Why is the sound ‘nk’ taught in Phase 2?

‘nk’ is actually ‘ng-k’, a bit like ‘qu’ /k-w/ – it is a digraph that makes two sounds! We teach it in Phase 2 alongside ‘ng’ for two reasons:

• When ‘n’ and ‘k’ are together, it is the only time that ‘n’ makes the sound /ng/. As this is the case, it is good to build on the teaching of the digraph ‘ng’ /ng/ and make the connection between these two GPCs. The children also learn the other common consonant digraphs ‘qu’, ‘sh’, ‘th’, ‘ch’ at the same time – this means they are learning about the same type of alphabetic knowledge.
• By learning to read ‘nk’ early on, we are helping children read many common words: ‘pink’, ‘thank’, ‘sink’, ‘wink’ etc.