Syllable, its formation, and its classification

Syllable refers to the pronunciation of a single unit of a word. It is uttered with one push of the voice. In a more generalized manner, it can be said that a syllable occupies that part of a word that can be uttered at a time with a single effort. Syllables are formed following some particular methods. They are also divided into different parts. This essay highlights all of these aspects.

Syllable and its formation

Syllables are usually the combination of both vowels and consonants. They are combined following some rules and regulations. These include:

A single vowel can be used as a syllable. For example, a-round, i-con

A single vowel can be combined with a single consonant. Example, to, on, go

Many consonants cab be combined with a single vowel. Example, drift, shift, germ

A semivowel (w,y) can have a combination of vowels and consonants. Example, wall, wet, yet, yearn

The syllable can be formed by combining diphthong and consonants. Example, boil, coi, doubt, shout

There can be a consonant with many vowels such as moo, loo

There can be a combination of vowels and consonants such as moon, shone, thought, fought

Words and syllables

Words can be differentiated from one another considering the number of syllables they contain.

Monosyllabic word contains one syllable only. For example, big, dig, post, blog

Disyllabic word has two syllables such as cle-ver, beau-ty, pen-cil

Trisyllabic word consists of three syllables. example, re-mem-ber, de-cem-ber

Tetrasyllabic word has four syllables such as a-rith-me-tic, con-ver-sa-tion

Pentasyllabic word has five syllables such as e-lec-tri-ci-ty, po-ten-tia-li-ty, in-ter-pre-ta-tion

Hexasyllabic word has six syllables. For example, in-cre-di-bi-li-ty, in-ter-natio-na-li-sa-tion

Heptasyllabic word is with seven syllables such as en-thu-si-as-ti-cal-ly

Classification of syllable

There are two types of syllables which are open syllable and closed syllable. Open syllables end with a vowel such as cri-mi-nal. On the other hand, a closed syllable ends with a consonant. For example, dic-tion

Abdur Rahim
Abdur Rahim

Assistant Professor, and Member of the Proctorial Body
Department of English Language and Literature (DELL), Premier University, Chattogram,
& Doctoral Fellow, English Department, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Dhaka.

Phone: +8801715638298

Email: ar.dell.pu@gmail.com

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