What is a consonant blend?

• A. A combination of two letters that represent a single sound or phoneme, like ch or oa
• B. A single letter sound
• C. A vowel digraph
• D. A three-letter cluster with two separate sounds

Answer: (A)

Consonant blends are when two or more consonants come together in a word and you can hear each individual sound that each letter makes. For example, in the start of “blow,” you hear the /b/ and the /l/ as separate sounds, and in “stop,” the /s/ and /t/ are still distinct even though they sit next to each other. The key idea is that the letters are together, but each consonant sound remains audible.

This is different from a digraph, which is two letters that work together to produce one sound. Examples include ch as in chair (one sound) or oa as in boat (one sound). So, when you’re identifying a consonant blend, you’re looking for multiple consonants that keep their own sounds rather than forming a single new sound.

Therefore, a consonant blend is best understood as a combination of two or more consonants that retain their separate sounds in sequence.