Open Closed Syllables Worksheet: Sort the Words

How this list was compiled: Our own selection of one-syllable English words under two headings. An open syllable ends in its vowel and the vowel is long (be, go, hi, and y said as long i in my and fly); a closed syllable has one vowel letter shut in by a consonant, and the vowel is short (bed, got, hit). The first twelve closed words are open words with a consonant added. Every word was checked by script on 2026-10-01 in two places: the Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary, a record of General American pronunciation (https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict), where every listed pronunciation of an open word must end in its one long vowel and every listed pronunciation of a closed word must have one short vowel followed by a consonant sound; and the word's own entry at https://en.wiktionary.org/, where the rhymes key or the pronunciation line must show the same vowel. A word for which either source lists a second vowel sound was left out (me, men, bath and moth among them), and so were the patterns that often break the rule: a vowel before r, w or y, a or o before ll, and i or o before ld, nd, st or lt. To, do and who are left out because the o does not say its name. The two definitions were read on 2026-10-01 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics (closed syllables: one vowel letter with a consonant after it, with the short sound; open syllables: a vowel at the end of the syllable, with its long sound) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllable. Spellings are American. No published word list or reading programme was copied. Licence: own work