Dividing Syllables Worksheets

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

As we grow towards being strong readers, we often rely on our ability to decode words to learn about new foliage. Braking words up into chunks really will help you understand the essence of a word that is new to you. The end goal is to help you hype up your ability to experience new words in an accurate and fluid manner. Once you begin to tackle multisyllabic words, you are ready for the big time. The first gate to pass through on to mastering this skill is recognizing the presence of vowel sounds. This is because each vowel sound you hear denotes a unique syllable. Then we move on to affixes. Make sure to delineate the prefix and suffix from the root word before you begin. In the end this skill will help you become a better speller. This series of worksheets will help you learn how to dampen words into syllables that make you better understand how to pronunciate them.


Dividing Syllables Worksheets To Print:

Something or Nothing - Draw a line between the syllables in each word. If there is only one syllable in the word, do nothing.

Lines in the Sand - Break the words up into units of sound.

Three Syllable Words - Divide all these words into three units of sound.

How Many You Got? - You will need to sound all these words out.

CVCe Words - As you write each Consonant Vowel Consonant e (CVCe) on the line, divide it into syllables with a /. Circle the CVCe syllable.

Name It and Number It - Write the word, break the units of sound apart.

Clap It Out - Say the name of each picture. Clap out the syllables and write the number. Write the word. Divide it into syllables with a /.

Splitsville - Break these words into one, two, and three column categories.

What Do You Hear? - How Many Units?

Clap | Count | Divide - As you say each word, clap out the syllables. Write the number of syllables you hear next to each word. Draw lines / in the word to separate the syllables.

Clap It Up! - We continue to develop our ability with this strategy.

One to Five - We ask you to think up your own words and then fill them into the columns.

Count and Divide - Say it, clap it out, and then classify it.

Conquer It - Look at each word. Decide if the division into syllables is correct. If it is, write correct on the line.

VCCV or VC | V Words - Where does each word fit within this matrix?


How Do You Divide a Word Up into Syllables?

To sum it up quickly, you start by locating all the vowels in the word. Then you look for a pattern that exists between the arrangement of the vowels and the consonants. Then you use the simple division rule that we will explore here to count up all the unique sounds. We will now take a look at all of these steps in depth.


Like we said in the initial paragraph, this entire process starts with identifying all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u). I would highly recommend that you either underline them or highlight them in some way. Once you have them pointed out for yourself, we begin to investigate the word for patterns. There are many different arrangements and patterns. The most common being vowel-consonant-consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant-vowel, vowel-consonant- consonant-consonant-vowel. There is a different set of counting rules that applies to each arrangement.


VV Rule - This is most likely the simplest rule. When you come across a word that has two neighboring vowels, but they do not act as a pair, you just split the vowels in the opposite direction.


VCV Rule - When you run into a consonant that is surrounded by two vowels, there is a simple strategy to help you through this. In this case, you will slide the consonant and everything with it in one direction. We always start by sliding it to the right. We then check to see if it is a word if it is you are done. If it does not make a word, slide the letter and everything next to it to the left.


VCCV Rule - When a word follows this pattern where the consonants are kind of stuffed inside the vowels, we break the vowels apart to emphasize each syllable with the vowel. Then you count the consonants that found inside your vowels. Locate the syllable portion of those middle consonants and push them to their own side. From there you just count them up. There are a few times this rule does not work such as with a few L blends. You should always keep diagraphs intact.


VCCCV Rule - When we run into a word that has three consonants stuck between a pair of vowels, this involves a subtle shift of the consonants. The first consonant shifts to the left and the terminating two consonants shifts to the right. You cannot apply this to digraphs or sounds that are locked in place.