Initial F Words for Speech Therapy

Word list

Words without competing sounds

• face
• faced
• fact
• facts
• fail
• failed
• fails
• fair
• fake
• fall
• falls
• false
• fame
• fan
• fans
• far
• fare
• fares
• farm
• farms
• fast
• fat
• fate
• fault
• fax
• fear
• fears
• feat
• fed
• fee
• feed
• feeds
• feel
• feels
• fees
• feet
• fell
• felt
• fence
• few
• field
• fields
• fig
• fight
• file
• filed
• files
• fill
• filled
• film
• films
• fin
• find
• finds
• fine
• firm
• firms
• first
• fish
• fist
• fit
• fits
• five
• fix
• fixed
• flag
• flags
• flame
• flash
• flat
• fleece
• fleet
• flesh
• flex
• flight
• flights
• float
• flood
• floor
• floors
• flow
• flows
• flu
• flush
• flux
• fly
• foam
• fog
• fold
• folk
• folks
• font
• fonts
• food
• foods
• fool
• foot
• for
• force
• forced
• ford
• forge
• fork
• form
• formed
• forms
• fort
• fought
• foul
• found
• four
• fox
• frame
• framed
• frames
• frank
• fraud
• free
• freeze
• freight
• french
• fresh
• fridge
• friend
• friends
• frog
• from
• front
• frost
• fruit
• fruits
• full
• fun
• fund
• funds
• funk
• fur
• phase
• phi
• phone
• phones
• phrase
• fabric
• fabrics
• faces
• facial
• facing
• factor
• factors
• failing
• failure
• failures
• fairly
• fairy
• fallen
• falling
• famous
• fancy
• farmer
• farmers
• farming
• fashion
• faster
• fastest
• fatal
• father
• fathers
• fatty
• favor
• favors
• favour
• feature
• featured
• features
• feedback
• feeding
• feeling
• feelings
• fellow
• female
• females
• ferry
• fetish
• fever
• fewer
• fiber
• fibre
• fiction
• fifteen
• fifty
• fighter
• fighters
• fighting
• figure
• figured
• figures
• filename
• filing
• filling
• filter
• filters
• final
• finals
• finance
• finder
• finding
• findings
• finest
• finger
• fingers
• finish
• finished
• finite
• fire
• fired
• fires
• firewall
• firmware
• fiscal
• fisher
• fishing
• fitness
• fitted
• fitting
• fixes
• fixtures
• flashers
• flashing
• flavor
• floating
• flooring
• floral
• florence
• florist
• florists
• flour
• flower
• flowers
• fluid
• flyer
• flying
• focal
• focus
• focused
• folder
• folders
• folding
• follow
• followed
• follows
• footage
• football
• footwear
• forces
• forecast
• forecasts
• foreign
• forest
• forests
• forget
• forgot
• formal
• format
• formats
• former
• forming
• fortune
• forty
• forum
• forums
• forward
• fossil
• foster
• founded
• founder
• fountain
• fraction
• fragrance
• framework
• framing
• franchise
• frankfurt
• franklin
• freedom
• freelance
• freely
• freeware
• frequent
• friendly
• frontier
• frozen
• fuel
• fuji

Worksheet preview

About Initial F words

/f/ is an early sound: 90% of children produce it by 3;11 (Crowe & McLeod, 2020). The common error is stopping, where the fricative is replaced by a stop and fish becomes pish — a normal simplification in toddlers that usually resolves early.

What makes /f/ unusually teachable is that it is visible. The upper teeth on the lower lip is the most easily seen consonant placement in English apart from TH, so a mirror or a simple model does most of the instructional work.

Practising Initial F

Because /f/ can be held indefinitely and seen while it is held, a sustained initial F in a mirror is often enough to establish the placement. Single-syllable entries then stabilise it before longer words are attempted.

Acquisition ages: Crowe & McLeod (2020), American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Educational content — an SLP chooses the target for a specific child.

Frequently asked questions

How many words have /f/ in the initial position?

Our dictionary lists 399 initial /f/ words suitable for speech therapy practice.

What are some example initial /f/ words?

Examples include face, faced, fact, facts, fail, failed, fails, fair.

Why are phone and photo on the F list?

Because both begin with the /f/ sound. English spells it f, ph, or gh depending on the word, and matching by pronunciation catches all of them.

Is /f/ used to help teach other sounds?

Often, yes. Its visible lip-to-teeth placement and early acquisition make /f/ a useful reference point when working on TH, which children frequently replace with /f/. Contrasting the two shows the child that the tongue, not the lip, is what moves.