Word List
Sh Words
Sh is a digraph, two letters that spell one sound. Ship has four letters and three sounds. Below are the words that start with sh and the words that end with it, each with its own worksheets, and a mixed review that sorts them by where the sh sits.
- ship
- fish
- shop
- dish
- shed
- wish
- shut
- cash
- shell
- brush
- sheep
- trash
- shark
- bush
- shirt
- splash
Sh is a digraph: two letters that spell one sound. The s and the h are not doing two jobs, and there is no s sound in ship at all. That is why ship has four letters and only three sounds, sh, i and p.
Sh is the easiest digraph to start with, for two reasons. It makes one sound wherever it sits in a word, unlike th, which makes two. And you can hold the sound for as long as you like, which means a child can hear it on its own before they ever try to read it. Say “shhhhh” and your child already knows it: it is the sound for being quiet.
What sound does sh make?
Sh makes one sound, and it is the same at the start of ship and the end of fish. Push your lips forward a little, put your teeth close together, and let the air out in a steady stream. No voice: put a hand on your throat and nothing buzzes.
It is worth showing your child that the sound can be held. Stretch it out, “shhhhhhip”, and then say it at normal speed. A sound you can hold is one a child can hear inside a word, which is the whole reason sh is usually taught before ch.
Some children say a sound closer to s, so ship comes out as sip. While the sound is still coming in that is common, and it is a speech question rather than a reading one. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says most children can say almost all speech sounds correctly by age 4, and recommends talking to a speech-language pathologist if you are worried. A child can still read sh words perfectly well while their own sh is settling.
Where does sh appear in a word?
Sh turns up at the start and at the end of words, and almost never in the middle of a short one. That is what the two lists below are: the same sound in the two places a young reader meets it.
| Where the sh is | Examples |
|---|---|
| Start of a word | ship, shop, shed, shell, shark |
| End of a word | fish, dish, wish, cash, brush |
| After a blend | crash, trash, splash, flash |
| Middle of a word | washing, fishing, wishing |
The middle-of-a-word ones are mostly endings added to a word your child already knows. Fish becomes fishing, wash becomes washing. There is nothing new to learn there once the sh itself is solid, which is why this page does not give them a list of their own.
Sh never needs a rule. Unlike ck, which only follows a short vowel, and unlike tch, which only follows a short vowel too, sh is simply sh everywhere. It is one of the few patterns in English with no exceptions worth teaching a six-year-old.
How should you use these sh worksheets?
Start with the words that begin with sh, and stay there until they are easy. Beginning sounds are easier to hear than ending ones, so a child who meets sh at the front of a word first has a better chance of hearing it as a single sound rather than as two letters.
Start here once your child can read CVC words like cat and sit without stopping to work them out. Teaching one pattern at a time in a planned order is what the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report calls systematic phonics, and the panel found it helps children from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Within each section the sheets run easiest first: read the word cards together, then the sound boxes, where sh goes in one box because it is one sound. The picture sheet comes next, then the handwriting or search sheet. When both positions are easy, the mixed review at the bottom of this page brings them together: its word sort asks the real question, does the sh come first or last, and its handwriting sheet is the first with both positions on one page.
If your child reads ship as “s-h-i-p”, cover the sh with a finger, say the sound for them, then uncover it and let them finish the word. That one move fixes it faster than any amount of explaining. If it keeps happening, the sh nonsense word drill set mixes real and made-up sh words in one-minute rounds.
Sh or ch: telling them apart
Sh and ch are made in almost the same place in the mouth, which is why children swap them. Ship and chip, shop and chop, shin and chin: one sound apart, and for a while a child will read either one as either one.
The difference is whether the sound can be held. Sh is a steady stream of air. Say “shhhhhhh” and you can keep going until you run out of breath. Ch is a single burst that stops itself, and no amount of trying will stretch it. Show your child both, exaggerated, and let them try each one.
Once they can hear it, say pairs and ask which one they heard, with no letters in front of them: ship and chip, shop and chop, she and cheese. The listening comes first and the reading follows it without much argument. The ch word list has the same lists and sheets for the other side of the pair, and its word sort makes a good mixed pile with this one. If your child says s for sh when they talk, sip for ship, the s and sh minimal pairs page has speech-practice pairs and picture cards.
Which words start with sh?
Every word here starts with the same single sound. Say each one slowly and the sh comes out as one piece, not as an s followed by an h. Ship, shop, shed: the mouth does the same thing at the front of all three.
Start with the first four. Ship, shop, shed and shut are three sounds each, which means the sound boxes give sh one box and the rest of the word one box per letter. That is the clearest picture of what a digraph is that a child will get, and it is worth doing before anything longer.
The last few carry a second pattern besides the sh. Sheep has a vowel team, and shark and shirt have a vowel changed by the r after it. Your child does not need to have learned those yet to read the words, and the sound boxes show honestly how many sounds each one has.
- ship
- shop
- shed
- shut
- shin
- shell
- shelf
- sheep
- shoes
- shirt
- shark
- shovel
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Printables for Words That Start With Sh
- Words That Start With Sh: Word Cards (PDF)12 cards · 2 pages
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- Words That Start With Sh: Sound Boxes (PDF)12 words · answer key included · 4 pages
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- Words That Start With Sh: Trace and Write (PDF)12 words · 2 pages
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- Words That Start With Sh: Handwriting Practice (PDF)12 words · 2 pages
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Which words end in sh?
Sh at the end of a word is the same sound as sh at the start. Fish ends the way ship begins. The only thing that has changed is where your child has to listen, and the end of a word is the harder place to hear.
The last four are the test. Brush, trash, crash and splash each begin with two or three sounds run together, and then end with the one sound sh. A child who can put brush in four sound boxes, b-r-u-sh, has understood the difference between letters that blend and letters that merge. That is the idea the whole digraph set is built on.
If your child is still working these out, say the word and ask only one question: what is the very last sound you hear? Not which letters, which sound.
- fish
- dish
- wish
- cash
- dash
- wash
- bush
- push
- brush
- trash
- crash
- splash
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Printables for Words That End in Sh
- Words That End in Sh: Word Cards (PDF)12 cards · 2 pages
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- Words That End in Sh: Sound Boxes (PDF)12 words · answer key included · 4 pages
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- Words That End in Sh: Word Ladder (PDF)6 rungs · answer key included · 2 pages
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- Words That End in Sh: Word Search (PDF)12 words · answer key included · 2 pages
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Mixed review: printables for the whole list
Every sheet below is built from the Sh Words above. No account, no email, no watermark. Start at the top and print one at a time. The sheets are in teaching order, and ten minutes on a single sheet is more valuable than working through a stack on autopilot.
- Sh Word Cards (PDF)16 cards · 2 pages
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- Sh Word Sort (PDF)8 words · answer key included · 2 pages
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- Sh Words: Handwriting Practice (PDF)16 words · 2 pages
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- Sh Words: Sentence Completion (PDF)16 sentences · answer key included · 6 pages
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- Sh Word Search (PDF)16 words · answer key included · 2 pages
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What comes after sh words?
Ch and th come next, then the rest. Ch is made in almost the same place in the mouth as sh, which is exactly why children mix the two up, and th takes the longest of any of them because the same two letters spell two different sounds.
- Ch words: the pair sh is most often confused with, with its own lists and sheets
- Words with th: both th sounds, each with its own list and its own worksheets
- Kindergarten digraph words: sh, ch and th together, every word three sounds long
- 1st grade digraph words: the same three, plus wh
- Silent-e words: the pattern that comes after the digraphs and the blends
If your child is still working out short words like cat and hop, go back to CVC words for a week or two first. Sh is easier to learn on top of a solid short word than alongside one.
Frequently asked questions
What sound does sh make?
Sh makes one sound, and it is the same wherever it sits in a word: the sound at the start of ship and the end of fish. Push your lips forward a little, put your teeth close together, and let the air out in a steady stream with no voice behind it. It is the sound for being quiet.
What words start with sh?
Ship, shop, shed, shut, shin, shell, shelf, sheep, shoes, shirt, shark and shovel are a good starter set. Begin with ship, shop, shed and shut, which are three sounds each, so your child can hear that sh is one sound and not two.
What words end in sh?
Fish, dish, wish, cash, dash, wash, bush and push are the short ones, and brush, trash, crash and splash add a blend in front of the sh. The sound is identical to sh at the start of a word; the only difference is that the end of a word is harder to hear.
Is sh a digraph or a blend?
Sh is a digraph, which means the two letters spell one sound. In a blend like st or br you can still hear both letters when you say the word slowly. Say ship slowly and there is no s in it at all.
How many sounds does ship have?
Three. Ship has four letters and three sounds, sh, i and p, because sh is one sound spelled with two letters. Counting sounds rather than letters is the habit that carries into every later spelling pattern.
When do kids learn sh words?
Most children meet sh at the end of kindergarten or in first grade, once they can read short words like cat and hop without stopping to work them out. Common Core RF.1.3a places common consonant digraphs in first grade. Sh is usually taught first of the digraphs, because the sound can be held and is therefore the easiest to hear.