Here's why:
* Syllables are defined by the vowel sound, not the vowel's length. A short vowel sound doesn't inherently make a syllable different from a syllable with a long vowel sound.
* Short vowels are a characteristic of the vowel sound itself, not the syllable. For example, the word "cat" has a short vowel sound in the middle, but it's just a one-syllable word.
Instead of focusing on the vowel length, we can describe syllables by their structure:
* Open syllables: End with a vowel (e.g., "go," "me")
* Closed syllables: End with a consonant (e.g., "cat," "stop")
So, to describe a syllable with a short vowel, you would say something like:
* "The second syllable in the word 'rabbit' is a closed syllable with a short vowel sound."