What is the Alphabetic principle?

• A. Use of letters and combos of letters to represent speech sounds
• B. The ability to read silently
• C. The ability to memorize sight words
• D. Understanding narrative structure

Answer: (A)

The Alphabetic Principle is the idea that letters and letter combinations map to the sounds of spoken language, so readers can translate written words into pronunciation. When you see a letter like b, or a two-letter combination like sh, you know the sound it represents and you blend those sounds to say the word. This underpins phonics and decoding: reading is about decoding the letter–sound relationships, not just memorizing words or silently reading or understanding a story’s structure.