All About Syllables

What is a syllable?

The dictionary definition for a syllable is:

“a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word.”

You can also think of syllables as single, unbroken sounds of a spoken word. Sometimes syllables are referred to as the “beats” of language.

A word can have 1, 2, 3, 4, or even more syllables.

• 1 syllable words: hi, fun, kites
• 2 syllable words: hello, runner, party
• 3 syllable words: elephant, fantastic
• 4 syllable words: alligator, photography

Every syllable must contain at least one vowel, as it is the opening and closing of the mouth to say the vowel sound that makes a syllable.

However, it is the number of vowel sounds that determines the number of syllables in a word, not the number of vowels.

Each syllable has one vowel sound.

And words like ‘sound’ and ‘boat’ are spelled with vowel teams that make a single vowel sound. As such, these words all have just one syllable. Also note that ‘y’ can make a vowel sound as in the words ‘try’ and ‘fly.’

While every syllable must contain a vowel, a syllable may or may not include consonants.

• A syllable may have no consonants, such as in the word ‘I’ or the syllable ‘a’ at the beginning of the two-syllable word ‘apex.’
• A syllable may have consonants at the beginning, such as ‘he’ or ‘pro.’
• A syllable may have consonants at the end, such as ‘is’ or ‘un.’
• A syllable may have consonants at both the beginning and end, such as ‘has’ or ‘run.’

The number of syllables in a word is unrelated to the number of letters in the word. ‘Sounds’ with six letters and ‘red’ with three letters both have just one syllable.

Similarly, the number of phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) is also unrelated to the number of syllables in a word. ‘Light’ has three phonemes (/l/ /igh/ /t/) and ‘go’ has two (/g/ /ō/), but both words have only one syllable.

To reiterate, it is the number of vowel sounds, not the number of vowels, letters or phonemes, that determines the number of syllables in a word.

Of course, your children can learn to count syllables without knowing any of this background information. But as an educator, you may have find this information helpful and clarifying.

Why is counting syllables important?

Counting syllables is a pre-reading skill that children are expected to master in preschool or kindergarten. Learning to count syllables is important because:

• Dividing words into syllables helps the process of decoding
• Knowing the rules for syllable division helps students read words more accurately and fluently
• Knowing the rules for syllable division helps children to understand the conventions for spelling English words

When you start to teach syllable counting, have your child start with words of high interest to them, such as their names and the names of their family, pets, and friends. Then you can move on to other words that are relevant to them, such as naming their favorite foods or animals.

How to teach syllable counting

Below are several fun and simple strategies children can use when counting syllables:

This simple board game, roll the dice move your piece and then pick a card. To stay on the place you have to clap, stamp, click the syllables correctly for the image chosen.

The next activity involves a 9 sided dice.

Roll the dice, and then clap, tap, shake, click….. the syllables. It’s a 2 player game and is fun and interactive way to practise syllables.

Finally, an individual activity, can be done on Boom Learning, Google slides or seesaw but you create a syllable sort.

Simply click and drag the word under the correct. number of syllables.

Syllable learning is vitally important but it can be great fun! Get out your instruments and games and let the children explore!

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Hope this is useful.

K x