Did you know there is a whole set of syllable rules which tell you exactly how to spell and where to split words so that you can tell what sound a vowel will make?
What is a syllable?
A syllable is an uninterrupted segment of sound which is formed by the opening and closing the mouth to form vowels.
It consists of one or more letters with one vowel sound.
This means that we hear one vowel sound in every syllable.
For example,
The words cat and boat have 1 syllable because we hear one vowel sound in each word.
The words cupcake and dinner have 2 syllables because we hear 2 vowel sounds in these words.
As you can see, it’s not as simple as identifying the vowels in a word and using that number, since sometimes 2 vowels make 1 sound, as in the word boat
The 6 syllable types:
There are 6 syllable types and they are:
- Closed syllable
- Open syllable
- Vowel-consonant-e syllable
- Diphthong (vowel team) syllable
- R-controlled syllable
- Consonant-le syllable
Closed syllable – vc
A closed syllable ends in a consonant.
The vowel before the final consonant has a short sound.
Examples include: cat, pet, cab, napkin, red, on, went.
Open syllable – v
An open syllable ends with a vowel.
The vowel has a long sound.
Some examples are: go, me, I, a, cry, baby, token.
Vowel-consonant-e syllable – vce
Vowel-consonant-e syllables end in a final silent e with a consonant just before the silent e.
This silent e makes the vowel before it have a long sound.
Examples include: home, fine, cute, cake, made, kite, bone.
This syllable type is also known as silent e, magie e, sneaky e.
R-controlled syllable – vr
R-controlled syllables always have at least one vowel followed by r.
The vowel sound is " controlled" by the r.
The r gives it a unique sound.
Some examples are: her, bird, fur, ear, for, star, born, burn .
Diphthong (or vowel team) syllable – vv
A diphthong syllable usually has 2 adjacent vowels that are pronounced together.
This produces a special sound; examples include: eight, grow, tail, fight, boat, play, meet, pie, mean .
Notice whether a vowel combination is reversed, such as io in lion., In this case you split the syllable between the i and o.
This syllable is also known as a vowel team.
Consonant-le syllable – v-le
A consonant-le syllable has no vowel sound.
The silent e at the end of the syllable is the only vowel.
Only the consonant and the l are pronounced.
Examples include: purple, table, maple, table, turtle .