Mentava’s

Alphabet Sounds

Version 0.2 (August 2024)

 Welcome!
Hi - I’m Niels, founder of Mentava and a father of four kids. I started
Mentava because I believe every child deserves to have their learning
needs supported, specifically

• high quality instruction

• at an appropriate level
• at an appropriate pace

For some kids, that means learning at a pace much faster than our
current education system is prepared to support.

This book is the first step on a lifetime journey of accelerated learning.

Welcome aboard!
 The problem with traditional How to use this book
alphabet books
In order to read, the first skill that kids need (and the first one that More than anything else, reading this book should be fun for your child.
they are developmentally capable of learning) is the ability to hear and And what makes it fun is that it’s an activity that your child can share
distinguish the smallest unit of sounds that make up spoken words. with you. Your child’s reading skills will develop gradually over time,
and not always at a consistent pace. So treat this time as
A typical alphabet book begins something like this: “A is for apple, quality time and enjoy the reading journey.
airplane, and acorn”.
We encourage you to emphasize the sound wherever it occurs in a
Those are three different sounds! And the misguided emphasis on word. For example: “This is aww! Can you say aww? This is an
letters means that some important sounds aren’t even included, like OOOctopus. Can you say octopus? This is a bAAAll. This is a yAWn”
the two “th” sounds of English (the voiced “th” in “that” and the
unvoiced “th” in “thin”). If your child has not yet learned the common names for letters (eg “ay,
bee, see”) we encourage you not to teach them! Instead call
“Learning the sounds of the English language” is a different, and more letters by their common sounds (eg “aaa, mmm, sss”). This reduces
fundamental skill than “learning the letters of the English confusion about whether to use the name or the sound when they
language” and yet I’ve never seen a children’s book that focuses on begin sounding out words.
that. So we decided to make one.
a
mentava

The sound “a” as in “apple” is the

default sound for the letter a.
axe

sad apple

hat

cat alligator
nap crab

bat
astronaut
b
mentava

Say this sound like “b-”, not “buh.”

baby bacon

blue banana
bagel ball

bamboo

bear

bus
balloon
 mentava

c,kSay this sound like “k-”, not “kuh.”

kangaroo castle

king
camel camera

ketchup
candle
cat

candy
Bat
koala
d
mentava

Say this sound like “d-”, not “duh.”

deer dinosaur
duck

dragon
dog
doll

donkey dominos

door

dolphin
Bat
e
mentava

The sound “e” as in “elephant” is

the default sound for the letter e.
Say this sound like “ehhh”, not
“ihhh.”

dress egg

tent net

elephant
hen
red

wet nest Bat

men
f
mentava

Say this sound like “fff”, not “fuh.”

fan frog

flag fish

flower flute

foot

fork fly
fox Bat
g
mentava

Say this sound like “g-”, not “guh.”

goose golf

goat
gate

guitar green

girl

gum gift Bat

h
mentava
hamster

Say this sound like “h-”, not “huh.”

helicopter

hammer
hand

hills house

hippo

hat
hedgehog
hare Bat
i
mentava

iguana
The sound “i” as in “igloo” is the
default sound for the letter i.

igloo

dig

mitts ship

fish
sit
bridge

chips
stick

Bat
j
mentava

Say this sound like “j-”, not “juh.”

jet
jelly

gem
jam

jump junk

jar

jeans juice
jarBat
 mentava

l Say this sound like “l-”, not “ull” or

“luh.” Try saying “lion” but stop
before saying “ion.”

lettuce
lemon

ladybug
leaf

lobster lion

leg

lollipop lizard
ladder Bat
m
mentava

Say this sound like “mmm”, not “muh.”

mail
mango

mouse moose

mushroom map monkey

mop

moon
Bat
milk
n
mentava

Say this sound like “nnn”, not “nuh.”

narwhal
nachos

nose nut

newt newspaper

ninja nurse necklace

Bat
night
o
mentava

The sound “o” as in “ox” is the

default sound for the letter o.

frog
soccer

pond yawn
dog

octopus pot
doctor
rock

otter
p
mentava

Say this sound like “p-”, not “puh.”

peacock
pumpkin

panda pig

penguin pretzel

pineapple pink pot puppy

q
mentava

Say this sound like “kw”, not

“kwuh.” Try to say the word
“queen” but stop before saying
“ee”.

quail quick

quack quarter

square quilt
choir
queen
squash

quill
Bat
r
mentava

Say this sound like “rrr”, not “ruh.”

ram
rain

rabbit radish

rainbow raspberries
rocket

rat
robot rose
s
mentava

Say this sound like “sss”, not “suh.”

sock
soup

scissors seahorse

skunk snail snake

mice
sleep swan
t
mentava

Say this sound like “t-”, not “tuh.”

tiger

toad

tree

table

tuna
train tomato

turtle

tent
turkey
u
mentava

The sounds “u” as in “up” is the

default sound for the letter u.

up umbrellla

run

drum

bug bus

jump duck sun

underwear
v
mentava

Say this sound like “vvv”, not “vuh.”

cave dive

vet

vase
volcano
van

violin

viking vegetables
vest
w
mentava

Say this sound like “www”, not “wuh.”

walnut waste

water

wagon

window windmill

watch
worm
waves witch
wh
mentava
Say this sound like “www” but
while blowing air out at the same
time. However, most people
today pronounce “wh” identically
to “w” and that can also be
considered a correct
pronunciation. whisk

whip

whistle
whiskers
whiteboard wheel
narwhal

wheat

white whale
x
mentava

Say this sound like “ks”.

ibex lock

box
boxing
ox
socks

axe

taxi
fox x-ray
y
mentava

Say this sound like “y”, not “yuh.”

Try to say the word “yo” but stop
before saying “oh”.

yogurt yoga

yarn
yard

yawn
yeti

yoyo

yolk
yellow yam
z
mentava

Say this sound like “zzz”, not “sss.”

closet desert

zipper zeppelin
lizard
dessert

zebra

zucchini

zoo
wizard
sh
mentava

This is the “shhh” sound in “shell”.

shark
shop

mansion

shoe
shorts

sheep

shrimp

shell
shirt ship
ch
mentava
chalk

This is the “ch” sound in “cheese”.

chair
church

cheese

cherry
chipmunk

chick
chin

chicken
Bat chess
th
mentava
(voiced)

The voiced /th/ sound in “this.”

If you put your fingers on your this
throat you can feel it vibrate.

brother

father
feather

mother

that

clothes
th
mentava
(unvoiced)

The unvoiced /th/ sound in “thin.”

If you put your fingers on your
throat you can feel it stay still.

athlete earth

thunder
thumb
bath
thief

thin

toothpaste thorn throne

ng
mentava
The /ng/ sound is hard to
say by itself, so we always
combine it with a vowel hang
to say it, like “ing”, “ang”,
“ong”.

string
drink

tank

morning dancing

sing

strong
wing ring
Bat
zh
mentava

The /zh/ sound in

“treasure” is like “sh” but
voiced. If you put your
fingers on your throat you
can feel it vibrate.

asia

explosion

treasure

measure
ae
mentava

This is the “a” sound in “cake.”

train cake

snake hay

steak reindeer

ape
alien
plane
sleigh Bat
ee
mentava

This is the “ee” sound in “bee.”

eagle eat

bee
beans key

me

puppy

eel
field tree
Bat
ie
mentava

Say this sound like the word

“eye.”

bicycle bite

kite pie

eyes
cry

pilot

slide light flies

oe
mentava
coat

This is the sound in “go”.

cold

old

bone
toast

dodo

toe

toad taco
ghost Bat
 mentava

ue, oo
This is the “oo” sound in “moon.”

tulip boot

news moon

dunes broom

fruit

glue
soup
suit
oo
mentava
bigfoot

This is the “oo” sound in “book.”

book

wolf look

bull hood
sugar

bush
rook cook
 mentava

ue (yoo)
Say this sound like the word “you.”

computer cube

united states ukulele

huge
fuel
vacuum unicorn music
mule
 mentava

ow This is the “ow” sound in “cow.”

crown house

cloud

clown

flower town

ground

cow mouth Bat

owl
 mentava

oi This is the “oy” sound in “boy.”

android oil

toy
royal
coin
boy
joy

oyster
toilet boil
 mentava

ar
Many English vowels change their
sound when they’re followed by the
letter “r”. These sounds are called
“r-controlled vowels”. Think about
cat vs car, or gill vs girl.

barn art

arch farm

shark
star

aardvark

car arm
guitar
 mentava

or The letter “o” changes its sound

when followed by an “r”. Consider
“con” vs “corn”.

orange horse

door
corn
orca
orchid

fork
forest organ ornament
 mentava

er, ir, ur
Although “er”, “ir”, and “ur” are spelled differently, they
are pronounced the same way.

butter bird

turtle tiger

burger birthday

fork purple
girl circle
 Sound
The differences between some English sounds
can be quite subtle, and difficult to hear even
for native English speakers. For non-native

comparisons
speakers or certain English accents, it will
require extra practice to learn to distinguish
the sounds. We hope this section can help
highlight some of the more subtle differences.
 mentava

l vs. r
ramp lamp
reader

rip
road

leader

light

lip right
load
 mentava

w vs. v vine

wine
west

vet

wet vest
 mentava

s vs. th think

sank

sink sick

thank thick
 mentava

d vs. th they

doe
den

day

though
then
 mentava

b vs. v bat

van

bow

vat

ban vow
 mentava

s vs. sh shore

shoe sore
sip

ship sue
 mentava

ch vs. sh chew

shoe
chip

chop

ship shop
 mentava

j vs. y yes

jam jess
gel

yam
yell
 mentava

f vs. p pat

fat

pin
fool

fin pool

fan
fan pan
 mentava

g vs. k cold

kate
gold
coat

goat gate
 mentava

e vs. i heat

seat feet hit

sit

fit
bit
beet
 mentava

a vs. e cattle

pen

bat bet
kettle

pet
pat
pan
 mentava

o vs. u lock

cop

luck
cot
cup

hut cut

hot
 mentava

aw vs. o low

law boat

saw
sew
coat
bot

caught
 mentava
pull

ooh vs. u
pool
full

foot

food fool
 mentava

e vs. i bit
bet

red
rid
pin pen

sit set fill

Law

fell
 mentava

a
raised This is special case that you don’t need to teach
explicitly. In American English, the “a” sound lamb
becomes more nasal in front of an “n” or “m”. The “a” in
“man” is different from the “a” in “cat”. You may be able
to hear this difference between “plan it” (more nasal) vs
“planet”. We mention this because one of the first words
your child reads will likely be “am”, but sounded out with
the default “a” rather than the raised “a.”
pan
ant

dance
antelope

ambulance

camp

van
man
candy
 mouse

moss

pan
moose
Moose pen

pine
mess

miss mice

pin
bat
bet

boat

bot

beat

bite

bit
bait
 kate
coot

cut
Moose

mate mitt

kit

coat

moat

cot
 mutt

boil bowl

mat met ball

Moose bell

meat mite bill

bull
 pail

peel

pool pal

pill

pile

pull pole
 mile

meal meal

mall mill

mole

mule mull

mail
 man

moon ferry

mane
Moose

mean furry fairy

fiery

mine moan fury

 About Mentava
APPENDIX Mentava was founded in 2021 to allow top-performing students to achieve
their potential. We believe every child deserves to have their learning
needs supported, and our mission is to give options to kids whose needs
are not being met by their school.

Our first product is a software-based tutor designed to teach

preschoolers to read. Many parents asked us what they could do to
support their kids who were still too young for our learn-to-read
software. This book is our answer.
 The importance of phonemic
awareness
Recognition and recall are two different types of memory retrieval. When a child
learns to read, they must be able to remember “what sound does this letter make?”
Pronouncing sounds correctly
That skill is referred to as recall.
This is a book of alphabet sounds, so it’s important to pronounce them correctly. The
Recognition is a prerequisite for recall, and the goal of this book is to help children most common mistake is adding an “uh” sound when saying a consonant, eg “buh”,
practice recognizing the sounds of the spoken English language. This skill is called “fuh”, or “tuh”.
“phonemic awareness” and it is a natural cognitive process that begins at a young
age. But we don’t pronounce “bat” as “buh-aaa-tuh” and we don’t say “fun” as
“fuh-uh-nuh”. Practice saying your sounds without that “uh” on the end, as though a
Not only does phonemic awareness affect your ability to read and speak, but it spoken word were sliced into pieces.
affects brain development in such a fundamental way that it determines your ability
to even hear certain sounds as an adult. If you’re having trouble pronouncing a particular sound correctly, there are many
good demonstration videos on YouTube. A good one to start with is “The Key Sounds
Consider the t sounds in “stop” and “top”. Those two sounds are different and would of English - 44 Phonemes and 4 Blends” by Sally Cole.
be different letters in Hindi, but you probably can’t even tell the difference. You can
feel the difference, though. Put your hand in front of your mouth and feel the puff of It’s fine if your child’s pronunciation is terrible. Enjoy the baby talk. Your child can
air from the t in “top” that is absent from the t in “stop”. On the other hand, a native learn to hear the difference between sounds (and read words containing them) even
Hindi speaker will have the same difficulty hearing the difference between “v” and if they can’t yet pronounce them correctly.
“w” because in Hindi they’re the same letter.
Every child is different, but these are approximate ages at which kids tend to be able
Similarly, the p sounds in “pin” and “spin” would be different letters in Korean, but a to pronounce different speech sounds:
native Korean speaker will have trouble hearing the difference between “r” and “l”.
2-year-olds: vowels and P, B, M, D, N, H, T
We ignore the musical pitch of a word in English, but in tonal languages like Chinese,
changing the pitch changes the word entirely. And we won’t even discuss the various 3-year-olds: K, G, W, NG, F, Y
clicks in the Xhosa language.
4-year-olds: L, J, CH, S, V, SH, Z
This book is designed to build the phonemic awareness skills necessary to read, write,
speak, and understand English. Some of these sounds vary regionally based on The last sounds kids master are usually R, voiced TH (as in “that”), unvoiced TH (as in
accent and dialect. For example, in the American South, “pin” and “pen” are “thin”), and ZH (a voiced SH sound as in “treasure”).
pronounced the same.

To keep things simple, this book is based on a neutral American accent, and we
ignore some of the more subtle phonemic variations such as the vowels in merry/
marry/mary or paw/lot.
 Is my child ready to learn to
read?
The basic skills a child must master for reading are:

1. recognizing and differentiating the various sounds of spoken English

2. memorizing letter/sound pairings (“what sound does this letter make?”)
3. left-to-right reading order
4. blending sounds together into a word

A child’s ability to do each of these skills is fundamentally limited by developmental

milestones. A child will be able to imitate sounds before they understand the concept of
letters.

Similarly, there’s a developmental period where kids are ready to learn the letter sounds, but
they’re not developmentally ready to wrap their heads around left-to-right reading order
and blending sounds together.

This has sometimes led to a not-great experience for some of our customers. At first, they
get an initial rush of excitement when they see their toddler learning letter sounds earlier
than they thought possible.

But when it comes time to blend those sounds into words, the child struggles and the parents
wonder what happened. But nothing went wrong. Their child just needs a little more time
before getting started.

We needed to design a test capable of identifying whether an individual child was

developmentally ready and likely to be successful beginning the process of learning to read.

The idea we came up with was using emojis to test the child’s ability to understand left-
to-right reading order. A child who can’t tell the difference between (“dogfish”) and
........ (“fishdog”) definitely won’t be able to tell the difference between “am” and “ma”.

You can use the symbols on this page to check your child’s developmental readiness for
left-to-right reading order. Gently guide their finger over one of the pairs from left to right
and say “this is fishdog” or “this is dogfish”.

Don’t spend more than a minute or two on this. Don’t think of this as a skill you’re trying to
train. Think of it as a check on your child’s brain development. You’re waiting to see if the
right neurons have connected up yet.

Once your child can reliably answer “which is fishdog” and “which is dogfish” and then read
the different pairs off themselves (likely around age 3.5), then they may be ready for
Mentava’s software-based learn-to-read tutor.