Which term describes recognizing patterns of letters and word families?

• A. Cultural load
• B. Sight words
• C. Analogy
• D. Common words

Answer: (C)

Recognizing patterns of letters and word families is about using familiar word parts to read new words by analogy. When students notice that many words share a common ending or pattern (for example, the -at family: cat, hat, bat), they can apply what they know from one word to another to decode and spell more efficiently. This approach—using those connections between word forms to infer pronunciation and meaning—fits the idea of analogy in reading, where you relate a new word to a known pattern and apply the same rule. That focus on pattern recognition across word families is what makes this term the best fit. Other terms describe different aspects of reading, such as recognizing whole words by sight or referring to high-frequency words, rather than decoding through patterns.