Long and Short Syllables

Level 6

Long by nature, long by position, or short.

How It Works

Word	Syllables	Why
arma	long, short	ar: a short vowel followed by r and m
cano	short, long	the o is a long vowel
Troiae	long, long	the last syllable holds the diphthong ae, and the i counts double, so the first syllable is long by position
saxum	long, short	x counts as two consonants
aqua	short, short	qu counts as one consonant

The letter h counts as nothing. A short vowel before a mute and a liquid, such as the tr of patris, may be treated as short or long.

The last syllable of a line may be either, whatever its natural length. Lessons show no bars over vowels, so look up long vowels in a dictionary.

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris.
I sing of arms and the man who first came from the shores of Troy.
The ar of arma is long by position, the o of cano is a long vowel, and Troiae is long and long.
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
I hate and I love. Why I do it, you may ask.
The d of id and the f of faciam stand together across the word break, so id is long by position.
Errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum.
They wandered, driven by the fates, around all the seas.
Err is long by position because of the double r, and the ra after it is a long vowel.
Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!
It was such a huge task to found the Roman people!
The ae of tantae is a diphthong, and the tan of tantae is long by position.

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Long and Short SyllablesLevel 6

Scansion marks each syllable long or short by the same rule that places the stress, so word stress comes first.

Patterns that build on this one.

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