CONTENT

DEFINITION & SYLLABLE TYPES

WEAK SYLLABLES & STRONG SYLLABLES

SYLLABLES RULES

HOW TO FIND SYLLABLES

HOW TO DIVIDE A WORD INTO SYLLABLE
PHONOLOGY
DEFINITION
 A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of
speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed
of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up
of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional
initial and final margins (typically, consonants)
 A word that consists of a single syllable (like dog) is called a
monosyllable, while a word consisting of two syllables
(like puppy) is called a disyllable. A word consisting of
three syllables (such as wolverine) is called a trisyllable. A
word consisting of more than three syllables (such as
rhinoceros) is called a polysyllable, although this term is
often used to describe words of two syllables or more.
PHONOLOGY
 EXAMPLES
Word number of syllables
Dog dog 1
Green green 1
Quite quite 1
Quiet qui-et 2
Orange or-ange 2
Table ta-ble 2
Expensive ex-pen-sive 3
Interesting in-ter-est-ing 4
realistic re-al-is-tic 4
unexceptional un-ex-cep-tion-al 5

PHONOLOGY
SYLLABLE TYPES
Closed
Syllables

Consonant- Open
L-E Syllables Syllables

Vowel-R Silent-E
Syllables Syllables
Vowel
Combination
PHONOLOGY Syllables
1. Closed Syllable
• A syllable with a single vowel followed by one or
more consonants. (The vowel is closed in by the
consonant). The vowel sound is generally short.

Example
• Cab /kæb/
• Dog /dɑːg/
• In /ɪn/
• Dish /dɪʃ/

PHONOLOGY
2. Open Syllable
• A syllable that ends with a single vowel. (The vowel is
not closed in by a consonant; It’s left open). The
vowel sound is usually long. (Note: The letter y acts
as a vowel).

Example
• No /noʊ/
• She /ʃiː/
• Sky /skaɪ/
• Go /goʊ/

PHONOLOGY
3. Silent-E Syllable
• A syllable with a single vowel followed by a
consonant then the vowel e. The first vowel is usually
long and the final e syllable is silent.

Example
• Bike /baɪk/
• Skate /skeɪt/
• Note /noʊt/
• Close /kloʊz/
• Ice /aɪs/

PHONOLOGY
4. Vowel Combination Syllable
• A vowel combination syllable has a cluster of two or
three vowels or a vowel-consonant unit with a sound
or sounds particular to that unit.

Example
• Rain /reɪn/
• Day /deɪ/
• See /siː/
• Veil /veɪl/
• Pie /paɪ/

PHONOLOGY
5. Vowel-R Syllable
• A syllable with one or two vowels followed by the
letter r. the vowels is neither long nor short. The r
influences or controls the vowel sound.

Example
• Car /kɑː r /
• Her /hɜː r /
• For /fɔː r /
• Care /keə r /

PHONOLOGY
6. Consonant-L-E Syllable
• A syllable that has consonant followed by letter le, al
or el. Often this syllable is the final one of the word.
This is the only syllable type without a vowel sound.

Example
• Table /ˈteɪ.bl ̩/
• Bridle /ˈbraɪ.dl ̩/
• Uncle /ˈʌŋ.kl ̩/
• Rebel /ˈreb. ə l/
• Impossible /ɪmˈpɒs.ɪ.bl ̩/

PHONOLOGY
STRONG & WEAK SYLLABLES
1. Strong syllable

Strong syllables are stressed

Stress syllable is part of word that

you give the most emphasis to

The duration of stressed syllable is

greater
PHONOLOGY
If the word has only one syllable, whether it
is stressed or unstressed may depend on
how it is used in the sentence.
E X A M P L E S
“I love you” emphasizes that it is me, not
someone else, who likes you.
“I LOVE you” emphasizes that I really do
love you.
“I love YOU” emphasizes that it is you that I
love, not him or her or anyone else.

PHONOLOGY
 2. Weak syllable

Weak syllables are unstressed

The unstressed syllables occur when a

listener does not hear a stressed syllable

PHONOLOGY
 SYLLABLE RULES

What is SYLLABIFICATION?

syllabification is based the syllabification

on the phonetic rules rules for English are
of the language rather complicated
 SYLLABLES RULES

1. A syllable is the sound of a vowel (a, e,

i, o, u) that's created when pronouncing
a word.

2.The number of times that you hear

the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) in a
word is equal to the number of syllables
the word has.

PHONOLOGY
 SYLLABLES RULES

3. If the word is a compound word,

divide it between the two smaller
words.

4.Endings such as ing, er, est, and ed often

form separate syllables. The remaining
portion of the word is a root word.

5. When two or more consonants appear in the middle of

the word, divide the word between them. Then try the
short sound for the vowel in the first syllable. This rule does
not apply if the two consonants form a digraph such as ch,
tch, ph, sh, or th. The digraphs can’t be separated.
PHONOLOGY
SYLLABLES RULES

6.When only one consonant appears between two

vowels, divide the word before the consonant. The try
the long sound of the first vowel. This works about
55% of the time. If a recognizable word is not formed
using the long sound, divide the word after the
consonant and try the short sound

7. When a two syllable word ends in a consonant plus

le, the consonant and le form the last syllable. If the
preceding syllable ends in a consonant, try the short
sound of the vowel (ex. Wiggle) If the preceding
syllable ends with a vowel, try the long sound of the
vowel. (ex. Table)

PHONOLOGY
 SYLLABLES RULES

8. When a two syllable word ends in a

consonant plus re, the consonant and re
form the last syllable. If the preceding
syllable ends with a vowel, try the long
sound of that vowel. (ex. Acre)

9. Never break apart vowel diagraphs or

diphthongs such as ai, ay, ea, ee, oa, ow,
oo, oi, oy, ou, ie, and ei.

10. Syllables that end in a

consonant usually have a short
vowel sound. (ex. Rabbit)
PHONOLOGY
 SYLLABLES RULES

11. Syllables that end in a vowel usually

have a long vowel sound. (ex. Tiger)

12. When a vowel is followed by an r, the r

affects the vowel sound and appears in the
same syllable.

13. When a syllable has the

CVCe pattern, the long vowel
sound is often heard
PHONOLOGY
HOW TO FIND SYLLABLES

Count the Subtract any Subtract 1

vowel from
number of silent every
vowels vowels diphthong

The number of
FIND THE vowels sounds
left is the same as
SYLLABLES the number of
syllables

PHONOLOGY
HOW TO DIVIDE WORDS INTO
SYLLABLES
Divide off any compound words, prefixes,
suffixes, and root words that have vowels
sounds

Divide between two middle

consonants

Usually divide before a single

consonant

Divide before an "-le" syllable

PHONOLOGY
 Divide off any
compound words,
prefixes, suffixes,
and root words that
have vowels sounds

Split off the parts of Divide off prefixes

compound words such at "un/happy",
like "sports/car" and "pre/paid", or
"house/boat" "re/write"

In the word "stop/ping", the

Divide off suffixes as in
the words "farm/er",
"teach/er", "hope/less"
and "care/ful",”
farm/er”.
suffix is actually "-ping"
because this word follows the
rule that when you add "-ing"
to a word with one syllable,
you double the last consonant
and add the "-ing

PHONOLOGY
 Divide
between two
middle
consonants

Split up words that Never split up

have two middle consonant digraphs as
consonants. For they really represent
example:hap/pens, only one sound ("th",
bas/ket, let/ter, "sh", "ph", "th", "ch",
sup/per, din/ner and "wh").

PHONOLOGY
 Usually divide
before a single
consonant

When there is only one The only exceptions

syllable, you usually are those times when
divide in front of it, as the first syllable has an
in: o/pen, i/tem, e/vil, obvious short sound,
re/port. as in "cab/in".

PHONOLOGY
 Divide before
an "-le"
syllable

When you have a word that has

the old-style spelling in which
the "-le" sounds like "-el", divide The only exceptions
before the consonant before the are "ckle" words like
"-le". For example: "a/ble",
"fum/ble", "rub/ble"
"tick/le“
"mum/ble" and "thi/stle".

PHONOLOGY
 CONCLUSIONS

How To Find There are some ways to

Syllables : Count Divide A Word Into
the number of Syllables : A few rare
A syllable is a vowels, Subtract Divide off any
exception,ever
unit of any silent vowels, compound words,
Subtract 1 vowel prefixes, suffixes, and y syllable
organization root words that have
from every contain at least
for a sequence diphthong, The
vowels sounds,
Divide between two one vowel
of speech number of vowels middle consonants,
sounds left is the (a,i,o,u,e) or
sounds Usually divide before
same as the a single consonant, vowel sounds.
number of Divide before an "-le"
syllables syllable.

PHONOLOGY