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R blends: In-Depth Info & Word Lists

Updated: Dec 8, 2022



Working on r blends with your child and confused about what words fall under what category.


A little introduction regarding what consonant blends are before diving into R blends.

The term consonant blend, also known as consonant cluster or consonant sequence, is used when two consonants are grouped with no vowel in between them and both the sounds in the blend retain their sounds.


Now let's see what an R blend is. An r blend is a set of consonants in which ‘r’ is the second constant. The 7 most common r blends are GR, PR, CR, DR, FR, BR, and STR.



Here is a list of a few words categorized as per the type of r blend they fall under:


1. BR-

brick

brush

braid

brown

brain

bride

bread

bronze

branch

bridge

broken

broomstick

brother

brownie

breakfast

bright

bracelet

broccoli

brisk

brew

You can incorporate these words in sentences like-

  • Let's brush our teeth.

  • Breakfast is yummy.

  • The braids look pretty

  • Look at my bracelet charms.

2. Cr-

crab

crack

crib

crumpet

crane

cram

crisps

crumbs

crayon

criminal

cricket

crocodile

crumble

crash

crawl

crime

crown

crush

crows

cross

  • I want crayons.

  • A king wears a crown.

  • We see crabs at the beach.

  • Let's go play cricket.

3. Dr-

drink

drop

drag

dress

drum

drill

dream

drive

dragon

drawbridge

droplet

drift

droop

drama

draft

dramatic

drowsy

dread

  • I want to drink juice.

  • Your dress is so pretty.

  • ROAR like a dragon.

  • Do you wanna go for a drive?

4. Fr-

frog

frost

fruit

freeze

fries

friends

frame

fridge

freckles

fringe

fraction

fright

front

free

fryer

fraud

fresh

frown

frayed

franatic

  • The berries are so fresh.

  • Let's go play with our friends.

  • You want fries for snacks.

  • Can you get fruits from the fridge?

5. Gr-

grin

green

grass

grab

growl

grow

grumpy

grape

grey

granny

ground

groggy

grade

group

gravy

grill

  • Why are you grinning little kiddo?

  • Let's do a group activity.

  • Wanna go play on the ground?

  • I like grapes.

6. Pr-

present

press

price

pray

prick

prince

princess

prank

prom

problem

prove

pretzel

prison

prune

pride

proud

  • I am so proud of you.

  • What present do you want for Christmas?

  • Let's solve the problem.

7. Tr-

tray

trash

truck

trumpet

true

truth

trick

tree

tractor

train

trust

training

trolley

triple

triangle

trap

trail

tram

  • You should always tell the truth.

  • You wanna play with a truck or a tractor?

  • She is trying to color the triangle.

Just uploading the list of these blends would be like half the help.


Here is a list of fun books that can help your child learn the r blends.


For BR blends -








  • Santa Bruce

  • Room on the broom

  • Being brave

  • Breakfast

  • Brontosaurus (for all the cute dino fans out there)

For CR blends-










  • Clumsy crab

  • Selfish crocodile

  • Splat the cat:I scream for ice cream

  • The very cranky bear

For DR blends-








  • Do not bring your dragon into the library

  • Me and my dragon

  • Curious George dreams

  • You can search for themes like dresses, drawings etc.

For FR blends -










  • Freddy the frogcaster.

  • There are weather wise books of Freddy the frogcaster also

  • Being frank

  • You can search for books on friends, fruits, etc.

For GR blends-










  • The Gruffalo

  • The grumpy monkey

  • The grumpy groundhog

  • The grumpy trucks

  • Froggy goes to grandma's

For PR blends-










  • Never let a princess paint

  • Grace for President

  • Books on principles, being proud of yourself.

For TR blends-









  • The Goodnight train

  • Duck on a tractor

  • T-Rex trick or treat.

  • The wish tree

  • Books on traveling, triceratops or trick or treat

If you come across any query about how to teach the r blends to you child, you can always book an appointment with us.



Few games to make learning the R sound fun!


In order to learn something we must practice it regularly, the same agenda is applicable here as well the goal of all these games is to help your child practice hearing and saying the R sound.

  • Make it fun for them to use ‘R’ sounds, for instance, if your child is into pirates you can dress up as pirates or play a pirate game and say ‘argh’ like pirates say it.

  • Your child learns how to roll their tongue while imitating the sounds various animals make like ‘growling’ like a dog or ‘roaring’ like a lion.

  • Rhyming words is one of the oldest and the best exercises to help the child learn the r sound. Like the car, far or rat, bat or tar, war.

  • While coloring with crayons, the child has to say 'crayon' every time they pick a new color.

  • R diving- you put many cards that have words with the R sound written on them. Then you both have to take turns picking out cards, the person has to read the word written on the card out loud. You continue picking cards until you pronounce something wrong. The person with more cards wins.

  • Poems are also a fun way to teach the child the r sound, poems like "row, row, row your boat', or ' boat", or "Mary, Mary, quite contrary". You can make up your version too, as this requires the involvement of your child its extra fun for them.

  • Use opportunities in everyday activities, whenever you watch TV and their favorite cartoon uses an ‘R’ sound you should repeat the sound in a fun way as that may pique the interest of your kid and they may repeat after you.




Sounderic provides online speech therapy sessions for children with various communication disorders. We would love to help you. Get in touch with us on WhatsApp at +919644466635 or schedule a consultation with us at https://www.sounderic.com/service-page/speech-language-consultation-for-kids?referral=service_list_widget


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