Words with one part that cannot be decoded. Sound out the part that works, and learn by heart only the part that does not.
Irregular and heart words
the · was · said · come · some HEART_01
Irregular pattern · Low reliability · Very common · Beginner · Reading and spelling
Where Wiggler teaches it: Skill 1: First Sounds & Blending · Skill 2: CVC Word Mastery · Skill 5: Glued Sounds & Spelling Basics
Some words have a tricky bit. In said, the s and d are normal — it is only the ai that is a surprise. Learn the surprise by heart.
A heart word is a high-frequency word with an irregular part. Decode every part that follows a known pattern, identify the one letter or grapheme that does not, and learn that part by heart.
The heart-word approach replaces whole-word memorisation. Research on orthographic mapping shows that words are retained through the connections between graphemes and phonemes, not as visual shapes, so a word learned as a picture is retained far less reliably than one whose regular parts are mapped and whose irregular part is explicitly identified. Very few English words are wholly irregular — in most, only one grapheme is.
Almost every so-called sight word is mostly regular. In was, the w and s behave normally and only the a is odd. In come, the c and m are regular and only the o is odd. Marking the odd part with a heart and decoding the rest is both more accurate and more memorable than treating the whole word as a shape.
the, was, said, come, some
you, your, they, there, were, what, who, does, done, gone, one, two, love, friend, again, because, many, any, people, eye
Wednesday, business, colonel, February, beautiful
In each of these only one grapheme is irregular. Point at it explicitly rather than treating the whole word as unreadable: the a in was, the ai in said, the o in come, the ea in great, the ie in friend.
was, said, come, some, great, friend, one, two, does
"These are sight words. Just memorise what they look like."
Whole-word memorisation produces far weaker retention than mapping the sounds, and it teaches a child that some words are not for decoding — which is exactly the habit that makes a guesser. Nearly all of these words are mostly regular.
"Which part of this word is the surprise?" Decode the rest, and mark the surprise.
Draw a heart over the irregular grapheme and sound out everything else. Children remember the word better and, more importantly, keep their decoding habit intact. Introduce heart words in small numbers alongside regular work — the first twenty or so carry an enormous share of everything a child will read.
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