Syllable Patterns in English

Teaching the syllables

CVC syllable: These syllables are found in short words like hat and can be combined
to form longer words like Batman The important factor is not how many
consonants there are ‘catfish ’, but there is at least one consonant after the vowel to
close the syllable so that vowel makes a short sound.
CV syllable: The vowel appears at the end as in words like ‘bee’ and ‘he’. CV Syllable can
be combined with the CVC syllable to form words like ‘donut ’, ‘robot ’
etc.
First underline the vowels, then count the number of consonants between the vowel sounds. If
there are two consonants between the vowel sounds, the word gets divided between the
consonants because the word is composed of two CVC syllables such as the words like
‘mutton ’, ‘rotten ’, etc. If there is one consonant between the vowel
sounds, the word is typically divided before the consonant, so the first syllable becomes a CV
syllable, as in the word ‘teapot ’, ‘giraffe ’, ‘peanut ’, etc.

The goal in decoding is to get the unknown word into a word that makes sense (Bhattarya &
Ehri, 2004). If dividing before the consonant does not produce a word that sounds logical in
the sentence, divide after the consonant and see if that produces a word that makes sense. The
two pronunciations of “present” are the best example: and

Cle Syllable: This is an easy syllable because it can only be used as a final syllable in a word.
The vowel makes neither a long or a short sound, but rather totally a different sound like in
the word “bubble”. In the Cle syllable the “le” always takes the consonant before it. The word
“title” is divided as “ti-tle” because the “le” keeps the “t”. The first syllable is a CV syllable.
This also explain why “wiggle” must have two “g’s” in the centre. The first “g” keeps the
first vowel short. “wig” is a CVC syllable.
R-control syllable: This is also the easy one. In R-control syllable there are only three
sounds that the vowels can make. The R-control syllable has an “r” immediately
following the vowel, like in the word “jar” or “turn” or “for”. There is the sound, the
sound, and the sound. The learners only need to learn these three sounds.

Note: the combinations “er”, “ir”, “ur” all make the same sound i.e. sound.

CVCe syllable: This combination can only be used as a final syllable in a word. The “e” at
the end of the syllable is silent and causes the vowel before it to make the long sound, as in
the words nice

CVVC syllable: In this syllable, the first vowel makes the long sound and the second one is
silent like in the word “load”. Learning this syllable, one should learn about the single vowel
sounds in diphthongs such as