If you are an ardent reader and writer, you are sure to come across sight words. Words that are most often used in writing and reading are known as sight words. They are also known as high-frequency words or trick words or popcorn words. These words appear so often that you recognize them at first sight itself. Sight words are not attached to any parts of speech. Hence they can be used freely irrespective of what the topic is. The more you are familiar with sight words the sharper your reading and writing skills become.
- Sight Words and High-Frequency Words
- Features of Sight Words
- Ready to Read Sight Words List | Sight Words Examples
- Why are Sight Words Important?
- How to Learn Sight Words?
- What are Sight Words?
- Give examples of sight words?
- What are some of the characteristics of sight words?
- What are some of the benefits of learning sight words?
Sight Words and High-Frequency Words
As mentioned above, sight words are also called high-frequency words. However, they are slightly different. High-Frequency words include all the sight words as well as other words that are often seen in written language.
Features of Sight Words
Given below are some of the characteristic features that most of the sight words possess
- These words appear frequently in texts.
- Sight words provide a sense of meaning to a text.
- These words cannot be easily represented through images or words.
- Phonetically these words are quite random. That is there is no specific way to pronounce these words.
For example, the sight words ‘in’ and ‘it’ are similar – both have a short ‘i’ sound in their pronunciation and are pronounced similarly. However, the pronunciation of the sight words ‘so’ and ‘to’ are different while ‘so’ has an ‘o’ sound in its pronunciation, ‘to’ has ‘oo’ sound.
- Sight words can be easily recognized and memorized.
- Though they are easily recognizable, they have more weightage.
Ready to Read Sight Words List | Sight Words Examples
Given below is a list of some of the most commonly used sight words:
- The
- To
- And
- Do
- Did
- A
- An
- In
- Is
- An
- The
- Is
- In
- On
- It
- Me
- my
- Not
- To
- Up
- We
- You
- About
- Add
- After
- Our
- Out
- Saw
- Said
- Run
- This
- That
- They
- Went
- Well
- Yes
- With
Why are Sight Words Important?
Some benefits of learning sight words include:
- Build Vocabulary: Sight words are the most frequently used words or common words that we use. Hence having an idea of these words will help you build vocabulary
- Improve Reading: Categorising some words as sight words makes sure that they are incorporated in your reading and writing in such a way that you don’t have to stop and think about their meaning or pronunciation. These words become crucial for communication and make you a fluent reader.
- Improves Writing Skills: Your writing skills improve with sight words. Essay writing, sentence formation, and all other writing skills would surely require the usage of sight words. If you are familiar with sight words, you will be able to write better.
- Provides Meaning to Sentences: Sight words help to convey meanings. Without the use of appropriate words, the information can be misinterpreted. So, sight words have a significant role in making meaningful sentences.
- Builds Confidence: The use of appropriate sight words will ensure clarity in the information you convey. Effective use of sight words will hence boost your confidence.
How to Learn Sight Words?
Given below are some tips for learning sight words:
- Make use of common sight word lists. Examples include Dolch’s list and Fry’s list.
- Learn sight words in isolation, that is the sight word by itself. However, immediately follow this process by familiarising yourself with sentences that contain these sight words.
- Do not learn similar but confusing sight words at the same time.
- Make use of common sight word instructions if you are new to sight words.
See More:
FAQs on Sight Words
Words that are frequently used in sentences or texts are known as Sight words. Sight words are also known as high-frequency words, popcorn words, and tricky words.
2. Give examples of sight words?
Examples of sight words are am, in, the, a, I, us, in, on, me, then, when, where, here, there, these, this, their, always, around, never, been, big, be, nice, about, etc.
3. What are some of the characteristics of sight words?
Sight words are words that appear frequently in any sentence or text. These words provide a sense of meaning to the text, can be easily recognized and memorized, and are phonetically irregular.
4. What are some of the benefits of learning sight words?
Sight words help you build vocabulary, improve your writing and reading skills, provide meaning to sentences and build your confidence.
Conclusion
More than 50% of any text is made of sight words. Recognizing such sight words enhances your reading and writing skills. Memorizing sight words will help you recognize them easily, without decoding them. So be sure to learn as many sight words as possible.