What is a syllable?

Question

Could you explain a syllable in detail using the words 'girl', 'go', ' rain', 'noisy', 'famous' ‘stream’ ,'hour', 'double' and 'prison'.

I wonder how many syllables those words have.

Thanks in advance.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

syllable
Segment of speech usually consisting of a http://www.reference.com/browse/vowel with or without accompanying http://www.reference.com/browse/consonant sounds (e.g., a, I, out, too, cap, snap, check). A syllabic consonant, like the final n sound in button and widen, also constitutes a syllable. Closed (checked) syllables end in a consonant, open (free) syllables in a vowel. Syllables play an important role in the study of http://www.reference.com/browse/speech and in http://www.reference.com/browse/phonetics and http://www.reference.com/browse/phonology.

girl have 1
go have 1
rain 2
famous 2
hour 1
double 2
prison 2

A syllable is a basic unit of written and spoken language. It is a unit consisting of uninterrupted sound that can be used to make up words. For example, the word hotel has two syllables: ho and tel. These will be marked here as in ho/tel.

Counting Syllables

To find the number of syllables in a word, use the following steps:

Count the vowels in the word.
Subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent e at the end of a word, or the second vowel when two vowels are together in a syllabl.e)
Subtract one vowel from every http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/diphthongs.php (diphthongs only count as one vowel sound.)
The number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.

The word came has 2 vowels, but the e is silent, leaving one vowel sound andone syllable.
The word outside has 4 vowels, but the e is silent and the ou is a diphthong which counts as only one sound, so this word has only two vowel sounds and therefore, two syllables.

Six Kinds of Syllables

Closed Syllables: A closed syllable has one and only one vowel, and it ends in a consonant. Examples include in, ask, truck, sock, stretch, twelfth, and on.
Open Syllables: An open syllable has one and only one vowel, and that vowel occurs at the end of the syllable. Examples include no, she, I, a, and spry.
Silent-E Syllables: A silent-e syllable ends in an e, has one and only one consonant before that e, and has one and only one vowel before that consonant. Examples include ate, ice, tune, slope, strobe, and these.
Vowel Combination Syllables: A vowel combination syllable has a cluster of two or three vowels or a vowel-consonant unit with a sound or sounds particular to that unit. Examples include rain, day, see, veil, pie, piece, noise, toy, cue, and true.
Vowel-R Syllables: A vowel-r syllable is one which includes one and only one vowel followed by an r, or one vowel followed by an r which is followed by a silent e, or a http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/vowel-combinations.php followed by an r. Examples include car, or, care, ire, air, and deer.
Consonant-L-E Syllables: In these syllables, a consonant is followed by le. The vowel sound in these syllables is the schwa sound that occurs before the l. Examples include -ble, -cle, -dle, -fle, and -gle.

Anonymous · Answer

A syllable is how many times a word can be broken into. For example explain has 2 syllables; ex/ plain.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

rain 2

No. A native speaker would say this is one syllable (unless he has some kind of strange accent, I suppose).

Clive

PS - I see that I am correcting a very old post.

Anonymous · Answer

[Y]A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of /wiki/Speech_communicationsounds. Hope that helps bye!!!!!

Anonymous · Answer

How about reheat?
I so pose to pass this next week

Clive · Answer

Hi,

What do you think?

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

rain has only one syllable

Anonymous · Answer

The English language is actually not phonetic, even though it claims to be. This is why it is so hard to learn because it doesn't  really have good reasons for why things are the way they are sometimes.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousThe English language is actually not phonetic, even though it claims to be.

I have never heard this. Can you cite evidence in terms of a quotation in which the English language claims to be phonetic? (I thought that only people could make claims, but any similar quote would suffice.)

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

I don’t really agree with you the phonetic is extremely  important to learn  how to speak good English as well as to practice  the good pronunciation  that ’s my point of view

What is a syllable?

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