Watch the Video
WORD STRUCTUREA syllable is a beat in a word. Clap or chop your hand for each beat to count them. Every syllable has at least one vowel sound in it. That rule never breaks: no vowel sound = no syllable. Words from the video: elephant, chicken, cookie, poodle, watermelon, calculator, turtle, kangaroo, electricity, hippopotamus, monkey, television.
Multi-Syllable Words
SPELLING WORDSFrom the video
More multi-syllable words
The Syllable Rule
HOW IT WORKSTo count syllables: 1) Say the word out loud. 2) Clap or chop your hand for each beat you can feel. 3) Count the claps = the number of syllables. Each syllable must contain a vowel sound (A, E, I, O, U, or sometimes Y). If you can't hear a vowel sound, it's not a syllable.
Tips for Syllables
A silent E at the end of a word is still a syllable helper, but because it is silent (no sound), the final E does NOT count as its own syllable. cake has 1 syllable (not 2), even though it ends in E.
Two vowel letters together (like OO in poodle, or AI in rain) usually make one vowel sound: so they count as one syllable between them, not two. Poodle = 2 syllables: POO-dle.
Y can act as a vowel and carry a syllable on its own. In butterfly, the final Y makes the /eye/ sound and counts as a syllable: BUT-ter-FLY (3 syllables). In happy, the final Y makes the /ee/ sound: HAP-py (2 syllables).
Lyrics
Are you ready to learn about syllables? Get your chopping hands out.
CHORUS
A syllable is a beat in a word. In a word.
In every syllable, a vowel sound is heard.
VERSE 1
Elephant: El-e-phant
Chicken: Chick-en
Cookie: Cook-ie
Poodle: Poo-dle
Watermelon: Wa-ter-mel-on
Calculator: Cal-cu-la-tor
CHORUS
A syllable is a beat in a word. In a word.
In every syllable, a vowel sound is heard.
VERSE 2
Turtle: Tur-tle
Kangaroo: Kan-ga-roo
Electricity: E-lec-tri-ci-ty
Hippopotamus: Hip-po-pot-a-mus
Monkey: Mon-key
Television: Tel-e-vi-sion
CHORUS
A syllable is a beat in a word. In a word.
In every syllable, a vowel sound is heard.
Mr. Spelling. To sit. Bye-bye.