What are onset and rime?

Amelia Mehra

Mon, Jun 12, 23

1 minutes read

The onset of a word is its initial sound and the rime is the string of letters that follows, as in m-ilk, where m is the onset and ilk is the rime.

Teaching children to blend and segment the onsets and rimes of words builds their phonological awareness -- their understanding of sounds in a language. Understanding sounds in words is an important first step for children to learn how to read. This is because they need an awareness of the sounds that make up words before they are able to connect these sounds to letters.

Another similar activity that also builds phonological awareness are segmenting and blending the syllables of multisyllabic words.

For example, in shop, the onset is sh and the rime is op: sh-op. Shop has the same onset as ship, but it has a different rime: sh-ip.

Deep Dive

Read our report on the Science of Reading. Research-based reading instruction must incorporate the 5 pillars of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This report provides an easy to understand overview of each of these pillars and explains the important connection between how the brain learns to read (the Neuroscience of Reading) and how we teach children to read (The Science of Reading Instruction). It also explains why helping children build connections between letters and sounds, through phonics and phonemic awareness, is so crucial for the developing reading mind. This report is perfect for sharing with colleagues and friends!