How To Teach The F Sound
To make the /f/ sound bring the lower lip up to the top front teeth and blow air out.
Note: It may help to tuck the lip behind the teeth when practicing the sound by itself or in words. When speaking in conversation the lip will just quickly touch the bottom of the teeth.
At What Age Should a Child Say the F Sound?
Most English speaking children can say the F sound around age 2-3.*
What is the Difference Between f and /f/?
The written symbols, F and f, refer to the name of the letter “f”. When you see the f between diagonal lines, /f/, that refers to the sound the letter makes, /f/.
F is a letter name.
/f/ is the sound it makes.
What Are F and V Sounds?
F and V are paired together because they are made the same way, with one difference, our voice. The muscles in our mouth move the same way to make both sounds except our voice is “turned on” for the V and not the F. This means we vibrate or move our vocal folds as air passes through them to make a sound.
V is voiced.
F is unvoiced.
Try it!
Hold your hand to your throat and say /v/. Can you feel the vibration?
Now say the /f/ sound. Just air, no vibration.
(Learn more voiced and voiceless pairs of sounds here.)
How Do You Practice the F Sound?
It depends.
Understanding why your child is having difficulty making this sound is important. A speech therapist can do an evaluation to make a diagnosis. What words you choose and activities will vary depending on the cause.
Click here to read more about types of speech sound disorders and treatment
Initial F Word List
face
fall
fan
fancy
far
farm
farmer
fast
father
feather
feed
feel
feet
fell
fence
few
fig
file
fill
find
finger
fire
first
fish
five
fix
follow
food
foot
football
forest
fork
four
fox
full
fun
funny
fur
phone
photo
Medial F Word List
barefoot
before
breakfast
buffalo
café
campfire
coffee
dolphin
elephant
goldfish
headphones
laughing
lifeguard
muffin
often
playful
safety
sofa
spoonful
thankful
toffee
trophy
useful
waffle
Final F Word List
beef
calf
chef
cough
enough
giraffe
golf
if
knife
laugh
leaf
life
loaf
off
puff
rough
safe
stuff
tough
wolf
Activity Ideas for Practicing the F Sound
Practice Common Words
Write down a list of words with F that your child uses. Think of as many things (nouns), actions (verbs), and descriptive words (adjectives) as you can.
Nouns: fish, elephant, muffin…
Verbs: laugh, fall, fill …
Adjectives/Prepositions: fun, five, off…
Games and Toys
Look for games and toys that include a lot words with F in them.
Enjoy a game of Go Fish
Play with farm animals
Talk about food while playing grocery store
Books
Find books with a lot of words that have F in them.
Think about characters, places, and objects (nouns)
What F action words does it have?
Does the book use descriptive words (adjectives with F words?)
Make your own F word book!
Speech Therapy Materials
Check out the resources on the right side of the page for ideas.
Or Shop Here.
* Resource
McLeod, S. & Crowe, K. (2018). Children’s consonant acquisition in 27 languages: A cross-linguistic review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. doi:10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0100. Available from: https://ajslp.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2701897
