Notes on syllables, sounds & the rules behind them
Short, careful explainers on how English words break into beats — phonology, phonics, poetry, and the counting cases that trip everyone up.
Fire has one syllable in standard dictionary counts — though your ear may hear two. A lexicographer explains the gliding diphthong, the r-colored schwa, and how to count fire in poetry and haiku.
A haiku has 17 syllables in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 — but the full story is more interesting. What Japanese actually counts, why English cheats, and how poets count without getting burned.
The schwa is the quick, unstressed ‘uh’ hiding in banana, comfortable, and chocolate — the most common vowel sound in English. What it is, why it makes long words shrink, and how it changes syllable counts.
How can rhythm, myth, and crypt have a syllable with no vowel letter? The answer is the difference between vowel letters and vowel sounds — and the quiet jobs of Y and syllabic consonants.
Does adding -ed create an extra syllable? Only after a T or D sound. The three pronunciations of the past-tense -ed and a quick test that never fails.