Sounds and spellings

Is ow Phase 3 or Phase 5?

Both. Letters and Sounds teaches 'ow' twice — once in Phase 3 and again in Phase 5 — and which one a word needs depends on the word.

This is one of the most common points of confusion in the Letters and Sounds progression, and the answer is genuinely both. The two letters stay the same; the sound they stand for changes.

• Phase 3 introduces ow as the sound incow — also how, now, down, town, brown, owl.
• Phase 5 introduces the alternative pronunciationof the same spelling: the sound in snow — also show, grow, know, blow, window, yellow.

Why this catches people out

A child working at Phase 3 has met ow. That does not mean they can read snow. Applying the Phase 3 sound gives something that rhymes with cow — not a word, and not a useful guess.

So a book or worksheet containing snow is not a Phase 3 text, even though every letter in the word appears in the Phase 3 set. The spelling was taught; that use of it was not.

What to do about it

If a child is working at Phase 3 and meets snow, the useful move is to tell them the word rather than ask them to sound it out. There is nothing to work out yet — they have not been taught the correspondence that makes it work.

Phase 5 is where alternative pronunciations are taught deliberately: the same spelling standing for more than one sound, and the reader choosing which fits the word. ow is one of the clearest examples, which is why it is often the one people ask about.

Words where 'ow' takes each sound

Neither list is exhaustive, and regional accents do not change this particular pair.

• As in cow (Phase 3): cow, how, now, down, town, brown, owl, clown, crown, flower, shower, growl
• As in snow (Phase 5): snow, show, grow, know, blow, slow, throw, window, yellow, follow, pillow, elbow

If you are checking a passage and want to see which spellings in it are introduced by a given point,the free text checker will mark them for you — including the words where this distinction matters.