Syllables

 

Words are made up of syllables and syllables are made up of speech sounds. When first learning to read, most words will have one syllable: cat, dog, my, you, was. Breaking longer words into syllables can help you read and spell. Good readers and spellers can quickly break long words into syllables.

There are six types of syllables.

A closed syllable has a short vowel sound and ends in a consonant.

An open syllable ends with a long vowel sound and is spelled with a single vowel letter.

A consonant-le syllable is an unaccented final syllable containing a consonant before /l/ followed by silent e.

A vowel team or diphthong syllable has a long or short vowel sound that uses a vowel combination. Diphthongs are included in this category.

An r-controlled syllable has a vowel followed by an r.

A vowel-consonant-e syllable has a long vowel sound that is spelled with a vowel, consonant and silent e.

Here are examples of the six types of syllables.

Syllable Type	Examples
Closed	cat, dog, computer
Open	my, I, tiger
Consonant-le	table, little, middle
Vowel team and diphthong	house, coat, trainer
R-controlled	car, farm, mother
Vowel-consonant-e	mice, inflate, regulate

A word can be made up of several types of syllables. The word regulate has three syllable types. The first syllable is closed, the second is open and the third is vowel-consonant-e: reg u late. The word computer has three different syllables: closed, open, r-controlled: com pu ter.

Knowing how to break words into syllables can help a person read and spell longer words.

 

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