AI Tutor
Put your hand right in front of your mouth and say the word sun.
You feel a gentle hiss of air before anything else β€” that opening sound is /s/.
Words are built from small pieces of sound called phonemes β€” but how do we catch just the very first one?

Stretching the Word

To hear the start of a word, stretch it out slowly like sticky bubblegum.
When you say cat in slow motion, your mouth makes /k/ before any other sound arrives.
Be sure to make the actual sound, not the letter name β€” say /m/ for moon, instead of the letter name em.
Can two totally different words begin with the exact same sound?

Finding Sound Twins

Say dog and duck out loud β€” both words pop open with that bouncy /d/ sound.