Seeing Double? That’s the Double Consonant!

A double consonant is when the same consonant appears twice in succession in a word. Double consonants most commonly occur in the middle of words and at the end of words. They are also very common in words that have had a suffix added to them.

This list of 50 words containing double consonants has been compiled to assist you in implementing your phonics program in your classroom. It includes words containing the following double consonant examples:

• zz (as in puzzle)
• tt (as in shuttle)
• gg (as in wiggle)
• ff (as in raffle)
• ss (as in messy)
• pp (as in puppy)
• dd (as in puddle)
• ll (as in fallen)
• rr (as in parrot)
• cc (as in hiccup).

Multiple Applications for This Double Consonant Word List

This list of words containing double consonants can be used in numerous ways to support the diverse needs of your learners during your literacy sessions. Here are some of our suggestions:

Teach the rules

Teaching students guidelines around when to double the consonant in a word can be a helpful tool, particularly when it comes to encoding (spelling). ‘The Rabbit Rule’ teaches that the middle consonant in a word is usually doubled in the following instances:

• The word has two syllables.
• There is a short vowel sound in the first syllable.
• You can only hear one consonant sound between the first and second vowel sounds.

Have the students identify words in the list that follow the rabbit rule. Can they find any rule breakers among the list words?

Individual practice

Send the lists home so your students can revise decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) the words on the list. Be sure to include only words containing letter-sound correspondences you have already addressed in class.

Formative assessment

Use the word list as a progress monitoring tool to keep track of your students’ phonemic awareness and to identify the double consonant words that require further review.

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