Syllable Stress- Critical for Effective Clear Speech

by Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist

Clear English Speech accent reduction software program guides people to choose the right syllable on which to place stress while speaking. You need to know first:

What is a Syllable?

• A syllable is a single unit of written or spoken sound with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) that is used to make up words.
• The letter ‘y’ can be counted as a vowel, only if it creates the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u). For example: fry, try, cry, & dry
• Some words have two (or more) vowels next to each other, but only make one sound (au, oy, oo). These are called diphthongs. Other words have vowels that are silent.
• The number of times that you hear the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) is equal to the number of syllables the word has.
• All words have at least one syllable.

How to Divide Words into Syllables
Knowing how to divide words into syllables can greatly help with your spelling and reading skills as well as your ability to pronounce words correctly.
Look at where the vowels fall in your word. Every syllable will have a vowel, but may not always have a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z).

Identify any prefix in a word. Prefixes are sets of letters added to the beginning of a word to give it a specific meaning. The most common prefixes are “un” and “re”. Other prefixes include: a (atypical) ante, auto, circum, co, de, dis, ex, extra, hetero, homo, hyper, inter, intro, macro, micro, non, post, pre, sub, super, trans, tri, uni.

Many words don’t have prefixes. If your word doesn’t have a prefix, don’t worry about this step.
Identify any suffix of a word. Suffixes are like prefixes, but they are added to the end of the word to make them mean something different. Here are some examples of suffixes: ic, ical, ify, omy, emetry, ive, ity, tion, ious, ily, eous, able, ible, ophy, grapy, ogist, cian, istry.

Draw a line before the suffix of a word. If your word has both a prefix and suffix, you should have two lines drawn in your word so far.

1. For example: “re | wind | ing.”
2. If your suffix has more than one vowel, follow the same rule as with prefixes.
3. If vowels have consonants between them, draw a line after the first consonant that follows your first vowel. For example: flex | ib | le.
4. Some words don’t have prefixes or suffixes. If your word does not have a suffix, do not draw a line.

Divide any compound words. If there are two separate words have been put together, draw a line between them.

1. For example: “lunch |time”

Draw lines in the remaining chunks according to vowel placement. If you have a section of letters with multiple vowels that are separated by consonants, divide it so that there is at least one vowel in each segment. For example “ad | min | is | tra |tion.”

​Syllable Division Rules

1. Separate prefixes, suffixes, and root words: pre/view, work/ing, re/do, end/less, out/side
2. Are two consonants next to each other?  Divide in between them: buf/fet, des/sert, ob/ject, ber/ry, fer/ry
3. Never split 2 consonants that (when pronounced together) make only 1 sound: “th”, “sh”, “ph”, “th”, “ch”, and “wh”
4. Is the consonant surrounded by vowels?
5. Does the 1st vowel have a long sound? (Like the ‘i’ in line)

• ba/by, re/sult, i/vy, fro/zen, Cu/pid
• Divide before the consonant.

    6. Does the 1st vowel have a short sound? (Like the ‘i’ in mill)

• Divide after the consonant.
• rav/age, met/al, riv/er, mod/el, cur/tal
• Is there a ‘ckle’ in the word?  Divide right before the ‘le’.
  • tack/le, freck/le, tick/le, buck/le
  • ap/ple, rum/ble, fa/ble, ta/ble

   7.  Is there a ‘le’ (no ‘ck’ in front)?  Divide 1 letter before the ‘le’.

Hear the list of words divided into syllables below:

Player Play/er
Mainstream Main/stream
Project Pro/ject
Autumn Au/tumn
Kicking Kick/ing
Teacher Teach/er
Nonsense Non/sense
Mother Moth/er
Boyfriend Boy/friend
Market Mar/ket
ideas i/de/as
Overly O/ver/ly
Coincidence Co/in/ci/dence
Profitable Prof/it/a/ble
American A/mer/i/can
Superficial Su/per/fi/cial

Are you repeatedly asked, “What?” or “Can you say that again?”

• Reduce infuriating requests, by pronouncing correctly one key misleading English sound.​
• Receive FREE mini-lesson to master this sound and be confidently understood. 

By Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist
©2017 Ela Britchkow