When students look for words for each letter of the alphabet, they might get stuck with the tricky letter y. This consonant sound rarely appears at the beginning of words and is very easy to confuse with the more common vowel sounds. To help you out, I've amassed this list of words that start with y for kids to make phonics instruction, small groups, and independent practice much easier!
Although y is the second to last letter in the alphabet, it shows up quite often in the English language. It has an interesting history, originating from the Greek upsilon. Because of this, it's often called the "Greek I," which makes sense when we consider how it appears as a vowel, like in my or pretty.
That's actually part of the confusion. Since y is so frequently used as a vowel sound, coming up with a list of words that start with y as a consonant can be challenging. The list of words below is such a handy reference and makes it easy to pull up plenty of examples on the spot!
But first - have you discovered Wordabase yet?
We’ve created a game-changing FREE online tool that will take your spelling and phonics lessons to the next level!
Meet Wordabase: the online phonics resource you never knew you were missing, but will quickly wonder how you ever taught without it.
Wordabase offers a range of expertly selected word lists (including y words), handy resource generators, and interactive learning tools (like our well-loved Word Builder)—all designed to streamline and enhance your evidence-based literacy teaching.
Build your own custom word lists, generate bingo cards, flashcards, and word maps, enjoy engaging online games, and much more! Start exploring Wordabase today!
Teaching the Y Consonant Phoneme for Kids
The consonant sound /y/ can be represented in two different ways: y or i.
The consonant y is almost always written as the letter y when it is the first letter of the word.
The letter i usually makes the same sound as y in the middle of words, especially when positioned before a vowel, like in the words onion, review, and brilliant. These all have the /y/ sound, but they're much harder for students to identify.
When you introduce y as a consonant, focus on how the mouth moves to form the sound. It's a glide, like the /w/. Our mouths make similar movements to pronounce each of those sounds, and they're very different from y as a vowel (which is usually a long i or e). The more you can clarify that these are separate sounds, the better!
Teaching the y as a vowel is an entirely different topic, but that generally comes up in the specific spelling variations for long vowels (long i and long e). I have resources for all of those, too!
To clarify the difference between y as a consonant and y as a vowel, I recommend installing a sound wall. I have many different options to choose from to fit any style, but this can be a game-changer for students learning a host of new sounds.
Words that Start with Y
Many of these are simple words we use every day:
- yacht
- yabber
- yap
- yak
- yam
- yard
- yarn
- yawn
- yay
- year
- yearbook
- yearly
- yearn
- yeast
- yell
- yellow
- yelp
- yep
- yen
- yes
- yesterday
- yeti
- yew
- yield
- yip
- yodel
- yoga
- yoghurt
- yoke
- yolk
- yonder
- yoyo
- you
- your
- young
- youth
- yowl
- yuck (yucky)
- yucca
- yule
- yuletide
- yurt
- yum (yummy)
You'll also often see the y sound connected to different interjections and shouts. Kids tend to get a kick out of these!
- yay
- yeehaw
- yip
- yahoo
- yikes
- yippee
- yowza
Words with /y/ written as i
The following words are a bit advanced for Kindergarten, but 1st-3nd grade students will bump into these when they start to read on their own. It's really helpful to teach them that i can make a y sound, as it is notoriously hard to decode.
As you can see in the examples below, the /y/ forms when there is an i before a vowel, like io, ia, or ie. This does not always work, as it depends on the consonant preceding the i. For example, -tion and -sion almost always say “shun.”
- battalion
- behaviour
- billion
- brilliant
- companion
- junior
- million
- onion
- opinion
- petunia
- review
- reunion
- senior
- spaniel
- union
- view
Letter Y Crafts, Lessons, and Activities
When you teach letter y words, it's helpful to cover it from all angles. Introduce it explicitly, then offer meaningful practice starting with identifying individual sounds and eventually move on to decoding and writing complete sentences.
I have a variety of resources to teach y as a consonant, including interactive apps, digital slideshows, task cards, and more!
Digital Resources
The Hive is our digital teacher platform! In addition to hosting a customisable visual schedule, it's also loaded with my entire resource library, which includes hundreds of learning activities, slideshows, printables, and interactive apps.
The apps are a dream for primary teachers who want to dive deeply into synthetic phonics instruction. By that, I mean using evidence-based practices to help your students genuinely encode the new sounds and their specific spelling patterns into their long-term memory.
This looks like using sound boxes, lots of phonemic awareness practice (segmenting, substituting, blending, and more), and attending to the word's individual sounds instead of relying on flashcards and visual memory.
The Hive is stocked with loads of revolutionary digital learning tools, like the ones below, to make it easier than ever to spell or map all your new words!
Word Builder
Decodable Sentences
Beedle
Plus:
- Elkonin Boxes
- Nonsense Words
- Decodable Images
- ... and much more!
Plus, you'll find all of the resources below included on The Hive and many, many more. Start your free 14 day trial of The Hive today!
Phonics Powerpoint
I'm all about explicit instruction, and I have interactive PowerPoint slideshows for all of the letters and a wide range of phonics skills! This Kindergarten PowerPoint presentation covers the consonant sounds for j n f k e v y z, introducing and reinforcing them through evidence-based practices like orthographic mapping, identifying and manipulating beginning sounds, and more.
It's the easiest way to teach the letter words with the Science of Reading and is perfect for whole-group instruction!
I also have a separate slideshow for just the consonant phoneme y, which dives deeply into this specific consonant sound with over 400 slides of instruction and practice! It's ideal for students learning how to separate the y and i spelling variations in Grades 1-3.
Alphabet Posters
These are essential in any primary classroom as they help students remember the order of the alphabet and often provide visual clues for how to pronounce the sound, too. I have many different alphabet posters out there to fit any classroom style! Here are just a couple of examples:
Y is for Yak
This letter y craft uses a visual reference to help them encode the /y/ sound! The yak is the perfect representation of the letter y. If you're a primary teacher, there are activity sheets like this for all of the letters, making this a great way to build an alphabet book for your students to reference throughout the year. Such a fun kinder project!
There are also lowercase versions too, like this y is for yoyo craft:
Colour the Alphabet
This special alphabet colouring page includes all the different letters in the English alphabet in uppercase and lowercase with mnemonics to help them remember the pronunciation. Perfect for the beginning of the year or as morning work!
Consonant Phoneme Y Word Sort
Once your students are ready to learn about the y and i, try this word sort. It requires students to listen for the target sound in words and then organise them visually into the proper spelling pattern.
There are versions with pictures or with just words. Encourage students to look for patterns in the words.
Spelling Clip Cards
Each of the task cards has an image and two different spelling variations: one with the y and one with the i. Students must clip the proper spelling to match the corresponding picture. Eventually, it becomes much easier to recognise when to use each one.
Roll It, Read It, Keep It
This activity has students read six words featuring the y phoneme as either a y or i. If they can read the word, they can keep it! Word games like this are much more engaging than regular worksheets!
Y Phoneme Decodable Sentences
Part of learning the different sounds is decoding them in simple sentences. These decodable sentences all include words that start with y, allowing students natural opportunities to decode them alongside words that are easy to pronounce for beginners. They also match the sentence with an image, making it easy to check their own work!
These mats are similar but include 4 matching sentences and images on one page.
These Read, Write, and Match activities take this activity to the next level by requiring students to write the sentence by hand. Great for consolidating those spelling patterns!
Related Resources
Whether you're looking for resources for kindergarten or ready for more complex tasks for teaching y as a consonant phoneme, I hope you found something useful in the examples above! I also have many more phonics resources, worksheets, and activities in The Hive and my shop, including many tailored specifically to kinder students, like these:
- Alphabet Matching Worksheets & Activities
- Best Printable Phonics Worksheets for Kindergarten
- Printable Alphabet Writing Worksheets
- Free Printable List of CVC Words & Decodable Words
- How to Teach CVC Words the Right Way
Level-up your teaching with The Hive!
You'll find all of the above resources, plus thousands more, in The Hive. Plus, you'll have access to a revolutionary teaching platform with digital teaching tools, classroom management apps, a digital teacher planner and visual timetable and so much more.
