The ie vowel team (the long i sound)

All phonics patterns › The ie vowel team (the long i sound)

What is a vowel team?

In a vowel team, two or more letters combine to spell one vowel sound. English has many of them and several spell more than one sound, so each team needs explicit teaching and plenty of practice in real words.

The ie vowel team (the long i sound) — word list

Every word below appears in the decodable book on this page, so a reader who practises the list will meet the same words again in context.

• cried
• die
• dried
• fried
• lie
• pie
• tie
• tried

Free decodable book: Decodable Vowel Team IE (Pie)

This is an original Lumira decodable reader, written so that a child can sound out nearly every word using patterns they have already been taught. The full text is below — read it here, or open it in the app to read it together with the words highlighting as you speak.

How to teach it

1. Say the sound on its own first, several times, before showing any letters.
2. Show the spelling and name it explicitly — tell the reader what it says rather than asking them to work it out.
3. Blend two or three words from the list together, out loud, slowly.
4. Read the decodable book above, where the pattern repeats in real sentences.
5. Come back to it two or three days later. Cumulative review is what makes it stick.

Lessons that practise this pattern

• ie vowel team (long i)

  Read ie as long /i/ at the end of short words

• Word sort: ie (long e vs long i)

  Sort ie words by whether they say long e or long i

Related vowel team patterns

• The air vowel team
• The al vowel team
• The all vowel team
• The au vowel team
• The aw vowel team
• The ea vowel team
• The ear vowel team (as in bear)
• The ear vowel team (as in near)

Practise this in Lumira