ire words (r-controlled vowel)

All phonics patterns › ire words (r-controlled vowel)

What is an r-controlled vowel?

When a vowel is followed by r, the r changes the vowel sound entirely — it is neither long nor short. These are sometimes called bossy-r vowels, and they need to be taught as their own category rather than as vowel-plus-r.

ire words (r-controlled vowel) — 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.

• desire
• fire
• hire
• require
• tire
• wire

Free decodable book: Decodable R-Controlled IRE

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

• ire (r-controlled + silent e)

  Read ire as /ire/

• Word sort: are, ere, ire, ore, ure

  Sort r-controlled + silent e words by their spelling

Related r-controlled vowel patterns

• ar words (r-controlled vowel)
• are words (r-controlled vowel)
• ear words (r-controlled vowel)
• er words (r-controlled vowel)
• ere words (r-controlled vowel)
• ir words (r-controlled vowel)
• oar words (r-controlled vowel)
• ore words (r-controlled vowel)

Practise this in Lumira