Word Families

What are word families?

Word families, also called phonograms, are groups of words that have the same ending and follow a similar pattern. For example, can, van, fan, pan, man, ban, and tan, all end with -an. We can put these words together in “families” to help students notice and remember the pattern.

While some rhyming words can be part of the same word family (like “cat” and “hat”), others might have different spellings in the middle but still share the same ending sound (like “cat” and “brat”).

Some common Word Families

-ack, -ain, -ake, -ale, -all, -ame, -an, -ank, -ap, -ash, -at, -ate, -aw, -ay, -eat, -ell, -est, -ice, -ick, -ide, -ight, -ill, -in, -ine, -ing, -ink, -ip, -it, -ock, -oke, -op, -ore, -ot, -uck, -ug, -ump, -unk.

Examples:

-at	bat	cat	rat	mat	bat	sat
-an	can	tan	pan	ran	man	lan
-ad	mad	bad	sad	lad	tad	pad
-ap	cap	tap	map	nap	gap	lap
-ag	bag	tag	rag	lag	nag	gag
-op	top	pop	hop	mop	cop	sop
-ot	dot	pot	hot	cot	not	rot
-og	dog	jog	log	fog	pog	hog
-et	pet	bet	net	met	get	let
-eg	beg	peg	leg	x	x	x
-en	pen	hen	ten	den	men	x
-ug	pug	bug	jug	dug	hug	x
-ut	nut	but	cut	hut	rut	gut
-un	sun	run	nun	fun	pun	bun
-ip	tip	zip	lip	hip	dip	sip
-ig	pig	dig	big	fig	x	x
-in	tin	bin	pin	win	tin	kin
-it	fit	bit	pit	sit	hit	kit
-ill	hill	pill	kill	nill	mill	sill

Examples:

-at	bat, cat, rat, mat, bat, sat
-an	can, tan, pan, ran, man, lan
-ad	mad, bad, sad, lad, tad, pad
-ap	cap, tap, map, nap, gap, lap
-ag	bag, tag, rag, lag, nag, gag
-op	top, pop, hop, mop, cop, sop
-ot	dot, pot, hot, cot, not, rot
-og	dog, jog, log, fog, pog, hog
-et	pet, bet, net, met, get, let
-eg	beg, peg, leg
-en	pen, hen, ten, den, men
-ug	pug, bug, jug, dug, hug
-ut	nut, but, cut, hut, rut, gut
-un	sun, run, nun, fun, pun, bun
-ip	tip, zip, lip, hip, dip, sip
-ig	pig, dig, big, fig
-in	tin, bin, pin, win, tin, kin
-it	fit, bit, pit, sit, hit, kit
-ill	hill, pill, kill, nill, mill, sill

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