Syllabication rules - open syllables?

[peacefully]

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[Sugarfoot]

Open syllables do not end with a consonant and the vowel sound is usually long, right? I think "usually" is the important thing here. ;) What about beau-ti-ful? Pyr-a-mid? Im-ple-ment? En-e-my? El-e-ment?

 

For the last few, I can hear those vowels go to schwa, but why is that? Is there a rule?I don't think there's a specific rule, other than any vowel can end up making the schwa sound or its short sound instead of its long sound in an open syllable.

 

And what about all those short /i/ sounds that are in the middle of so many words (nutritious, citizen, entity)? Does anyone know the rule there?See above. In any syllable, there's only one vowel SOUND, and in a multi-syllabic word, if there's a long vowel sound, it's often that syllable that is stressed.

 

(BTW, he can read all those above examples, but he can't break them into syllables in order to read them. He just knows them.... like his mom.)

 

I hope this didn't confuse you any further! It's a long way to say that a vowel in an open syllable may not be making its long sound.;)

 

When I was learning syllabication as a child, we pounded on the table (softly!) once for each syllable as we said each word. If your DS can read the words, could he maybe figure out where each syllable stops and starts and apply the rules that he already knows first before deciding whether they are open/closed?

 

HTH!

Edited May 15, 2010 by Sugarfoot
clarification

[ElizabethB]

Syllable division and spelling rules are linked at the end of my how to tutor page:

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html

 

Unaccented syllables are more likely to schwa, Webster's Speller is great for ESL students and young students because the words are arranged by accent pattern, so it helps you figure out which syllables are more likely to schwa. The longer the word, the more vowels schwa.

 

I have not statistically analyzed it, but open syllables seem to schwa more often.

 

The 1908 version from Don Potter is probably best for your use, it also has some definitions:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/pdf_files/websterspellingbookmethod.pdf