Words TowerThe Dolch Pre-Primer list40 words
Tap a word to hear it. The voices are AI-generated recordings that ship with the game — nothing is sent anywhere when you play them.
Dolch Pre-Primer — 40 words. Printed from https://vocabularygames.org/sight-word-games/dolch-pre-primer/
About this list
Edward Dolch drew up his lists in 1936 from the words that appear most often in children’s books. The Pre-Primer list is the one a child meets first: 40 words that make up a large part of every page they will read this year, and almost none of which can be sounded out reliably. «Said» does not rhyme with «paid»; «one» does not begin with a w. They are learned by recognising them, not by decoding them.
Every word below is recorded in a natural voice, so a child who cannot read yet can still hear the word and match the sound to the letters. Switch between a woman’s and a man’s voice with the buttons above the list.
What trips children up here
- «look» and «little» begin the same way and are often swapped in the first weeks.
- «here» and «where» differ by one letter, and both are said with the same ending.
- «said» is the classic trap: it is spelt as if it rhymed with «paid», and said as if it rhymed with «bed».
- «a» and «I» are whole words on their own — children who are used to letters standing for sounds often read them as letters.
How to work through it
Take five or six words at a time, not forty. A child who meets the whole list at once remembers none of it.
Hear it, find it, cover it: play the word, let your child point to it in the list, then cover the list and ask them to write it.
Come back to the words from last week before adding new ones — the words that were hard are the ones worth repeating.
The same list, as a game
In Words Tower the word is said aloud and your child walks into the door that carries it, on a tower that turns as they climb. Choose 🔤 Learn to read → Dolch Pre-Primer when you pick the words, and the tower is built from this list. A word that was missed comes back sooner; a word that is known comes back rarely. There are no ads, no sign-up and no timers, and progress stays in the browser on your own device.
Play the Dolch Pre-Primer list
Questions
What does “Pre-Primer” mean?
It is the level before a first reading book, roughly the last year of preschool and the beginning of kindergarten. The five Dolch lists run Pre-Primer, Primer, first grade, second grade, third grade.
My child cannot read yet. Is this list too early?
No. Sight words are learned by ear first: your child hears the word, then finds it written. Every word here is read aloud, so a child who knows no letters can still start.
How long does the list take?
Most children work through the 40 words over several weeks, five or six words at a time. There is no gain in hurrying: a word counts as learned when it is recognised without a pause, weeks later.
Do we have to pay for anything?
No. The lists, the recordings and the game are free, there are no ads and no sign-up, and progress stays in the browser on your own device.
Can I print this list?
Yes. Print the page and you get the list on paper, without the buttons and without the rest of the site — one sheet to put on the fridge or hand out in class.
The other lists
Next: Dolch Primer. All of them on the sight word games page.