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Special Category: ch pronounced /k/

This is a common category -- teach it early and well. Those well-educated, science-minded Greeks liked to use ch as k, so the harder the word is, the more a /ch/ in it is to be pronounced "k." Common words are listed first. Ask your student why the e makes the a long, even though there are two consonants (they only make one sound, though). Whenever "CH" is part of a blend -- chr or chl -- it has the K sound (except Yiddish derivatives like schlepp and schmaltz...)

Many 'ch' words are advanced - don't include syllable patterns or categories that the student hasn't learned yet unless they're in the same word; if "psychology" has come up in reading, decide whether to start with the silent p or the ch as k.

 

and all the psych- words, too...