Originally Answered: Why is “cat” spelled with a “c” and “kitten” with a “k”? Yes there is. When the /k/ phoneme is followed by the letters ‘i’, ‘e’ or ‘y’ AND the letter ‘c’ is used before them, the ‘c’ becomes the /s/ phoneme. So, if ‘kitten’ were spelled ‘citten’ it would have to be pronounced as ‘sittin.

5-letter words that start with ck

• cksum.
• cktid.
• cktvc.
• cktea.
• ckumc.
• cksfa.
• cksec.
• cksia.

8-letter words that end in ck

• feedback.
• comeback.
• playback.
• paycheck.
• drawback.
• maverick.
• lipstick.
• fullback.

This generalization states that when you hear the /k/ sound at the end of a word AND the /k/ immediately follows a short vowel sound, it is spelled ck. If it is preceded by a long vowel or consonant, it is spelled with a k.

If a word ends in [k] with a short vowel sound in front of it, the [k] will usually be spelled either <ck> or <c>. If the word has only one vowel sound, the [k] will usually be spelled <ck>. If the word has more than one vowel sound, the [k] will usually be spelled <c>.

Due to the succeeding ‘i’ the pronunciation of “citten” would not agree with that of “cat”, hence “kitten” is used. “Cat” originates from the French “chat” while “kitten” originates from the German “Katze”.

The letter ch is a digraph consisting of the sequence of Latin alphabet graphemes C and H, however it is a single phoneme (pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative [x]) and represents a single entity in Czech collation order, inserted between H and I.

A consonant blend is when two or more consonants are blended together, but each sound may be heard in the blend. The most common beginning consonant blends include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, tr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sp and st. Blends can also occur at the end of words as in the word “last”.

Some examples of beginning blends are bl-, sc-, or gr-. Blends can also be at the end of words, such as –nd, -st, or -mp.

Latin-script trigraphs It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a sequence of letters in English is a trigraph, because of the complicating role of silent letters. There are however a few productive trigraphs in English such as tch as in watch, and igh as in high. It is pronounced like an English “j” /dʒ/.

A digraph is a single sound, or phoneme, that is represented by two letters. A trigraph is a phoneme that consists of three letters.

Eau is a trigraph of the Latin script.