7 syllable types of English, Dr. Schneider 2010
7 TYPES OF SYLLABLES OF ENGLISH: Acronym CLOVERS
These 7 types of syllables occur in all words of the English language. Every
word can be dissected according to these syllables. Doing this helps students
who struggle reading words they have never seen before or those they
cannot remember as sight words.
 Teach these syllable types one at a time.
 It helps to place dividing dots into big words for students to read
them independently once you have taught at least open and closed
syllable patterns (e.g., dis.man.tle).
C
CLOSED SYLLABLE (= shut door)
RULE: A syllable with a SINGLE VOWEL that is blocked/protected
by one or more consonants. This is the most common syllable
pattern and occurs in mono-and multi-syllabic words.
EX: in.vent, him, flat, sen.sa.tion, in.fil.trate
Teaching strategy:
One person representing a consonant cop blocks the single
vowel person by standing to his/her left. The vowel person has
to fold in her stretched out arm that signaled a long vowel sound
to signal a short vowel sound. E.g. make words ME-T, MA-T, NOT, R-E-D)
L CONSONANT –LE
SYLLABLE
RULE: A second syllable in a word that consists of a single
consonant + le. The letter E is not pronounced but the pattern is
considered a syllable as the letter was pronounced in former
versions of English. This syllable can be proceeded by an open,
closed or vowel team syllable as well as an R-controlled syllable
or a magic E syllable. This syllable cannot be broken apart.
EX: poo.dle, bi.ble, ri.fle, puz.zle, tem.ple, rid.dle
7 syllable types of English, Dr. Schneider 2010
TEACHING STRATEGY:
Reading: Once students know never to break this “barfable
syllable” apart, they can read any word that contains this
pattern by reading the part before the dot and the one after the
dot.
Spelling: This must be carefully structured as it is easier to spell
words that have two different consonants (tem.ple) than two of
the same consonants (puzzle) because students can only hear
one consonant but must spell two. Teachers must teach
students how to listen for the vowel sound and make sure that
there is a consonant for the first part to keep the vowel short
and another to keep the “barfable” in tact.
O
OPEN SYLLABLE (= open door)
RULE: A syllable with a SINGLE VOWEL that is not blocked
by a letter- consonant.
EX: hi, ra.ven, me.te.or
Teaching strategy:
One person represents a single vowel and stretches out
his/her left arm (facing the class) into open space because
nothing is blocking “it” from saying its long vowel sound (= the
alphabet sound). The consonant to the vowel’s right (from
vowel’s perspective) does not interfere with the pronunciation
of the vowel because we read from left to right. (e.g., m-e, n-o,
m-a)
V
VOWEL TEAM SYLLABLE
RULE: Either two vowels together or a vowel and a consonant together
form a team of two letters that make a vowelish sound. They are so strong
7 syllable types of English, Dr. Schneider 2010
that they take the position at the end of a syllable. Only letter Y and W can
pair up to a vowel team with a consonant (ay, ey, oy, aw, ew, ow)
EX: toy, replay, boot, coat, beads, claw,
TEACHING STRATEGY: Teach similar looking and sounding vowel teams at
least 5 lessons apart from each other and only once one pattern is
established; model vowel team as a strong team with gestures and stress in
which parts of the word these occur; especially: those with a consonant in
them always at the end of a syllable and those with 2 vowels mostly in the
middle and sometimes at the beginning of a syllable: -ay vs. ai; ow vs. oa,
E
MAGIC E Syllable (= NURSE)
RULE: A syllable with a SINGLE VOWEL that is followed by a
SINGLE consonant and ends in a silent letter E.
EX: came, re.take, cute, un.like, a.lone, com.pete, lo.cate
Teaching strategy:
A person with nurse E and nurse signals (in white, red cross, injection
needle) moves to the left of the last letter of the word (a consonant),
stretches her/his arm and injects power using the needle into the vowel
leaning over the one consonant. This makes the vowel stretch his/her arm
out UP in the air to signal that he/she got the power to say its name in spite
of being blocked in by the single consonant (cop).
R
R-CONTROLLED SYLLABLE
RULE: Letter R attaches itself to single vowels and distorts their
long or short sound to one and the same slurred R-controlled
sound. It appears in the root or a word for er, ir, ur and in
suffixes for –or and –ar;
EX: her, term, permit, burner, firm, turning, perpendicular, actor
7 syllable types of English, Dr. Schneider 2010
TEACHING STRATEGY: Model how the sound or R and the sound
of the single vowel changes when R attaches itself to the vowel.
Talk out the logic and let students explain it using different
examples; note the sound of single R is distinctly different from
that of R paired up with a vowel.
NOTE: words with OR and AR in the root are not classic Rcontrolled patterns as they carry a different pronunciation than
their suffix versions –or, and –ar: Farm, port, pork, cord
S
SCHWAED Syllable
RULE: A syllable with a SINGLE VOWEL that does not make the long or
short sound but rather a muffled undistinguishable schwaed sound because
this syllable is unaccented. This only occurs in words with more than one
syllable.
EX: a.way, in.vi.ta.tion, u.pon, wi.den
Teaching strategy:
Students read words with more than one syllable and identify the one that
does not carry the accent and has a single vowel in it. Then they act out the
insulted single vowel and give the reason why this vowel sounds so
unidentifiable. After that, give students common words that contain a
schwaed single vowel sound and discuss how to remember which spelling
to remember for the schwaed sound. For words that have a shorter word
in their word family, show students how the accent shift from short to long
words help identify a schwa-sound spelling: E.g.: invite- invitation;