Syllable

Syllable

A syllable is one or more letters representing a unit of spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound.

or 

A syllable is a part of a word that contains a single vowel sound and that is pronounced as a unit.

or

A syllable is a complete word or a part of word with one vowel sound.

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Example : Book, moon, pap/er, dra/ma, ba/na/na, cro/co/dile, po/tat/o, prin/cess, mon/key, chair, cut/ter, lap/top, medi/cine, to/ma/to, gar/den, spec /ta/cles

(a) The vowel heard in a syllable could be from one or more vowel letters.

(b) The number of vowels heard in a word equals the number of syllables in the word .

Example :

night = 1 vowel = 1 syllable word

string = 1 vowel = 1 syllable word

rac/ket = 2 vowel = 2 syllable word

ten/nis = 2 vowel = 2 syllable word

wa/ter = 2 vowel = 2 syllable word

Com/pu/ter = 3 vowel = 3 syllable word

(c) Syllables are referred to as the ‘beats’ of spoken language. English words can have one, two, three or more syllables.

(d) It is not necessarily that every syllable contains a vowel, but it will include a vowel sound when pronounced. The pronunciation of a word determines the number of syllables.

For example: “rhythm,” which has two syllables, does not contain any vowels, but it is said with two vowel sounds.

scratched : It is a one syllable word

Examples of one syllable words 

Tie	lake	dish	ball
cake	star	six	queen
have	cart	drum	light
desk	flame	great	test
heart	dumb	huge	kind
shock	bridge	whale	whole
rack	odd	pain	hope
when	train	clown	meat
jewel	bird	night	truck
spring	nest	gift	glue
ice	very	silly	world
peach	feet	hand	gold
march	grade	spark	clock
grow	quick	nose	jump
crow	melon	brown	sand
seat	prime	stood	faint
bank	maize	feel	snail
dumb	rough	catch	health
long	grand	teak	word
leaf	card	mark	shock
fish	bone	head	fox
slag	break	green	Zebra
rain	day	street	girl
glass	frog	braid	cane
duck	wood	tide	train
owl	clown	phone	sheep
tree	bread	pear	droop

Examples of two syllable words

paper	perfect	apple	empty
country	woman	French	future
neighbour	language	England	destroy
pumpkin	rabbit	scissor	party
global	simple	special	purple
tropic	belong	prevent	solid
social	dinner	between	lesson
window	candy	rocket	monkey
glitter	input	process	remind
always	prefix	dislike	public
better	accept	modern	travel
cartoon	fifteen	sudden	muffin
distance	hungry	present	village
zebra	maintain	careful	magnet
machine	toilet	napkin	download
humour	thirsty	misuse	subway
design	doctor	office	appear
happy	English	Index	Mascot
index	tennis	napkin	cactus
publish	goblin	picnic	nutmeg
album	misfit	relish	ticket
helmet	locket	packet	coffin
packet	coffin	radish	basket
plastic	expand	spider	preschool
finger	popcorn	ketchup	camera
handsome	preheat	bathtub	toothbrush
doughnut	mermaid	sailboat	mitten

Examples of three syllables words

alphabet	deliver	calculate
umbrella	opposite	tropical
furniture	lemonade	potato
telephone	history	wonderful
centipede	rectangle	decorate
mystery	acknowledge	behaviour
avocado	boundary	mandatory
estimate	designate	pollinate
vaccinate	irritate	antedate
graduate	cultivate	magazine
bicycle	energy	photograph
obviously	dislocate	negative
apartment	piano	dinosaur
octopus	boundary	family
medicate	gorilla	spaghetti
recreate	oranges	hesitate
infected	xylophone	emigrate
broccoli	banana	hibernate
December	character	trampoline
radio	butterfly

Examples of four syllable words

Insoluble	Cauliflower	accelerate
Cinderella	Escalator	Helicopter
politician	caterpillar	calculator
television	prehistoric	motorcycle
directory	overwhelming	alternative
intelligence	preposition	aquarium
necessary	cemetery	obesity
relationship	phenomenon	manufacture
curriculum	allocation	capacity
remarkable	dedicated	victorious
desalinate	undoubtedly	education
infinity	temperature	developer
communicate	binoculars	apostrophe
eternity	pomegranate	ecosystem
material	regulation	secretary
illuminate	deodorant	geography
watermelon	relaxation	amphibian
irregular	integration	generation
efficiency	termination	originate
execution	experiment	significance

Types of Syllables

There are 7 types of syllables

(1) Closed syllable

A closed syllable has a single vowel and ends with a consonant. The vowel has a short sound. It’s called a closed syllable because the vowel is “closed in” by a consonant. More than one consonant can be used to close in a syllable.

cat	pet	hat	lap
beg	fax	with	chat
wed	bun	six	hot
pod	tug	pig	mom
gum	cut	map	lip
rab/bit	bas/ket	at/tic	den/tist
ra/dar	dri/ver	fe/ver	shed
in/sect	bas/ket	wit/ch	pat/ch
buzz	twin	scrat/ch	agent
press	crop	lady	ra/dio
mash	rush	cup	sip
re/cycle	fuel	grass	flip
jac/ket	nap/kin

(2) Open syllable

An open syllable ends with a vowel sound that is spelled with a single vowel letter meaning there is no consonant after it.

o/pen	hu/man	e/na/ble	fi/ber
ca/ter	fe/ver/rish	ra/di/o	ar/gu/ment
e/go	bo/nus	po/lio	be/gan
ba/by	pa/per	mu/sic	me
fro/zen	to/ken	ply	why
ra/zor	pro/tect	to/ma/to	io/di/ne
bing/o	ro/bo/t	lo/ca/te	u/nit
sh/e	h/i	ze/ro	co/de
pro/vide	re/quire	a/live	e/ven
yo/ga	ba/con	stu/dent	he/ro
me/nu	du/ty	a/pron	re/lax
ze/bra	ti/ger	g/o	re/mind
ha/ppen	w/e

(3) Magic “E” syllable or Vowel-Consonant-e (VCe) syllables

It is a long vowels spelled with a single letter, followed by a single consonant, and a silent e.When the letter ‘e’ is at the end of a word, it’s usually silent and ‘tells’ the other vowel or vowels in the word to pronounce themselves.

made	kite	bone	cake
wake	whale	while	rude
globe	slide	cube	bite
snake	rope	amaze	space
debate	decline	complete	home
flute	mule	vote	stove
same	theme	prize	bride
save	time	state	lake
explode	pancake	joke	hose
olive	wildlife	shelves	dime
advice	hare	fine	edge
mute	choke	pole	reptile
dictate	wave

(4) Vowel teams syllable

A vowel team syllable has two vowels next to each other that together say a new sound.

Ai, Ay, Ee, Oa, Oe, Oi, Oy, Oo, Ou, Ow makes one sound. 

boat	rain	play	each
meat	steak	pie	loud
touch	moon	book	throat
spoil	awful	bread	steak
reindeer	cartoon	foolish	enormous
poison	destroy	piece	mountain
Bouquet	flower	moisture	sparrow
charcoal	seesaw	explain	window
rescue	redeem	season	pillow
account	recoil	laundry	floating
tree	soap	coin	cookies
famous	powder	elbow	around
shadow	suitcase

(5) R-controlled syllable

An r-controlled syllable has a syllable followed by a single letter “r.” The sound is controlled by the “r.”In an R-Controlled Syllable, the vowel is neither long nor short.

The er, ir, and ur all make the same sound but ar and or are a little different, as they have more than one sound.

car	bird	cart	farmer
star	born	sister	fork
storm	surf	word	calendar
spider	paper	person	herd
furniture	confirm	morning	alert
turtle	burn	shore	dirty
curse	father	ladder	perfume
feather	thorn	figure	nerve
varnish	orbit	disturb	virtual
caterpillar	verb	purpose	carnival
market	expert	cord	shark
before	swirl	fearful	serve
hard	garment

(6) Diphthong syllable

A syllable containing two vowels in which a new vowel sound is formed by combination of both vowel sounds.The sound begins as one vowel sound and moves towards another. 

The most common diphthongs in the English language are the letter combination such as aw, au, ew, oi, oy, oo, ou, ow .

blue	noise	brown	found
boil	flower	spoil	joy
cloud	coin	soil	enjoy
awful	applause	eight	look
food	review	school	argue
pout	nephew	lawn	sewage
owl	clown	about	town
annoy	royal	interview	employ
straw	blouse	frown	trouser
author	renew	draw	crawl
loud	crawl	few	house
noodle	yawn	pouch	narrow
cashew	should

(7) Consonant LE syllable

A consonant- le syllable is a final syllable with one consonant followed by l and silent e. It always occurs at the end of the word.

The silent e at the end of the syllable is the only vowel. Only the consonant and the l are pronounced.

tur/tle	twin/kle	hum/ble	can/dle
cas/tle	cir/cle	un/cle	ma/ple
tenta/cle	pic/kle	sam/ple	mar/ble
mira/cle	ri/fle	whis/tle	nee/dle
exam/ple	ena/ble	jun/gle	ta/ble
ap/ple	ti/tle	puz/zle	crocod/ile
scrab/ble	bog/gle	tem/ple	obsta/cle
bat/tle	sim/ple	ea/gle	brit/tle
pur/ple	sta/ple	grum/ble	tin/kle
ca/ble	an/gel	crip/ple	mid/dle
an/gle	bub/ble	sin/gle	Bi/ble
driz/zle	man/tle	arti/cle	peo/ple
buc/kle	cy/cle