ABSTRACT
This system of spelling patterns is referred to as onset and rime a term which teachers are encouraged to use with children from Key Stage 1. The rime is the end of the word – the part which remains the same in ball, fall, wall and tall, i.e. – all. The onset changes each time. The onset of ball is b, the onset of tall is t, etc. Since English is a language that has developed from a rich variety of other languages, however, words that are spelt the same do not always rhyme, as the foreign traveller in the north of England discovered when she tried to ask the way to Low Brow Clough.
