PRIMARY SPELLING & PHONICS • GRADE 2–3 ORTHOGRAPHY • DIGRAPH ea = /ɛ/ STUDENT WORKSHEET • PAGE 1 OF 2

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Irregular Orthoepy • Digraph ea Sounding as Short ĕ (/ɛ/)

“In many common English words, the vowel team ea does not take the long ē sound (as in meat), but sounds as short &ebreve; (as in b&ebreve;d).”

Wheeler's 16 Core Words:
head • dead • lead (metal) • read (past) • tread • bread • dread • thread • breath • death • realm • deaf • health • wealth • stealth • meadow

1 16-Word Short ĕ Digraph Matrix

Copy the words neatly in 4 balanced columns, placing a breve (̆) over the &ebreve;a team:

head • dead • lead • read

tread • bread • dread • thread

breath • death • realm • deaf

health • wealth • stealth • meadow

2 Heteronym & Tense Discrimination

Explain the difference in sound and meaning between the present and past tense forms below:

1. I like to read (/rēad/) good books today. • Yesterday I read (/r&ebreve;ad/) three chapters.

2. The guide will lead (/lēad/) the way. • The heavy sinker was molded of solid lead (/l&ebreve;ad/).

3 Phonogram Family Classification

Group the target words into their precise rhyming families on the lines below:

-ead family (4 words):
bread, dead, head, thread...

-ealth family (3 words):
health, wealth, stealth...

-eath family (2 words):
breath, death...

Wheeler's Orthography Rules • Digraph ea = Short ĕ

1. 1. Historical Shortening: In Old and Middle English, long vowel digraphs shortened before heavy consonant clusters: bread, death, health.

2. 2. Heteronym Alert: Read (present /riːd/) vs. read (past /rɛd/); lead (verb /liːd/) vs. lead (metal /lɛd/). Check sentence context for correct pronunciation.

3. 3. Silent L & A Nuances: Realm has short ĕ with voiced *l*; deaf has short ĕ with voiceless *f*; meadow is a disyllable with unaccented *-ow* (/oʊ/).