breathing
PronouncedBREE-thihng
nounThe process of taking air into your lungs and letting it out again.
adjectiveAlive and living.
Syllables
2 syllables
Letters
Phonics breakdown
Phonics Rule: BR Blend
Sound“br”·/br/
B and R blend together — you hear both sounds! Like in 'brown' and 'bring'.
The blend BR combines /b/ and /r/ spoken quickly together.
Examples
Phonics Rule: EA Vowel Team (Long E)
Sound“ee”·/iː/
When E and A are together, they usually say long E, like in 'teach' and 'beach'.
The vowel team 'ea' most commonly makes the long E sound “ee”. However, it can also say short E (like 'bread') or long A (like 'great'). The long E pronunciation is by far the most common.
Tip
When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.
Examples
Phonics Rule: TH Digraph (Voiced)
Sound“th”·/ð/
TH can make a buzzy sound “th”, like in 'this' and 'the'. You can feel your throat vibrate!
The voiced TH “th” is the vibrating version. Put your hand on your throat — you can feel it buzz. This sound appears in very common words like 'the', 'this', 'that', 'they'.
Tip
Voiced TH buzzes — this, that, the!
Examples
Phonics Rule: Suffix -ING
Sound“ing”·/ɪŋ/
Adding -ING to a verb shows something is happening right now, like 'running' and 'playing'.
The suffix -ing is added to verbs to show an ongoing action (present participle). Sometimes the base word changes: drop silent E ('make' → 'making'), double final consonant ('run' → 'running').
Examples
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