Effective Decoding Instruction for Diverse
Learners
A Study Group Series
Rules for Syllable Division
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.
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Last modified: Sun Feb 28 11:52:08 EST 1999