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Polski · Every game

How Many Syllables? Polish Clapping Game

Clapping a word into syllables is the first step of reading it, and Polish words are long enough that it really helps.

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What it teaches

Breaking a word into syllables, which is how a Polish child is taught to read anything longer than three letters. It is also how they learn to move a word onto the next line, which is a real skill on paper.

The interesting words are the ones where the letters and the syllables disagree. Pszczoła has seven letters and two syllables. Autobus has three syllables, not four, because au is one. The answer shows the split, which is the part that teaches.

What to look for

Clap along out loud. This is one of the few things here that works better with a parent in the room than without one, because the clapping is the method and a child doing it silently is usually guessing.

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