Syllable Types: A Quick Introduction

There are six syllable types that we explicitly teach students: closed, open, magic ‘e’, r-controlled, vowel teams, and consonant ‘-le’. Knowing these syllable types helps students figure out how to pronounce a vowel when they are decoding an unfamiliar word — and how to spell words too!

1. Closed Syllables

A closed syllable, the most common syllable type, is a syllable with one vowel letter followed by one or more consonants. The vowel will be short.

As you know, vowels have short sounds and long sounds. Vowels say their short sounds when they are closed in by — or followed by — a consonant. If a vowel has a consonant after it, we call that a closed syllable. You can think about it like this: the consonant is protecting the vowel so it can say its short sound.

Closed syllables are also found in multisyllabic words like nap-kin and sun-set. 

We’ll revisit closed syllables in the syllable work lesson later in the course. 

This is a sample closed-syllable flash card deck that can be used as a warm up activity in a lesson. Print or download this activity for practice with reading closed syllables. (Note, this is a new set of cards that you will not find in the Reading Universe deck of all letters and sounds.) 

2. Open Syllables

Once students know how to read closed syllables, we can begin to teach them about open syllables. 

Open syllables end with a single vowel, and the vowel says its long sound — as in the words me, she, and go. The open-syllable pattern will be your students' first experience decoding long vowel sounds.

This is an open-syllable flash card deck for you to print or download. (Note, this is a new set of cards that you will not find in the Reading Universe deck of all letters and sounds.) Open the file and practice saying each syllable out loud. 

3. Magic 'e'

The magic 'e', also known as the silent 'e', is an important phonics pattern in which the middle vowel says its long sound — like cake, home, kite, scene, cube, and tune. 

Magic 'e' is also a syllable type and is most often found at the end of words — like athlete, complete, and invade.

Practice each magic 'e' sound with the keywords, saying:

‘a’, consonant, ‘e’, cake, /ā/

‘o’, consonant, ‘e’, home, /ō/

‘i’, consonant, ‘e’, kite, /ī/

‘e’, consonant, ‘e’, eve, /ē/

‘u’, consonant, ‘e’, cube, /ū/

‘u’, consonant, ‘e’, tune, /o͞o/ 

Locate the magic 'e' cards from your deck of all letters and sounds or download this small set to your desktop. You can use the list above to practice with cards! For each card, say the pattern, keyword, and sound out loud.

4. R-Controlled Vowels

The r-controlled pattern is a vowel pattern and a syllable type. The r-controlled vowels are 'ar', 'or', 'er', 'ir', and 'ur' and are in words like chart, sport, her, bird, and spur. 

In multisyllabic words, an r-controlled vowel can appear in the first syllable like in target, in the second syllable like in number, and in both syllables like in partner.

Practice each r-controlled vowel sound with the keywords and motions, saying:

/ar/, arm

/er/, bird

/or/, horn

Select the r-controlled flash cards from your deck of all letters and sounds or download this small set to your desktop. Following the practice script listed above, flip through each card as you say the letters, the keyword, and the phoneme.

5. Vowel Teams

Vowel teams are a phonics spelling pattern in which two vowels are next to each other and the vowels produce one sound together — similar to the consonant digraph pattern, but with vowels instead!  

Vowel teams include 'ai', 'ay', 'ee', 'ea', 'oa', 'oi', 'oy', 'oo', 'ou', 'ow', 'aw', and 'au'.

We often teach vowel teams in pairs, such as ‘ai’ and ‘ay’ as ways to spell the long ‘a’. Vowel teams are also a syllable type and include multisyllable words like oyster and between. 

Here are common vowel teams with word examples that you may recognize. Read out loud the following spelling, keyword, and phoneme.

• 'ai', rain, /ā/
• 'ay', hay, /ā/
• 'ee', tree, /ē/
• 'ea', each, /ē/
• 'oi', boil, /oi/
• 'oy', toy, /oi/
• 'ou', ouch, /ow/
• 'ow', snow, /ō/
• 'ow', cow, /ow/
• 'igh', light, /ī/
• 'oa', boat, /ō/
• 'oo', broom, /o͞o/
• 'oo', book, /o͝o/
• 'au', August, /aw/
• 'aw', saw, /aw/

Here are all of the vowel phonemes and common spellings (opens in new window) (opens in new window). And for younger children, the Vowel Valley (opens in new window) (opens in new window)offers helpful illustration for alternate vowel sounds for the same spelling like cow and tow.

Practice vowel teams! Select the cards from your deck or download this small set to your desktop. Flip through each card and say the letters, keyword, and phoneme.

6. Consonant '-le'

Consonant ‘-le’ is a syllable that falls at the end of a multisyllable word and makes a subtle /ul/ sound, as in puddle or single. 

Here are some examples of consonant '-le' syllables: 

• '-ble'
• '-dle'
• '-fle'
• '-gle'
• '-ple'
• '-tle'
• '-zle' 

Once your students know and can recognize the consonant ‘-le’ pattern, they’ll know to make a subtle /ul/ sound when they see it at the end of a word like maple or puzzle.

Locate the consonant '-le' patterns in your deck of all letters and sounds or download this small set to your desk top. Flip through each card to practice saying the pattern and keyword aloud. 

Congratulations on getting through this important part of the course. Now it’s time to put this good learning to work with a game called Word Chaining!