Tricky Words for Kids
Tricky words are Jolly Phonics' term for common English words that cannot be fully sounded out using regular phonics rules. The word said, for example, is not pronounced "say-eed." Because these words break the rule a child has just learned, they need to be taught by sight and repetition instead of by sounding out.
- Tricky words are Jolly Phonics' own term for the irregular subset of high-frequency words, ones phonics rules cannot fully explain, such as said, the, was, and are.
- CVC words are fully decodable, sight words is the broader umbrella term for words taught for instant recognition, and tricky words means specifically the irregular ones inside that umbrella.
- Point out exactly which part of a tricky word is irregular instead of treating the whole word as unpredictable, and introduce no more than 2 to 3 new tricky words a week.
What are tricky words, and why do they break the phonics rules?
Jolly Phonics calls certain words "tricky" for a precise reason: a child who has correctly learned every letter sound will still misread these words if they try to sound them out, because the words themselves do not follow the pattern. This is different from a word simply being hard or unfamiliar. A tricky word looks like it should decode into one sound, and produces a different one instead.
English spelling did not develop as a clean, one-sound-one-spelling system. Over more than a thousand years, English absorbed words from Old English, French, Latin, and many other languages, and spelling was standardised in print centuries after pronunciation had already started shifting. The result is a small set of very common, very old words whose spelling froze in an earlier form while the way people said them kept changing. Phonics rules describe the patterns that survived that process consistently. Tricky words are the ones that did not.
Common tricky words, and exactly what breaks the rule
Here are some of the most common tricky words, with the specific part that breaks the rule called out directly, so a child, and a parent, can see exactly what to watch for instead of feeling like the whole word is unpredictable.
| Tricky word | The irregular part | What kids expect | How it actually sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| said | "ai" | Long "ai," as in rain | "sed" |
| the | "e" | A long or short "e" sound | A soft "uh" (a schwa) |
| was | "a" | Short "a," as in cat | "wuz" |
| are | silent "e" | To rhyme with care, bare, share | Rhymes with car instead |
| you | "ou" | The sound from shout or cup | A long "oo," as in shoe |
Not every tricky word breaks a rule outright. Words like he, she, and they use spelling patterns that are perfectly regular, just not yet taught at the point most children first meet them. Either way, from a child's seat, both kinds are equally unreadable using what they currently know, which is why Jolly Phonics teaches all of them the same way: by sight, not by sounding out.
Tricky words vs. sight words vs. CVC words
Parents often use "sight words" and "tricky words" interchangeably, and school worksheets do not always make the difference clear. Here is the distinction that actually matters for how you help your child at home.
| Term | What it means | Can it be sounded out? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVC words | Consonant-vowel-consonant words that follow regular phonics rules exactly | Yes, fully decodable | cat, sit, dog, run |
| Sight words | The broad umbrella term (Dolch, Fry) for high-frequency words taught for instant recognition | Some yes, some no | the, said, and, run, is |
| Tricky words | Jolly Phonics' term for the irregular subset of high-frequency words that can't be fully sounded out | No, learned by sight | said, the, was, are |
Every tricky word is a sight word, because it is high-frequency and worth recognising instantly, but not every sight word is a tricky word. Words like and, run, and is are sight words too, since a child benefits from recognising them on sight rather than sounding them out letter by letter every time, but they are fully decodable using regular phonics rules. Only the genuinely irregular ones, the ones phonics cannot explain, are tricky words in the Jolly Phonics sense.
For the full CVC word list, see our CVC words for kids guide. For the complete Dolch sight word lists by class, see sight words for kids in India.
How to teach tricky words at home
Tricky words need a different approach from regular phonics words, because sounding them out is the wrong strategy. Here is what actually works.
Point out exactly what's irregular, not the whole word
Avoid telling a child a word is "impossible" or "doesn't make sense." Instead, show them which one or two letters break the rule and confirm that the rest of the word is completely normal. In said, the s, the i, and the d are all regular. Only the ai is the surprise. This turns an intimidating word into one small detail to remember, not a mystery.
Meet the word again and again, inside real sentences
Tricky words stick best when a child meets them repeatedly inside real, spoken sentences rather than on an isolated flashcard. Write "She said hello" and read it aloud together, rather than showing the word said on its own and asking "what's this?" Context gives the memory something to hold onto that an isolated word cannot.
Use one simple memory trick, and keep it the same every time
For the handful of tricky words your child sees most often, a small, consistent memory trick can help. For said, some parents point out the "ai" and say "that's the surprising bit" every single time, rather than a new explanation each time. For the, some use a tiny rhyme: "t-h-e, always the same three." The specific trick matters less than repeating the same one consistently, so your child's memory has one clear anchor.
Introduce no more than 2 to 3 new tricky words a week
General sight words can often be introduced at a pace of about five new words a week. Tricky words are the hardest words on that list, because they contradict the very rule a child just learned, so a slower pace works better here: 2 to 3 new tricky words a week, alongside daily review of the ones already learned. Rushing this pace is the most common reason tricky words stop sticking.
When your child misreads a tricky word mid-sentence, let them finish the sentence first. Interrupting to correct breaks their reading flow for a word that was never decodable to begin with. Come back to it afterward, gently: "Let's look at that one again together."
Tricky words for Indian children — what to expect
Most Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi, are far more phonetically consistent than English. What is written closely matches what is said, with very few silent letters or rule-breaking exceptions. A child who has grown up hearing one of these languages, or is learning to read in one alongside English, has built a completely reasonable expectation: letters should say what they say, every single time.
Tricky words break that expectation on purpose, which is exactly why they can catch Indian children off guard early on. This is not a sign that anything is wrong with the child. English spelling itself is the irregular one, not the child's instinct for how letters should behave.
ASER's annual surveys consistently find that fewer than half of Indian Class 5 students can read a Class 2-level English text fluently. Tricky words that were never taught explicitly, only half-absorbed through repeated textbook exposure, are a meaningful piece of that gap. The same child who correctly sounds out sat, pin, and dog is doing everything right when they stumble on said or was. What closes the gap is not more phonics drilling. It is simply meeting the tricky word enough times that it becomes familiar, the same way a face becomes familiar.
Tricky words, heard aloud and gently corrected by ZigZu
Not every misread word means the same thing. Misreading cat as "cot" is a phonics slip worth correcting through sounding out. Misreading said by trying to sound out the "ai" is not a mistake at all: it is exactly what a careful, rule-following reader would do with an irregular word.
ZigZu is an AI Reading Coach that listens as your child reads real storybooks aloud and gives real-time, gentle feedback on pronunciation, including on tricky words that don't follow regular phonics rules. Repeated exposure to the same tricky words inside real stories, with warm correction in the moment, is what turns an irregular word from a stumbling block into one your child simply knows.
Available on Android and iOS · Free to start · Built for Indian English · No ads, no in-app purchases
Frequently asked questions
Tricky words are Jolly Phonics' name for common English words that cannot be fully sounded out using regular phonics rules, words like said, the, was, and are. A child who has correctly learned every letter sound will still misread these words if they try to sound them out, because the words themselves break the pattern. Jolly Phonics teaches them separately, by sight and repetition, alongside the regular phonics sequence.
Jolly Phonics introduces tricky words gradually across its teaching sequence, alongside the 42 letter sounds, rather than as one long list handed over at once. The exact set can vary slightly between editions and schools. What stays consistent is the approach: each tricky word is taught by sight and repeated exposure in real sentences, not by sounding out, because phonics rules cannot reliably decode these particular words.
Not exactly. Sight words is a broad umbrella term, often based on the Dolch or Fry lists, for any high-frequency word a child should recognise instantly. Many sight words are actually regular and fully decodable, like "and" or "run." Tricky words are the irregular sight words, the ones phonics rules cannot fully explain, such as said or was. Every tricky word is a sight word, but not every sight word is a tricky word.
Children typically meet their first tricky words early in their phonics journey, often within the first few months of learning to read, around ages 4 to 6 in most Indian CBSE and ICSE schools using Jolly Phonics. Schools usually introduce a small number alongside each teaching group, rather than all at once, so a child's tricky word vocabulary grows steadily across LKG, UKG, and Class 1.
English spelling absorbed words from many languages over more than a thousand years, and pronunciation kept shifting after spelling was standardised in print. Regular phonics rules describe the patterns that survived that process consistently. Tricky words are the very common, very old words that didn't, so sounding them out letter by letter produces the wrong pronunciation. They need to be learned by sight instead, through repetition in real sentences.