When you point at the letter B, do you say "bee" or "buh"? It feels like a small choice, but it shapes how easily a child later learns to read. One is the letter name; the other is the sound the letter makes — and for reading, they are not interchangeable.
This guide untangles the two, explains why the distinction matters so much for decoding, and gives a clear answer to the question parents and teachers actually ask: which one do I teach first?
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Two different things a letter has
Every letter carries two pieces of information. Its name is the label we use to talk about it — "ay", "bee", "see", "dee", the alphabet song. Its sound (or sounds) is what it represents in a word — the /b/ in "bat", the /k/ in "cat". The letter A is named "ay" but in most short words says /a/ as in "apple".
Reading runs on sounds, not names. To read "cat", a child converts each letter to its sound — /k/ /a/ /t/ — and blends them. The letter names play no part in that process. This is the heart of why the distinction matters.
The blending trap (why names alone stall reading)
Here is the problem with teaching only names. A child who knows the alphabet song but not the sounds looks at "cat" and says "see-ay-tee". That does not blend into "cat" — it blends into nonsense. The names actively get in the way of decoding.
You can watch this happen. A child who has been drilled on names will often recite the alphabet beautifully and then be completely stuck on a simple three-letter word, because nobody connected those letters to the sounds that build words. The fix is always the same: teach the sounds.
So what do you teach first?
For the goal of reading, lead with the sounds. The most useful early knowledge is "this letter says /m/", because that is what a child uses to decode. Many strong early-reading approaches introduce letters by their sound first and bring the name in alongside or shortly after.
That does not make letter names useless — far from it. Names are handy for talking about letters ("there are two t's in butter"), for spelling words aloud, and for navigating the world (signs, initials). The point is not names-versus-sounds as enemies; it is simply that for the specific job of learning to read, the sounds do the heavy lifting and deserve the early emphasis.
How to teach the sound cleanly
When you teach a letter sound, say it as purely as you can. Avoid tacking on an extra vowel: the sound is /b/, not "buh"; /t/, not "tuh". Stretch the sounds that can be held (/sssss/, /mmmmm/, /fffff/, /lllll/) and keep the stop sounds short and crisp. Clean sounds are what make blending work later.
A few practical anchors help:
- Pair each letter with a keyword and picture: "m — /m/ — moon".
- Trace the letter while saying its sound, so hand and ear learn together.
- Teach a handful of sounds, then immediately build a word (s, a, t, p, i, n lets you make sat, pat, tap, nap).
- Use the name when it is genuinely useful — spelling a word aloud, naming a sign — without making it the reading tool.
When letters say more than one sound
A fair question follows quickly: many letters make several sounds. C can be /k/ or /s/; A can be short (apple), long (cake) or other sounds. The answer is to start with the most common sound — usually the short-vowel and hard-consonant sounds that build simple words — and add the others as the child meets them in reading.
You do not have to front-load every exception. Teach the workhorse sound first, get the child decoding real words, and layer in the alternatives over time as part of a sensible phonics sequence. Trying to teach all of a letter's sounds at once just overwhelms a beginner.
Skip the setup work
Everything in this guide works with paper and a pencil. If you want the structure ready-made — designed, tested and printable in minutes — the matching templates are below.
Frequently asked questions
Is it "buh" or "bee" — which is right?
Both are real, but they serve different purposes. "Bee" is the letter name; "buh" (ideally a crisp /b/, with as little "uh" as possible) is the sound it makes in words. For learning to read, the sound is what a child needs, so lead with that.
Should I stop teaching the alphabet song?
No — the alphabet song is a nice way to learn the names and the order of letters, which is genuinely useful. Just do not treat knowing the song as the same thing as being ready to read. Teach the sounds alongside it, because those are what decoding actually uses.
My child knows letter names but cannot read words. What now?
This is very common and very fixable. Shift the focus to letter sounds and to blending those sounds into words ("/m/ /a/ /p/ — map"). Once the child is converting letters to sounds rather than names, simple words usually start to click.
Sources & further reading
- National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read — NICHD report on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension
- Gough, P. & Tunmer, W. (1986). Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability — the Simple View of Reading. Remedial and Special Education, 7(1)
- Castles, A., Rastle, K. & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1)
- Ehri, L. (2005). Learning to Read Words: Theory, Findings, and Issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(2)
- Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade — IES / What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide (2016)
About this guide. Published by OmniAura Digital, the team behind the printables and templates in our library. Our reading guides summarize published, peer-reviewed research (cited above) in plain English — we link the primary sources so you can verify every claim. Spotted an error? Tell us at support@omniauradigital.com and we'll fix it.