A digraph is two letters that combine to make a single sound, like the TH in THIS. A blend is two or three consonants that sit next to each other but keep their own sounds, like the ST in STOP. Neither is a rule you memorize so much as a shape you learn to recognize — once you do, scrambled letters start rearranging themselves into words almost automatically.
These pairs act as a single sound and almost always stay adjacent in real words: CH (chair, teach), SH (ship, wish), TH (this, math), PH (phone, graph), WH (when, whale), and GH (though, laugh). If your letters include two of these together, try anchoring your search around the digraph first and building outward.
Blends usually cluster at the start or end of a word. Starting blends to watch for: BL, BR, CL, CR, DR, FL, FR, GL, GR, PL, PR, SC, SK, SL, SM, SN, SP, ST, SW, TR. Ending blends are just as common: -ND, -NG, -NK, -NT, -MP, -LD, -LT, -RD, -RT, -SK, -ST. A word with an unusual letter like Q or X often turns out to be sitting right next to a blend rather than standing alone.
Vowels pair up too, and these combinations are worth scanning for before you start guessing consonant positions: AI/AY, EA, EE, IE, OA, OO, OU, OW, EW, AU/AW. Spotting a likely vowel team early cuts down the number of arrangements you have to consider for the rest of the word.
