- Washington Elementary School
- Syllabication Rules
-
6 BASIC SYLLABLES TYPES
closed – has only 1 vowel followed by a at least 1 consonant, the vowel sound is short
up, fox, bathe-controlled- Magic “e”- an “e” ends the word, the “e” makes the vowel before it longbike, slide, batheopen- has only 1 vowel at the end of the word or syllable, the vowel sound is long
he, go, stu, tivowel pair- has 2 vowels together, but make only 1 sound
train, toad, wayr-controlled- Bossy “r”- has 1 vowel followed by an “r”, the sound is neither long nor short
arm, turn, birdConsonant le- is the last syllable of a base word. It always has 3-letters; a consonant plus and le. The “e” is silent
bubble, cable, tangle, pickle, rectangle
RULES FOR SYLLABICATION
#1 split between two consonants-
rib/bon den/tist
#2 keep h-brothers (sh, ch, th, wh), bonus letters (ff,ss,zz,ll), and blends together (tr, sn, fl)-
bath/tub nut/shell cliff/side
#3 keep –ng and –nk’s together-
wing/span bank/rupt
#4 if there is only one consonant between vowels-
either
*keep the first syllable closed for a short vowel sound
lev/el cab/in
or
*keep the first syllable open for a long vowel sound
ro/bot pre/tend
This information is based on the philosophies of Orton-Gillingham and Wilson Reading.The views and opinions expressed in this page and site, unless specifically noted, are strictly those of Lisa Zevin. The Caldwell-West Caldwell School District is not responsible and has no control over the redirected links that take users off the www.cwcboe.org site.