English Syllable Types The English alphabet consists of

English Syllable Types

The English alphabet consists of 26 letters: 20 consonants and 6 vowels.

• These letters give us 44 speech sounds, among them 24 consonant phonemes and 20 vowel phonemes. Such a difference between the number of letters and the number of sounds calls for the necessity of indicating different sounds with the same letters or letter clusters.

• Each vowel in English has four reading variants. The reading of a vowel in a stressed syllable depends on the type of the syllable. The letter following the stressed vowel determines the type of the syllable.

There are four types of syllables: Closed type Open type

Closed type In this syllable type, one or more consonants stand after the stressed vowel (any consonants except R). The stressed vowel in a closed syllable gives a short sound, e. g. pig, pet, cat, hot, cup, put.

Open type Such a syllable ends in a vowel. The stressed vowel is pronounced as in the alphabet. It is usually a long vowel or a diphthong

Absolutely open syllable — it is a syllable the graphical character of which equals with its phonetic one, i. e. with its sounding, e. g. me, no. Conditionally open syllable – it is a syllable which is open only graphically, but it is closed phonetically in Modern English, these are onesyllable words because the final letter E is mute in these words.