Oi Sound in Jolly Phonics: Action, Word Lists and Worksheet

Cup your hands around your mouth, turn to a boat out on the water and shout, “oi! ship ahoy!” That is the Jolly Phonics action for this sound, and most children need no encouragement at all. Let them be loud. Getting the sound out of the mouth comes before reading it.

oi is the third sound in group 7 of Jolly Phonics, after qu and ou, and before ue, er and ar. Letters and Sounds does it differently and teaches oi in Phase 3. So if your child’s school follows one programme and you found this page through the other, the order will look a bit off. The sound is the same either way.

How the sound is made

It is one sound written with two letters. Your mouth starts rounded, like a short “o”, and then slides out into a smile for the “i”. Say it slowly in front of a mirror with your child and watch your lips move. You can’t hold it still the way you hold /s/, because the mouth is always travelling.

The usual problem is a child who stops halfway and just says “o”. Exaggerate the slide for them: lips round, then smile.

Word lists, and how to use them

Only a few words start with oi: oil, oink and ointment. Oink is the one children actually enjoy. Nearly everything useful has oi in the middle, so spend your time there.

• Short and easy: coin, boil, soil, foil, join, coil.
• Two letters on the end: point, joint, moist, spoil.
• Silent e after the oi: noise, voice, choice.
• Longer words: toilet, poison, avoid.

Write the first group on cards. Read coin together, then let your child try boil, soil and foil on her own. When those feel easy, move down one line. Keep the last line for children who are already racing ahead, because toilet and poison have two chunks to blend and tire a beginner quickly.

Mix-ups to expect

Reading it as two sounds. A child sounds out c-o-i-n as “kuh, o, ih, nuh” and ends up nowhere. Cover the other letters, point to oi and say, “These two are a team. They make one sound.” Then slide a finger under both letters in a single movement while you say it.

Writing “coyn”. English words almost never end in the letters oi, and the same sound at the end of a word is spelled oy: boy, toy, joy, enjoy. Inside a word it is oi. Don’t explain this too early. When a child writes “coyn”, write boy and coin side by side and let her see where the sound sits.

Mixing it up with ou. The letters in out and cloud look similar but sound different. If your child reads soil as “sowl”, check the second letter: i or u.

Three short activities

• Shout and trace (5 minutes). Do the ship ahoy action, then trace oi in the air with a finger before writing it. The animation below shows where to start.
• oi or oy sort (5 minutes). Draw two columns on paper. Call out coin, boy, toy, point, joy, soil, enjoy and ask your child to point to the right column. Stop after seven words, before it turns into a test.
• Change one letter (5 minutes). Build boil with letter cards, say it, then swap the first letter to make soil, foil and coil. The cards below make boil.

The worksheet and sound cards

This is a single page. It has a big oi with arrows showing where to start, a picture of a coin, three rows of dotted oi to trace and one empty row for writing without help. It is a tracing sheet only, with no word lists on it.

This second file is eight pages of Phase 3 sound cards that you cut out. oi is one of them, next to ow, or and the rest, which makes it handy for the sorting game above.

Where to go next

Once oi feels steady, the other o-glide is worth a look: the /ow/ sound as in cow is the one children mix it up with. The next sound in group 7 after this one is ue, and the /er/ sound comes soon after. The whole order is laid out in the Jolly Phonics complete guide.

Questions parents ask

Why can’t I find any words that end in oi?

English words almost never end in the letters oi. At the end of a word the same sound is written oy, as in boy, toy and joy.

My child sounds out c-o-i-n as four sounds. What should I do?

Cover the other letters, point to oi and say it as one sound. Slide your finger under both letters in one go, then blend the word again.

Is oi taught in Jolly Phonics or in Letters and Sounds?

Both. It is the third sound in group 7 of Jolly Phonics, and Letters and Sounds teaches it in Phase 3.

How is oi different from ou?

They look alike but ou, as in out and cloud, makes a different sound. Check the second letter: oi has an i, ou has a u.