Mississippi Foundations of Reading Practice Test

What is the term for a group of two successive letters whose phonetic value is a single sound?

1. Diphthong

2. Digraph

3. Monophthong

4. Triphthong

The correct answer is: Diphthong

The correct answer is digraph. A digraph is defined as a pair of letters that together represent a single phoneme, or sound, in a word. For example, in the word "shout," the "sh" represents the distinct sound often produced together, making it a digraph. Diphthongs and triphthongs refer to vowel sounds that glide from one to another within a single syllable, rather than a pair of letters representing one sound. A diphthong involves two vowel sounds (like in "coin"), while a triphthong consists of three vowel sounds (as in "our"). Monophthongs, on the other hand, refer to a single vowel sound that does not change in quality during its pronunciation. Therefore, digraph is the appropriate term to identify the two-letter combination representing one sound.