If your student is starting to work on longer words, you may have heard terms like open syllable and closed syllable… and thought:

            “What are those?”

If you're an average literate adult, you probably never learned those terms- because you never needed to.  But your student does. 

Syllable types are a real game changer for striving readers. Open and closed syllables are a solid first step to reading long words.

What Is a Closed Syllable?

A closed syllable has:

• one vowel
• at least one consonant after the vowel

That consonant “closes in” the vowel.

And that tells us something important:

👉 The vowel usually makes a short sound

Examples:

cat (a = apple)

bed (e = edge)

sit (i = itchy)

hop (o = octopus)

sun (u = up)

At this point, most students don’t yet know there are even multiple vowel sounds. This is just the vowel sound they’ve learned.

We start connecting the terms "closed", "short vowel", with the apple-eddie-itchy-olive-upper vowel sounds that students are already familiar with.

We begin here because this pattern is:

• very common
• very reliable
• easy to contrast with the next syllable type

What Is an Open Syllable?

An open syllable has:

• one vowel
• and nothing after it!

The vowel is “open” at the end.

And this tells us:

👉 The vowel usually makes a long sound (it says its name)

Examples:

go 

he 

hi 

no 

so

We teach open syllables after closed syllables because they create a really clear contrast.

Closed = short sound
Open = long sound

That contrast is so helpful to students. 

A Simple Visual 

Here’s a lil' trick that helps many students:

Imagine the vowel is inside a house and wants to go for a walk.

• If there’s a consonant after the vowel, the door is closed.   The vowel can only go on a short walk.   Short walk → short sound
• If there’s nothing after the vowel, the door is open.  The vowel can go on a long walk. Long walk → long sound

Closed door → short walk → short sound
Open door → long walk → long sound

(Grab the printable closed and open door visual here.)

A Lil' Movement Trick

Try this arm movement to practice each sound with your kiddo.

• Open syllable (long sound):
  Stretch your arm straight out to the side like you’re opening a door. Say the long vowel sound at the same time.
• Closed syllable (short sound):
  Bring your arm back in toward your body like you’re closing the door. Say the short vowel sound at the same time.

If you want to level up the fun-factor:

Say the short vowel sound in a quiet, quick, sort of disappointed tone as you shut the door with your arm. Bummer, we can only walk around the living room. That's gonna be a short walk.

Sing the long vowel sound in a louder, long, Broadway-song voice with excitement as you open the door with your arm. The door is open! We can go on a long walk! What a glorious day it is!  Etc. 

A Few Common Exceptions

Of course… English has a fun personality.

A few high-frequency words don’t follow the usual pattern and just need to be taught directly:

• do, to, who, two → make the long /u/ sound at the end, instead of long /o/
• hi → the only word ending in i
• most of the time, we use y at the end (like my, by, try)

Putting it Together

When students start reading longer words, they aren’t just seeing “big words.”

They’re learning to see smaller syllables inside those words.

And many of those syllables will look like nonsense at first:

• ro in robot
• ba in basic
• ti in tiny

If a student can instantly recognize:

• open syllable → long vowel
• closed syllable → short vowel

This is a big step toward multisyllabic decoding.

Ways To Practice

Students don’t just need to understand this — they need to recognize it instantly.

Some helpful ways to practice:

1. Compare the look of syllables

• one vowel at the end → open
• vowel + consonant → closed

2. Compare the sounds

Practice vowel sounds in pairs.

got / go

my / mix

flu / flush

3. Include nonsense syllables

This is crucial. Seriously.

Students should be able to read:

pre, stu, cho

tend, dent, sen

"But Whyyyyyyy?" (your student, right on cue)

Here's why: 

pre + tend = pretend!

stu + dent = student!

cho + sen = chosen!

Because many of these “nonsense” chunks will show up inside longer real words later. We aren't just learning to read words we can already read-we're learning to read all the kinds of words we'll need to read in the future.

via GIPHY

Repetition

Understanding the concept is the first step for your student. Then, we need to get lots of reps in.

They need:

• tons of practice reading AND spelling
• progressing from sounds and words up to passages
• lots of practice applying these patterns in sentences and stories

At first, your student will need think-time to read accurately. 

It’s practice and structure that lead to fluency.

(If you need practice activities and games for students, check out the Big Word Breakthrough Membership. )

A Final Encouragement

When your student is really secure with closed syllables, it's not a far stretch to build on that with open syllables. It still requires successful repetitions (aka practice), but it's simple. That's what we're going for. Just remember:

Closed syllable → short sound (as in: apple, edge, itchy, octopus, up)
Open syllable → long sound (as in:  letter name)

When your student is easily, accurately reading open and closed syllable words in sentences and passages, and can explain them while rolling their eyes and giving you the "DUHHHH" face, you've nailed it.