Syllable
A spoken unit that must have a vowel and that includes the consonants that precede or follow that vowel. [A word or part of a word made by one push of breath and has at least one vowel.]

1.  Compound Word

• Divide between the two words: cat nip,  bath tub,  sun shine,  mail box

2.  One Consonant Between Two Vowels

• Divide after the vowel:   ba sic,  po ny,  se cret
  OR
• Divide after the consonant:   top ic,  lem on,  plan et

3.  Two or Three Consonants Between Two Vowels

• Divide between the two consonants:   pen cil,  con fuse,  traf fic,  pes ky,  plas tic,  sup pose,  car pet, 
• Do NOT split digraphs:   ath lete,  ^tick et,  graph ite
• Blends may stay together when in the final syllable:   com plete,   hun dred,  fla grant,  e lec tric,   por trait

4.  Consonant-le Syllable

• Divide just before the consonant-le: can dle,  ^pic kle,  thim ble,  ma ple,  nee dle,  mar ble

5.  Prefixes and Suffixes

• Divide between prefix and root word:   dis like,  re e lect,  un bro ken,  mis han dle
• Divide between root word and suffix:   wish ful,   kind ness,  neat est,  hope less,  crisp y, *rent ed,  *nod ded
• The suffix *ed and its three sounds:   /ed/ adds another syllable to the root word, /d/ and /t/ do not add another syllable to the root word.

Agenda | Phonemic Awareness | Alphabetic Principle | Syllables | Morphology, Syntax, Semantics

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Last modified: Sun Feb 28 11:52:08 EST 1999