Jolly Phonics · The 42 Sounds · Interactive Chart
The 42 Jolly Phonics sounds
Jolly Phonics teaches 42 letter sounds in a fixed order, split into seven groups. The order is deliberate — Group 1 alone (s, a, t, i, p, n) lets a child read real words on day one. Tap any sound below to hear it, group by group, in the exact order it is taught in school.
Group 1
Six sounds chosen so children can build real words almost immediately — sat, pin, tap, nip.
Group 2
Adds a second vowel (e) and four consonants, opening up many more words.
Group 3
The last two short vowels (o, u) plus four more consonants complete the single-letter sounds.
Group 4
The first digraphs — two letters making one sound — including the long vowels.
Group 5
Includes the two "oo" sounds — the long oo in moon and the short oo in book.
Group 6
Includes both "th" sounds — the voiceless th in think and the voiced th in this.
Group 7
The final group — the remaining vowel teams and r-controlled sounds.
Every sound here is recorded in clear, neutral English — the same audio used to break down each of the 12,000+ words in the library. For all 44 sounds of English (not just the Jolly set), see the phonics sounds A to Z chart.
What are the 42 Jolly Phonics sounds?
Jolly Phonics is a synthetic phonics programme used in thousands of schools across India, the UK, and more than 100 countries. Instead of teaching the alphabet in order (A, B, C…), it teaches 42 sounds — the main sounds of English — in an order designed to get children reading and writing as fast as possible.
Why 42 and not 26? Because English has far more sounds than letters. Jolly Phonics covers the 26 single letters plus the most important letter combinations — digraphs like sh, ch and th, and vowel teams like ai, oa and ee. Together these 42 sounds let a child decode the vast majority of common English words.
The programme also teaches each sound with an action and a story, which helps young children remember them. This page focuses on the sounds themselves and how they are grouped — for the full programme overview, see our guide to Jolly Phonics for parents.
Why this order — and not A to Z?
The single most important idea in Jolly Phonics is the teaching order. The first group is s, a, t, i, p, n. These six sounds were chosen because they combine into more simple words than any other six letters — sat, tap, pat and tip, plus words already in our library like sit, pin and nap.
Contrast that with the alphabet. If you teach a, b, c, d in order, a child can't build a single word until they reach a vowel and a few consonants. By front-loading useful sounds, Jolly Phonics lets children experience real reading within the first week — which builds confidence and motivation. Each later group adds sounds that unlock still more words.
The golden rule
Never ask a child to read a word containing a sound they have not been taught yet. Follow the group order, and only give your child words built from the sounds they already know. That single principle is what makes synthetic phonics work.
Jolly Phonics and Indian English
Jolly Phonics began in the UK, so its original audio uses a British accent. Many Indian parents ask whether this matters. It doesn't change the code a child is learning — the link between letters and sounds is the same in every accent. A child in Pune or Chennai decoding rain as /r/ + /ai/ + /n/ is doing exactly the same thing as a child in London, even if the vowel sounds slightly different.
What helps is hearing the sounds in a familiar accent. The audio on this page is recorded in clear, neutral English so the sounds are easy for Indian children to hear and copy. The grapheme-to-sound mapping is identical to standard Jolly Phonics — only the voice differs.
Frequently asked questions
- How many sounds are there in Jolly Phonics?
- 42 sounds, taught in 7 groups of 6. They cover the 26 single letters plus the most common digraphs (sh, ch, th, ng) and vowel teams (ai, oa, ie, ee, or, oo, ou, oi, ue, er, ar). Note that some letters share a group entry — c and k make the same /k/ sound, and oo and th each appear twice because they represent two different sounds.
- What is the order of the 7 Jolly Phonics groups?
- Group 1: s, a, t, i, p, n · Group 2: c/k, e, h, r, m, d · Group 3: g, o, u, l, f, b · Group 4: ai, j, oa, ie, ee, or · Group 5: z, w, ng, v, oo, oo · Group 6: y, x, ch, sh, th, th · Group 7: qu, ou, oi, ue, er, ar.
- Why does Jolly Phonics start with s, a, t, i, p, n?
- Because those six sounds combine into the largest number of simple, decodable words. A child who knows s, a, t, i, p, n can already read sat, pin, tap, nip, pat, tip, sit, and many more — real reading in the first week, which builds confidence early.
- Is the difference between 42 and 44 sounds important?
- Not for a beginner. English has about 44 phonemes in total; Jolly Phonics teaches 42 of the most useful letter-sound patterns. The small difference is a couple of rarer sounds. To explore the full set, see the 44 phonics sounds A to Z chart.