What is a trigraph?

A trigraph refers to a combination of three letters that together represent a single sound or phoneme. This concept is essential in phonics instruction and multi-sensory structured language education because it helps learners understand how letters can work together to create specific sounds in words.

For example, in English, the letters 't', 'h', and 'e' form the trigraph 'the', which is pronounced as one sound. Understanding trigraphs aids in decoding words and supports reading and spelling skills, particularly for students who are learning phonics through a structured language approach.

This definition distinguishes a trigraph from other combinations of letters. A digraph, for instance, involves only two letters creating one sound, which is different from the three-letter combination of a trigraph. Single letter sounds are relevant to phonemic awareness but do not apply to the concept of a trigraph. Furthermore, the idea of four letters forming a syllable does not relate to a trigraph, as a trigraph consists specifically of three letters.