Each card shows a picture of a familiar word, its alphabetical spelling and breakdown of its phonetic components, with one card for each of the 44 basic phonemes in English. Synthetic phonic learning is the process of reading by sounding the individual sounds of a word and then blending them together to read the word as a whole. Each card shows a picture of a familiar word, its alphabetical spelling and breakdown of its phonetic components, with one card for each of the 44 basic phonemes in English. Synthetic phonic learning is the process of reading by sounding the individual sounds of a word and then blending them together to read the word as a whole.