Last Updated on July 28, 2026 by Editorial Team
In the quest to be more fluent in English, learners can align with certain rules and regulations like phonemes and spelling. This makes grasping and comprehending the language easy. But there are a few words that can be identified by the learner easily but cannot be decoded as they don’t follow English rules.
These words can be termed Irregular sight words.
For those unknown, Sight words are simple non-phonetic words that can be seen regularly. They can be easily identified by sight without being taught rules like Phonetics.
Irregular Sight words are those words that we see regularly and cannot be decoded with traditional rules. These special sight words need to be memorized. In special cases, the mentor can also use multisensory strategies to ensure learning.
The Science of Reading: Transforming Sight Words into “Heart Words”
In modern literacy instruction and Orton-Gillingham remediation, educators are moving away from traditional rote flashcard memorization for irregular sight words. Instead, the science of reading categorizes these tricky terms as “Heart Words.”
The core principle behind this method is simple: very few words in the English language are completely irregular. Most irregular sight words contain letters that follow standard phonetic rules, combined with just one or two letters that do not behave as expected.
Take the word “said” as a classic example. The letters s and d make their regular, predictable sounds. It is only the internal vowel team ai that breaks the traditional rules by making a short “e” sound instead of a long “a” sound.
When utilizing the Heart Word strategy, you teach young learners to decode the regular phonetic parts of the word as they normally would. Then, you instruct them to place a tiny heart icon directly above the irregular letter group. This visual anchor signals to the child that this specific part of the word cannot be sounded out traditionally and must be learned “by heart.”
Grouping irregular words into small pattern families—such as tracking “could,” “would,” and “should” together—drastically reduces mental fatigue and helps dyslexic learners map sentences with much higher fluency.
Here is a list of 100 Irregular sight words that we need to be familiar with before teaching the young ones.
🗣️ Looking for More Phonics Decoding Charts?
Bridge the early reading gap. Open our other highly popular, free tracking charts in a new window to use alongside this irregular words list:
Irregular Sight Words List
💡 Irregular Sight Words Tracking Checklist
Before introducing this list of 100 irregular words to early readers, apply these three core phonics tracking rules to reduce memorization stress:
- Isolate the decodable sounds first: Even highly irregular words like “said” have regular sounds (the “s” and “d”). Teach kids to decode what they can before tackling the tricky parts.
- Draw literal structural anchors: Have students draw a tiny heart icon directly above the un-decodable letters (like the “ai” in “said”) to visually mark what must be learned by heart.
- Enforce multi-sensory desktop writing: Have learners trace the irregular letter sequences directly onto a textured surface, like a sand tray or carpet tile, while saying the letter names aloud.
🧠 Understanding the Science of Heart Words
Relying purely on flat visual memorization for sight words creates cognitive exhaustion, particularly for students with dyslexia or tracking blocks. Modern orthographic mapping proves that human brains anchor words best when we link speech sounds to spelling characters. By grouping irregular words into families that share similar rule-breaking features (such as “could,” “would,” and “should”), you reduce the cognitive load on memory systems, allowing young readers to decode sentences with much higher confidence and speed.
How to practice these words?
As these words don’t follow the rules of English, the only way is to remember them. This session can be made interesting by opting for certain working strategies to make it easier and more engaging:
- Finger tracing is an interesting choice. Ask the students to trace these words into their notes and spell them simultaneously. They can slide their finger while reading again. An iteration of at least 5 times is suggested for better learning
- Place these words on flashcards to repeat the words proactively
- You can encourage the students to create a mnemonic to remember them easily.
- Take a few words and make a story out of them. Ask the little ones to retell it. This way, they can learn how these words are used in a piece of text.
Before we wind up…
As a part of language, one needs to learn a set of new words. But learning irregular words may stipulate a distinct process as they don’t adhere to general rules.
Check out the list of hundred words and create an innovative scope for the young learners to learn them, thereby moving a step forward in learning English.
Also, check out the list of 100 Orton-Gillingham Red Sight Words.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,