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WHAT IS A SYLLABLE?

A syllable is made up of one vowel sound. A syllable can also contain consonants, but it does not have to. For example, service has two syllables (ser-vice) because it has two vowel sounds (e, i). The final e is silent.

Some people like to think of a syllable as a beat of music. You can feel the “beat” by clapping your hands to the syllables. If you say the word service, you would clap once on ser and once on vice.

WHAT IS SYLLABLE STRESS?

Syllable stress is the emphasis we place on one syllable in a word. We create stress by making the syllable a little louder, longer, and higher-pitched. One way to feel the stress on a syllable is to take a rubber band and pull it apart when you are stressing the sound.

You know that the word service has two syllables. Which syllable is stressed? The first syllable contains the stress: SER-vice.