Syllable Division: General Rules

Syllable Division: General Rules

• Electronic dictionaries may not always agree on word divisions.
• Review and adjust electronic word division decisions as needed.
• Avoid dividing words at the end of lines whenever possible.
• Divide words between syllables, consulting a dictionary when unsure.
• Do not divide one-syllable words, even with added suffixes like "-ed."
• Avoid separating one-letter syllables from the beginning or end of a word.
• Some dictionaries no longer mark one-letter syllables at the beginning or end for this reason.
• Use a hard hyphen for words like "e-mail" to prevent division after the "e."

Basic Rules

• Divide words only between syllables.

• Avoid dividing words with fewer than six letters

• Do NOT divide one-syllable words. - Even if they have a suffix.

• Examples include:

  • amaze, media, idea, instead of a-maze, medi-a, i-dea.

• When to divide, aim for the syllable division to be least disruptive to understanding.

Preferred Practices

• Divide words preferably at meaningful syllabus groupings, not just at the marked dictionary breaks, for better readability.
• If possible, divide longer words to make them easier to understand by splitting them where they make sense logically.
• Divide solid compound words between their elements.
• Divide hyphenated compound words at the hyphen.

Dividing Prefixes and Suffixes

• Divide words after prefixes rather than within them.
• Divide words before suffixes rather than within them for better understanding and flow.
• If a word has both a prefix and a suffix, divide at the division point that produces a more logical syllable grouping.

Handling One-Letter Syllables

• When a one-letter syllable is within a word group, divide the word after the syllable to avoid division difficulties (instead of before).

Preferred Practices: Other considerations

• When a word has two separate vowels, divide the word between them for clarity.
• Don't divide between two vowels that make up a single, short sound, unless dividing before a short vowel makes for a better readability.
• When dividing long numbers, divide them after a comma, ensuring each segment has a minimum of four to six digits.
• Maintain group integrity. Keep related words for better readability of words like month-day, page-numbers, etc.

Specific Word Division Cases

• Longer word groups: Street addresses, names of places, and persons
• When necessary, divide longer word groups between the words of that group.

Syllabification Guides

• Syllabication is based on pronunciation rather than roots or derivations.
• How pronunciation changes impacts the syllable division.

Additional Syllabication Tips

• Double consonants before a suffix: Divide after the double consonants unless it creates an extra syllable
• Double consonants within a word: Divide between the double consonants if the suffix creates an extra syllable.
• Other situations: Break between other double consonants within a word if doing so results in better readability.

More Basic Rules regarding Syllable Division

• When two consonants occur between two vowels, split the word between these consonants for better word flow.
• If a single consonant sits between two vowels, whether the first vowel is long or short is key to determining where the syllable break lands.
• Use consonant and vowel patterns to accurately place the syllable break in words ending in "-le."