[0:04]Hi everybody. Today we're going to have a look at syllables. What is the structure of a syllable? We can see here we have an onset, nucleus, and coda. Every syllable must have a nucleus. The nucleus is sometimes called 'the peak'. Not every syllable has an onset or coda. The C here stands for consonant, and the V for vowel. The nucleus is the vowel sound in the middle of a syllable. The C here is the onset, and there could be one or more consonant sounds. And the coda is also one or more consonant sound. The onset is the sound at the beginning of the syllable. It comes before the nucleus. The onset can be one, two or three consonants. So it could be a consonant cluster. For example, the b in 'buy', here we have one consonant, or p-l-, 'pl-' in 'plan'. This is a consonant cluster. Or s-t-r- together, 'str-' in 'strong'. Also a consonant cluster. But some consonant combinations are not allowed in English. So for example, 'tl-' or 'ks-' are not allowed as onset consonant clusters.
[2:09]Most syllables have an onset. But some syllables don't have an onset. This is called empty or zero onset. Here are some examples for empty or zero onset. For example, 'eat' all, up, egg. Now these all forms words on their own, but obviously they don't have to form words, they could also just be syllables. But what you can see is they all start with a vowel sound. Now, let's have a look at the nucleus next. Every syllable requires a nucleus. The nucleus consists of only one vowel sound. If there's a second, that's another syllable. So this vowel sound in the nucleus can be a monophthong, a single vowel sound, a diphthong, a double vowel sound, or even a triphthong. And if you don't know what these are, have a look at my other videos where I explain them separately. Here are some examples, this is an example of a syllable, which is also a word, with a nucleus of only a single vowel sound, a monophthong, 'speak'. So we have 'e' in the middle. Here's an example of a diphthong, 'cake', 'a' forms the nucleus.
[4:04]And again, I give you examples that are not just syllables, but the syllables also form words. However, you need to understand that they don't always form full words, sometimes it's just a syllable. But here we have a diphthong, and then here we have an example with a triphthong. 'Our'.
[4:22]Now, there are some syllables that consists only of a nucleus, they don't have an onset and a coda. For example, 'eye' or 'air'. Again, these two examples are also full words, but they could also be just syllables forming part of a word. The nucleus vowel can be a monophthong, diphthong or triphthong or... it could also sometimes be a syllabic consonant. Now what is a syllabic consonant? Let's look at an example. Here is a word: 'button'. So this word consists of two syllables, 'but' and then 'n'. In the second syllable really is a syllabic consonant. So the main sound here is the n, a nasal, and you can see a little elevated schwa, and that indicates that this consonant is syllabic. It forms the core of the syllable. In fact, there's no other sound really, so this on its own is the syllable. And we call it a syllabic consonant. 'Button', 'n'. Just say it out loud a couple of times to yourself, 'button', 'n'.
[6:05]It is a consonant, but it definitely has the quality a bit of a vowel. It's difficult to explain. But I think when you say it, you can hear that there is almost the quality of a schwa with the n. Here's another example of a syllabic consonant in the word 'rhythm'. Again, we have two syllables here. We have 'rid' and then 'm'. And again the second syllable here, the 'm' forms a syllabic consonant. Here is one more example in the word 'bottle'. So we have 'bot' and then 'l'. 'Bottle', 'bottle'. The l is also a syllabic consonant. And the most common syllabic consonants are: l, r, m, n, and n.
[7:00]And I've given you three examples already. Maybe you can think of some more on your own. Now let's look at the coda next. The coda is the consonant after the nucleus. It can be one, two, three or four consonants.
[7:21]Here are some examples. For example, 'stop', the 'p' is the coda is just one consonant here. 'fast'. So here we have 'st', two consonants. Or in the word 'comments', so this is the plural, so we added an s here and so we have 'nts', three consonants. And so forth. A syllable with a coda is called a closed syllable or sometimes also a checked syllable. So for example, 'work', the 'k' is the coda, so this is a closed syllable. If a syllable has no coda, we call it an open syllable, or a free syllable. It's the same, open or free syllable. For example, 'try'. So those syllables, and here again, this is a full word in its own right and in a vowel sound. I hear it's a diphthong, 'i', 'try'. Here's another example: 'free'. So here we end with 'e', that's the nucleus, and so this is an open syllable. Now in English, all onset consonants are allowed as syllable codas. Apart from 'h'.
[8:57]Let's look now at some examples. So, we start with a syllable, that is also a word, that is only, that only has a nucleus, and it's the pronoun 'I'. I've given you the spelling as well as the phonemic transcript. Now here we have an example of a syllable with onset and nucleus. 'M' and 'i' together form 'my', possessive adjective. Or we could have nucleus and coda only. So 'i' with 's' forms 'ice'. Or of course we can have a full syllable. Onset, nucleus, and coda, 'm-i-s' forming the word 'mice', the plural of 'mouse'. Here is another example that kind of works in the same way. If you have a look on the left-hand side, we have the words. So we have 'ear', 'fear', 'ears', 'fears'. I've given you the transcript and the structure. So 'ear', just a nucleus, it's a diphthong. Then 'fear', we have onset and nucleus. 'Ears', nucleus and coda. And 'fears' is again the full syllable really, onset, nucleus and coda together. And I've also written down the syllable types. So remember, if we don't have a coda, in example for 'ear' and 'fear', we call it an open syllable, but if the syllable has a coda, in 'ears' and 'fears', here we have the 'z' at the end, those are closed syllables. And then some extra information, if there is no onset, for example in 'ear' where we only have a nucleus, it's zero onset, or it's called empty as well, and 'ears' of course as well. And here is another example. Again, I thought of four words that are all just one syllable long and they work in a similar way to the two examples we had earlier. So let's have a look at those. On the left-hand side, we have 'are', 'car', 'arm' and 'calm'. So the first one, 'are', look at the transcript as well, makes it clearer, just a monophthong, a long vowel sound, it's only a nucleus, it's an open syllable with zero onset or we can call it empty. And then we have 'car', so we have onset and nucleus, this is an open syllable. And then we have 'arm', just nucleus and coda, a closed syllable with zero onset. And then last but not least, 'calm'. The full syllable, onset, nucleus, coda and it's called a closed syllable. Now can you think of some more examples, and uh maybe even examples like mine where the syllables are actually words in their own right in English. And you can kind of play around, you can think of one where you start with a nucleus and think, can I add a consonant or more than one consonant sound to the start to form another word, and then to the end, and every time they form a full word in their own right, it's quite difficult to find. I mean, of course you can find many, many examples of syllables that um have these structures, but can you find some that also form full words like I did? If you do, write them in the comments below. And here are some fun facts about syllables and their structure. First of all, we say, if we say two words rhyme, that really means that nucleus and coda of the last syllable are the same. So for example, here, 'I try to buy a pie'.
[13:22]All of these words, I didn't transcribe them, but they end in 'i', they're actually open syllables, they don't have a coda, and so they rhyme, although the spelling looks very different. And one other fun fact, 'stardust' is the only word in English that has the same consonant cluster in the onset and coda.
[13:51]Although of course, it consists of two syllables. So it's not one syllable with the same onset and coda. I don't think there's any syllable where that is the case. Alright, I hope um this video has been helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the section below, and I'd be very happy to answer.
