Syllables are units of sound within words that contain a single vowel sound and may be preceded or followed by consonant sounds.

• A. Onsets
• B. Syllables
• C. Vowels
• D. Consonants

Answer: (B)

Syllables are units of sound centered on a single vowel sound, and they may have consonants attached before or after that vowel. This makes sense because the vowel is the core of the syllable—everything else around it can be a consonant cluster at the start (onset) or end (coda). The other terms refer to parts of a syllable rather than the whole thing: onsets are the initial consonants, vowels are the vowel sounds themselves, and consonants are the non-vowel sounds that can appear around the vowel. For example, in “banana,” each syllable has one vowel sound: ba na na, with consonants wrapping around those vowels. In short, the defining unit described is the syllable.