is a chance for you to work on this skill in a good practice environment. Make sure to sound out everything.
How to Add and Subtract Phonemes?
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language or speech. For example, the word ‘bat’ has 3 phonemes - /b/, /a/, and /t/. Phonemes are customarily written between slashes.
As children enhance their reading and phonemic awareness skills, they can make new words by adding and subtracting different phonemes. Subtracting /b/ from bat makes at, and adding /h/ to at, makes hat!
What Is Phoneme Addition and Deletion?
Drastically different from their mathematical counterparts, phoneme addition and subtraction are essential for developing and improving phonemic awareness. Children cannot make new terms without identifying the phonemes and grasping the concept of combining them to form different words.
After understanding the basic phenome, they will move on to learn how adding and subtracting a phenome from a term can make an entirely new word. It is a fun concept and can easily be enforced through activities and worksheets.
Why Is It Important?
Phoneme addition and subtraction teach the kids how all words are made up of separate sounds and how adding or taking away one or more sounds make up entirely new words. Phoneme addition and subtraction are a part of phonological awareness for the kids. If kids face any difficulty with this concept at the beginning, you can help them add or subtract phonemes from compound words. Start practicing orally and give clear instructions. Reinforce the idea through games, activities, and worksheets.
Teaching Phoneme Addition and Deletion
Say a term and make the children repeat it. Then ask them to add a new sound before the word. For example, you say the word 'us,' and the kids will repeat the same after you. Ask them to add the sound /b/ before us. Help them blend the sounds. /b/ us makes bus. Or a subtraction example could be removing the /p/ sound from the word "pin" to make the word "in."
You can also use picture cards to encourage the kids to add or subtract phonemes from the start or end of various words.
To simplify the process for kids having trouble overcoming the concept, ask the kids what happens when they add a cup to the word cake or what happens if they take the word ball from the word basketball.
Making Phoneme Addition and Deletion Fun
Teaching works best when the technique incorporates the element of fun. You can introduce a phoneme monster that eats up (subtracts) a sound or more from a term or a spaceship that drops new sounds after or before a word to make a new word.
Phoneme Addition Activity 1
What new word do you get after:
- adding /s/ to drip? drips
- adding /er/ to fast? faster
- adding /e/ to skin? skinny
- adding /z/ to no? nose
- adding /n/ to tray? train
- adding /f/ to lie? fly
Phoneme Addition Activity 2
What word will you get if you:
- add /k/ to the beginning of an? can
- add /f/ to the beginning of or? for
- add /h/ to the beginning of it? hit
- add /b/ to the beginning of us? bus
- add/p/ to the beginning of at? pat
Phoneme Subtraction Activity 1
Help the children recognize what remains when a phoneme is removed from another word.
- What is smile without /s/? mile
- What is pray without /r/? pay
- What is brash without /b/? rash
- What is price without /p/? rice
- What is bless without /b/? less
Phoneme Subtraction Activity 2
- What is grand without the /gr/? and
- What is skim without the /s/? Kim
- What is bleep without the /b/? leap
- What is drip without the /d/? rip
- What is pluck without the /p/? luck
Fun Fact: English has between 35 and 47 phonemes (depending on regional variations in pronunciation), including 13-21 vowel phonemes and 22-26 consonant phonemes.