Syllables

How many syllables are in the word ἐστιν? Right. Two. How did you know?

1. You listen to me say the word
2. More importantly, you know that there must be a vowel in every syllable. Epsilon and iota are vowels, so there are two syllables.

But is it pronounced ἐσ-τιν or ἐ-στιν? The rule is that στ always stay together, so it is pronounced ἐ-στιν.

I am not going to give you a bunch of rules to learn about how to break a word into syllables. Just keep listening to how I say the words, and you will be fine.