And since rhyme is a vowel connection, lyricists can use Family Rhymes instead of Perfect Rhymes. Say you are looking for a rhyme for safe. Look at the consonant that comes after the vowel.

With a complex language, like English, learning to sound out words is critical but not enough for learning how to read.

Standard English vowel sounds have shifted enough that many of Shakespeare's rhymes sound false to our ears, and he played fast and loose with vowels to fit meter, rhyme or character anyway.

So, why does God Rest Ye rhyme ‘wind’ with ‘mind’? English pronunciation has gone through a lot of changes since the 16th century. Over two or three centuries, a so-called Great Vowel Shift took place ...

In other words, rhymes are the framework that helps kids understand the pieces of a word. The part of the word that's key is the "rime," the syllable that starts at the vowel and goes through the ...