Why do we have these diphthongs? #syllables

Ajouté : 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]One of the big reasons that we have diphthongs like this is because we can't say the aw sound at the end of a word.

[00:00:09]Or there's spelling rules that make it so the o by itself being a short aw sound isn't quite working. So, these diphthongs to the rescue. So, I want to show you a couple little tips and tricks with these two diphthongs, aw and aw. AU can be found in the beginning and middle of a word. But do you remember why an U cannot be at the end of an English word?

[00:00:34]Because there's four letters that are kind of forbidden. We stay away from ending words in I, J, U, and V except the words you and I cuz you and I are special. If you see a word with a U, it's probably a different language. So, AU can't be at the end of an English word, so AW to the rescue. Now, AW can also be in the middle of a word or beginning of a word if it comes before an L or an N like in crawl or lawn.

[00:01:05]But let me show you a very concrete way to show your learners why we need AU and AW, especially that AW at the end of a word. We're trying to spell seesaw.

[00:01:21]Let's see what it would look like.

[00:01:23]Seesaw, two syllables. Let's put in the lines for the word seesaw. You would need s ee s aw If we are trying to spell seesaw, we would go s And my students know that's a vowel team for E, see s aw. This is the magic, you guys. Is that how you spell seesaw?

[00:01:51]Absolutely not. So, what would this syllable type be if an aw was at the end of a word.

[00:02:00]Ding. It'd be open. So, what does an open O say?

[00:02:06]O, see, so.

[00:02:09]If you show your students why we need aw, we will have so many less exceptions in our language. Only 4% or so of words that are truly English words are exceptions. There are rules for almost everything. This is one of them. We can't have an O at the end of a word saying aw. So, we have to employ a diphthong.

[00:02:35]aw, in some cases of alkyne, but aw for aw. So, show them why an O won't work.

[00:02:44]This is the magic of syllables. This is why I harp on you all the time about syllables. Teach them the syllable rule and why it doesn't work in a word. That way they know why they're using an aw instead.