lesson
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Imagine a tiny vowel trapped inside a room with a closed door.
When a consonant stands right behind a vowel, it locks the door and forces the vowel to make its short sound.
The Closed Door Rule
A closed syllable is a word part that has one vowel followed by one or more consonants.
Because the consonant closes the door, the vowel says its short sound like /Δ/ in cat, /Δ/ in bed, /Δ/ in pig, /Ε/ in top, or /Ε/ in sun.
πInteractive diagram
How do we use this secret door trick to spell brand-new words?
Spelling 1-Syllable Words
To spell a closed-syllable word, first say the word out loud and tap out each sound you hear.
Let's spell the word lamp: tap /l/, /Δ/, /m/, /p/.
πInteractive diagram
Since the vowel /Δ/ is closed in by m and p, we know it uses the single letter a.
What happens when a word gets bigger with two whole syllables?