Boost Your Reading Power: Understanding Syllables

Most new readers find long words to be quite intimidating. Reading things like 'cat' and 'dog' isn't too scary, but 'commotion' will give anyone pause! Help the new reader in your life understand that big words are not meant to be decoded all at once. Teach the six major syllable types and your student will quickly grasp the tools needed to read longer words fluently.

Here's how it works:

The most common type of syllable is called the Closed Syllable. This is a syllable that has a consonant on the end and often has a consonant at the beginning. There is one vowel in the middle, and it will reliably make the short sound (a as in apple, e as in elephant, i as in igloo, o as in octopus, or u as in umbrella). Many small words are actually closed syllables: log, bus, cap, snip, and peg. Many larger words have closed syllables in them: hotdog, CHOColate, HAMburger, and so forth. Teach these simple syllables first by reading common closed syllable words, then reading nonsensical closed syllable constructions: vag, mub, and so forth. Reading the nonsensical constructions will prepare the reader for isolating and reading closed syllables within longer words. Don't forget to teach nonsensical constructions for each of the common syllable types.

The second syllable type is the open syllable. This one ends with a long vowel sound. Small words that are open syllables include hi, go, and me. Open syllables inside longer words are like the first syllables of open, table, and paper.

The third syllable type is the vowel-consonant-e syllable. In single syllable words, the vowel is reliably long: bike, make, poke. In longer words, the vowel sound will depend on where the accent is: saturate' has a long a sound because the accent is on the last syllable. Consid'erate doesn't have a long a in the last syllable because the accent is elsewhere.

The fourth kind of syllable is the -le syllable. (There's even one in the word "syllable"!) The consonant in front of the -le goes with it to make the final syllable of many words. Examples include table, bubble, and bridle. Notice that if you put the consonant with the -le to make the last syllable, that sometimes leaves an open syllable with a long vowel in front (like table and bridle) and sometimes leaves a closed syllable with a short vowel in front (like bubble and haggle).

Another syllable type is the R syllable. R's do funny things to vowels, and many programs for young children call them "bossy Rs". The vowel in an R syllable doesn't have its usual sounds; the R distorts them so you get sounds like in car, her, bird, or, and fur. If the vowel would otherwise be long, you have things like hair, fear, hire, roar (notice that this one's the same!), and pure.

Finally, the remaining syllable type is the one with two vowels in it. These are called digraphs or dipthongs, depending on which two vowels are together. Sometimes the two vowels work together to make a long sound, as in boat or rain. Sometimes they make an entirely new sound, as in oil or out. If you hear two distinct vowel sounds, though, you have two syllables on your hands because each syallable can only have one vowel sound. Examples of this include di-a-phragm and cre-ate.