How do you recognize syllables?

Answer 1

People recognize syllables in words by listening to the sounds and hearing the natural breaks between a letter or letters. When there is no break, the word has one syllable.

Hearing syllables is much like listening to the word/letter combinations in (most) music. You listen for emphasis in words, and breaks.

Let's say you wanted to speak or sing this sentence.

He stepped into the car and used the mirror to check his hair before fastening his seat belt and starting the car.

Now, write the sentence with any breaks you heard:

He stepp-ed in-to the car and used the mirr-or to check his hair be-fore

fast-en-ing his seat belt and start-ing the car.

When you pay attention to sounds, when you can really hear the breaks, then you'll begin to see the letters in the word and where the breaks occur.

Hear the breaks in this one:

She lov-ing-ly pat-ted her dog's head be-fore mix-ing his food in his dish and plac-ing the dish on the floor.

Try:

self

selfish

selfishly

manual

manually

amend

amendment

big

bigger

biggest

Study Tip: Learn to play with words in your mind anywhere you find them. Sound out street signs. Repeat your bus driver's name. Look at advertising signs. Play a game with a friend to see who can find the most 2-syllable words. Spell words in your mind by including the break between syllables. When you see a big word, write it down and look in a dictionary to see where the sounds break.

Answer 2

You can recognize syllables by identifying the different vowel sounds in a word and paying attention to the beats or pulses you hear when saying the word aloud. Each syllable typically contains one vowel sound and can have consonants before or after the vowel. Practice breaking words into syllables by clapping or tapping along with each beat.