Teacher Note
What is a syllable?
A syllable is the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) that's created when pronouncing
a word.
Syllables Rules:
The number of times that you hear the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) in a word
is equal to the number of syllables the word has.
Count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) in the word.
Subtract any silent vowels (like the silent 'e' at the end of a word).
Subtract 1 vowel from every diphthong.
A diphthong is when two vowels make only 1 sound (oi, oy, ou, ow, au, aw, oo,
...).
The number you are left with should be the number of vowels in the word.
For Example:

cake - has 1 syllable

eat - has 1 syllable

cheese - has 1 syllable

eating - has 2 syllables (eat - ing)

chicken - has 2 syllables (chick - en)

worrying - has 3 syllables (wor - ry - ing)
How To Divide A Word Into Syllables:

Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes, and root words that
have vowels.
o

sports/car, house/boat, un/happy, pre/paid, re/write, farm/er,
hope/less
Divide between two middle consonants
o
hap/pens, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, din/ner
NSWTELS213A identify a variety of pronunciation features /Li Zhang v1
Teacher Note
o


Never split up consonant digraphs as they really represent only
one sound ("th", "sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh").
Usually divide before a single consonant.
o
o/pen, i/tem, e/vil, re/port, a/bout, a/bove
o
The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an
obvious short sound, as in "cab/in".
Divide before an "-le" syllable.
o
a/ble, fum/ble, rub/ble, mum/ble
o
The only exceptions are "ckle" words like "tick/le".
Source: Syllable Dictionary (on-line)
NSWTELS213A identify a variety of pronunciation features /Li Zhang v1