Objectives

This chapter will help you:

• Review the two major rules for dividing words into syllables• Apply the two rules to specialized terms in different subjects• Review other rules relating to word division and pronunciation

Part Three, A Brief Guide to Important Word SkillsVocabulary Development

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• Knowing how to pronounce the terms will help you master their meanings. You can often locate difficult-to-pronounce words in the dictionary.

• However, in some cases words from specialized academic subjects may be too technical to appear in a desk dictionary.

• There are probably more words in your LISTENING vocabulary than in your SIGHT vocabulary. You probably recognize more spoken words than written ones.

• Learning how to sound out and pronounce unfamiliar words will help narrow any gap between your listening and sight vocabularies.

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Two major rules for dividing words into syllables

1. Divide between Double Consonants

mes/sage dis/tance fun/gus

2. Divide before a Single Consonant

lo/cal bla/tant fru/gal

(Pronunciation hint: The vowel before a division at a singleconsonant usually has a long sound.)

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Other helpful rules for dividing words into syllables

Always divide Compound Words between the words that form the compound.

whole/sale ever/green news/print

Divide between Prefixes and Suffixes

head/ing dis/content sub/merge

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Two Vowels together may represent separate sounds and be in separate syllables.

ne/on co/op/er/ate ob/vi/ous

Note: Only some vowel pairs divide into separate syllables. Many vowel pairs in English have only one syllable, usually with the first vowel long and the secondvowel silent.

please chain road dream