Syllable
A syllable is a unit of spoken language that consists of one or more vowel sounds which may be preceded or followed by consonant sounds. It can be reflected in writing, where it corresponds only approximately to the spoken syllable.
English, in comparison to many other European languages, has a huge number of monosyllabic words, including the 25 most commonly used verbs.[1] Strikingly, of the first 60 words in the list of the 100 commonest English words of the two-billion word Oxford English Corpus only one word, about, clocking in at number 45, has more than one syllable.[1]
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[edit] Examples
The word syllable itself consists of three syllables and can be divided graphically as follows: syl-la-ble (although in speech they would be more like sy-la-bl or, to be more precise, /ˈsi-lə-bəl/).
[edit] Dictation
Students are therefore often "caught out" when confronted by simple sentences/questions spoken at natural speed, such as "Did you like it?" or "I can't find it.", and will greatly benefit from linking and dictation exercises, especially using sentences made up of monosyllables:
- What did you do? - Where did you go? - Who did you go with? - "What did they say?" - Who else went? - Where did you last see it? - What did you think of it? - What's his name? - Have you sent it yet? - What do you think I should do?;
[edit] Variations
- Monosyllable: a word consisting of just the one syllable;
- Dissyllable or disyllable[2]: a word made up of two syllables;
- Polysyllable: a word made up of more than two syllables;
[edit] References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The OEC: Facts about the language" Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 30th September 2012.
- ↑ [1] Collins English Dictionary
