Affricate sounds can trip up even confident early readers. Words like chip, cheese, judge, and giant contain sounds that aren’t easily isolated—and that’s because they aren’t pure consonants. These tricky blends, known as affricate sounds, require direct instruction, plenty of auditory discrimination practice, and focused phonics activities to stick.
In this post, you’ll learn what affricate sounds are, how they relate to fricative and affricate sounds as a category, and how to support students using structured, Science of Reading-aligned strategies in your literacy block.
What Are Affricate Sounds?
Affricates are consonant sounds that begin as a stop and release into a fricative—making them feel like a blend of two sounds, even though they function as single phonemes. In English, the primary affricate sounds include:
- /ch/ as in chip, match, and lunch
- /j/ as in jump, edge, and giant
- /tr/ and /dr/ as in tree and drum—while not technically affricates, I include them in instruction because many students hear a /ch/ or /j/ sound in these blends
While they sound like blends, affricates are actually single phonemes. This can be confusing for students who are learning to segment and blend sounds, especially if they’ve already been working with simpler stop sounds like /t/ or /d/.
Understanding how fricative and affricate sounds relate is key to teaching them effectively. Fricatives (like /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/) involve continuous airflow, while affricates start with a full stop. Helping students hear and feel that distinction is often the first step in mastering them.
Psst, want more information? Check out this post about affricates by The Dyslexia Classroom!
Why Some Students Struggle with Affricates
Affricates are often difficult for students with speech delays, emerging phonemic awareness, or weak auditory discrimination. They may confuse /ch/ with /sh/ or /j/ with /d/—errors that can interfere with both reading and spelling. That’s why affricates benefit from targeted, explicit instruction that incorporates both visual and auditory supports.
If you’re also working on sounds like /th/, /v/, or /f/, you might find this helpful: Fun Ways to Teach TH, V and F Sounds – Auditory Discrimination Made Easy. Many of the same strategies apply when you’re focusing on fricative and affricate sounds, especially when working with small groups.
Activities That Support Affricate Sound Development
Students need more than isolated practice to master affricate sounds—they need repeated, meaningful exposure across a variety of formats. That’s exactly why I created my Affricate Game Bundle. This bundle includes multiple activity types designed to help students hear, read, and spell words with /ch/ and /j/ sounds through consistent, engaging practice.
The word sorts are perfect for helping students compare and contrast affricates with other similar sounds, like /sh/, /t/, and /d/. Each sort is print-and-go and includes visual supports so students can complete them independently or in small groups. These sorts work well for Monday mini-lessons or as a warm-up before guided reading. Read more about why word sorts belong in every classroom.
Roll and Cover is a great option for fluency-building. Students roll a die, read a word aloud, and cover it on the board—giving them repeated exposure to high-utility affricate words in a fun, low-pressure way. These sheets require no prep beyond printing and can be reused across multiple days.
Finally, Word Bump adds an element of friendly competition to affricate practice. Students take turns reading words and bumping each other off the board, which keeps them engaged while also encouraging rereading and careful attention to sound patterns. This game is a class favorite and especially effective for partner work.
Together, these resources make it easy to provide systematic, engaging practice with affricate sounds throughout your week—without reinventing your phonics block or adding extra prep.
How to Fit Affricate Sound Instruction into Your Routine
Affricate sounds don’t need to take over your week—they just need to be addressed clearly and consistently. Here’s one way to weave them into your phonics block:
- Introduce the sound explicitly with visuals, mirrors, and listening activities
- Sort and compare affricates with other sounds, especially fricatives, to build awareness
- Practice through games like Word Bump or game boards to reinforce the spelling-sound connection
- Review and apply by reading and writing words with /ch/ and /j/ in context
If you’re building a structured routine around sound mapping and phoneme awareness, check out Mapping Sounds to Build Stronger Readers, which explains how orthographic mapping supports long-term word recognition.
Explore My TPT Store
Looking for more phonics resources to support tricky sounds like /ch/ and /j/? Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Primed for Primary, for no-prep phonics games, word sorts, and hands-on activities that align with the Science of Reading.
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