Syllable

search our site by Craig Shrives

What Is a Syllable?

A syllable is a unit of sound. More specifically, it is a single segment of uninterrupted sound that is typically produced with a single pulse of air from the lungs. There are 7 types of syllable.

Examples of One-, Two-, Three-, and Four-Syllable Words

Here is a list of one-syllable words:

• ace, big, black, blonde, blue, board, calm, clean, cool, cross, dark, dead, drab, drunk, dry, dumb, faint, fair, fat, few, fish, five, full, green, heart, high, huge, kind, loud, love, odd, one, plain, prime, quick, right, rogue, rough, weak, wise, wolf, world, wry

These words are described as "monosyllabic."

Here is a list of two-syllable words:

• able, alive, apple, away, better, broken, city, country, daily, early, easy, even, evil, fifty, forward, freedom, future, happy, human, hungry, joyful, language, little, loving, lucky, many, music, nature, office, open, other, over, party, perfect, picture, public, pumpkin, safe, simple, solid, special, stupid, sugar, thirsty, ugly, welcome, woman

These words are described as "disyllabic" or "dissyllabic" (avoid "bisyllabic").

Here is a list of three-syllable words:

• abducting, accurate, adjective, animal, buffalo, cabinet, certainly, companion, conference, connection, considered, curious, customary, dangerous, different, difficult, dinosaur, electric, everything, exciting, exercise, family, feminine, general, glacier, healthy, horizon, illustrate, important, industry, innocent, instrument, internal, liberal, library, masculine, medical, musical, natural, opposite, period, personal, physical, positive, possible, separate, serious, sporadic, tropical, uniform

These words are described as "trisyllabic."

Here is a list of four-syllable words:

• admirable, adorable, aggravated, alligator, alternative, ambitious, derivative, annoying, anonymous, appreciate, automatic, avocado, barbarian, beautiful, belligerent, bullying, captivating, community, commutative, complicated, emotionless, eternity, everlasting, everyday, everything, forgiveness, historical, hyphenated, identical, independence, infinitive, information, intelligence, intermittent, invincible, irregular, legendary, literature, material, meticulous, necessary, ordinary, original, preposition, professional, reciprocal, relaxation, republican, responsible, secretary, spectacular, television, ubiquitous, undemanding, variable, vegetable, watermelon, worrying

These words are described as "quadrisyllabic."

The Traits of a Syllable

A syllable is made up of one or more letters with a vowel sound at its core. This does not necessarily mean that every syllable contains a vowel, but it will include a vowel sound when pronounced. For example, "rhythm," which has two syllables, does not contain any vowels, but it is said with two vowel sounds. Therefore, spelling is not a good indication of how many syllables a word has. The pronunciation of a word determines the number of syllables. Here are some examples that highlight this point:

• screeched, scratched, scrunched, stretched, straights, strengths
(Despite being nine letters long, these are all one-syllable words.)
• shrugged
(This one-syllable word contains the two-syllable word "rugged." It's a good reminder that the number of syllables is determined by pronunciation.)

Remember that each new syllable in a word creates a new vowel sound.

The 7 Syllable Types

There are 7 types of syllable. Every word can be broken down into these syllable types.

(1) Closed Syllables (Symbol: VC)

A closed syllable has a single vowel and ends with a consonant. The vowel has a short sound.

Examples:

• at, bat, hen, plant, kitchen, napkin, puppet, rabbit, fantastic

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are closed syllables:

• frozen, pilot, candy

(2) Open Syllables (Symbol: V)

An open syllable ends with a single vowel. The vowel has a long sound.

Examples:

• be, flu, go, hi, she, hero, potato

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are open syllables:

• music, paper, tiger, bingo

(3) Magic "E" Syllables (Symbol: VCE)

The magic "e" syllable ends with a consonant and a silent "e." It has a long vowel sound.

Examples:

• bake, bone, life, pine, lifetime

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are magic "e" syllables:

• Valentine, baseball, explode

(4) Vowel Teams Syllables (Symbol: VV)

A vowel team syllable contains two vowels that make one vowel sound.

Examples:

• boat, cheek, eat, free, glue, green, pie, seed, team, tray

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are vowel team syllables:

• floating, rainfall, whitethroat

(5) Diphthong Syllables (Symbol: VV)

A diphthong syllable contains a vowel sound that is made up of two vowel sounds said in quick succession. The two sounds are said so quickly, they are considered one sound.

Examples:

• boil, annoy, bound, rain, fear
(A diphthong vowel (bolded in these examples) is sometimes called a "gliding vowel" because the sound glides from the first vowel sound to the second.)

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are diphthong syllables:

• audio, annoy, seatrout

Note: Some curriculums classify diphthong syllables as vowel-team syllables. As a result, some schools work with 6 vowel types not 7.

(6) R-controlled Syllables (Symbol: VR)

An r-controlled syllable has a syllable followed by a single letter "r." The sound is controlled by the "r."

Examples:

• bird, car, cart, corn, first, for, fur, her, star, yard

In the following words, only the bolded syllables are diphthong syllables:

• farming, varnish, caterpillar

(7) Consonant LE Syllables (Symbol: CLE)

A consonant-LE syllable is an unaccented final syllable with a consonant followed by "le."

Examples:

• bubble, candle, circle, uncle
(Only the bolded syllables are consonant-LE syllables.)

Books Written with Only Monosyllabic Words

Of interest, lots of well-known novels have been rewritten into texts of just monosyllabic words. The authors of these books claim to go through this process to create texts that young children can read. (Personally, I think they do it to showcase their writing skills. Either way, it's impressive.)

• I was born at York on the first of March in the sixth year of the reign of King Charles the First. From the time when I was quite a young child, I had felt a great wish to spend my life at sea, and as I grew, so did this taste grow more and more strong; till at last I broke loose from my school and home, and found my way on foot to Hull, where I soon got a place on board a ship.
(This is the opening paragraph of Mary Godolphin's 'Robinson Crusoe' in words of one syllable. With the exception of boy Xury and man Friday, the whole book is written in words of one syllable.)

Why Syllables Are Important

Here are three noteworthy points related to syllables.

(Point 1) Understanding the syllable types is essential to teach reading.

Knowing the 7 types of syllable is an essential skill to teach reading and spelling.

Try our drag-and-drop test on syllables.

(Point 2) The dissyllabic word "Learned" means well educated.

Being unfamiliar with the term "syllable" is unlikely to lead to errors in your writing or speech. That said, this is a situation to avoid:

• Oh, Papa Homer, you are so learned.
  Learn'd, son. It's pronounced learn'd.
  I love you, Papa Homer.
  I love you too, Pepsi.
  Pepi.
(This is an extract from "Brother from the Same Planet" (1993), Season 4 of The Simpsons.)

(Point 3) It's all about the pronunciation.

Remember that a word's pronunciation determines how many syllables it has. For example, "fire" can be a monosyllabic or a disyllabic word depending on regional dialect, and "jeweller" can be disyllabic or trisyllabic depending on regional dialect.

Key Points

Video Lesson

Here is a 9-minute video summarizing this lesson on syllables.

Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer video to text? Here is a list of all our grammar videos.

Printable Test