What Is A Rhyme?

Rhyme is a connection of sound between rhyming syllables of two words. Rhyming syllables are word endings which start from stressed syllable. Examples:

• love (rhyming syllable is "love")
• feeling (rhyming syllables are "feel-ing")
• expanding (rhyming syllables are "pand-ing")
• understand (rhyming syllable is "stand")

There are three categories of rhymes:

1. masculine - a rhyme where final syllable of a word is stressed.
2. feminine - a rhyme where second last syllable of a word is stressed.
3. dactylic - a rhyme where third last syllable of a word is stressed.

Perfect Rhymes

Perfect rhyme is a rhyme where rhyming syllables of two words share the same vowel sounds and the same consonant sounds after stressed vowel and different sound before stressed vowel (see "Identities" for more details on the last point). Examples:

• day - bay
• understand - hand
• just - trust
• remember - december

Identities

Identities are same as perfect rhymes with one important difference - they have the same sound before stressed vowel. Identity does not create tension/resolution of sound and is less suitable for poetry and songs than perfect rhymes. Examples:

• fuse - confuse (identity ), fuse - shoes (perfect rhyme),
  
• love - glove (identity), love - above (perfect rhyme),
  
• lease - police (identity), lease - peace (perfect rhyme).

Soft Rhymes

There are words that have primary stress and secondary stress. Soft rhyme is a rhyme where primary stress in one word rhymes with secondary stress of another word. Examples:

• fate - separate(se-pa-rate, "se" is the primary stress, "rate" is the secondary stress)
• food - multitude (mu-ti-tude, "mu" is the primary stress, "tude" is the secondary stress)
• gloom - bedroom (bed-room, "bed" is the primary stress, "room" is the secondary stress)

Consonance Rhymes

A consonance is a consonant rhyme. Rhyming syllables have at least one different vowel sound and the same final consonant. This creates a tension (different vowel) followed by resolution (same consonant). Examples:

• glad - bed
• smart - hurt
• together - brother
• because - suppose

Assonance Rhymes

An assonance is a vowel rhyme. Rhyming syllables share the same vowel sounds and at least one different consonant. This creates a feeling of partial openness. Feminine rhymes of this type are usually stronger than masculine rhymes. Examples:

• hide - light
• man - jam
• future - rooster
• only - holy

Mixed Rhyme

A mixed rhyme is a rhyme with one different but similar sounding vowel and consonant. This type of rhyme happens only in feminine rhymes (two or more syllable rhymes). This is the loosest type of rhyme. Use it in case of absence of suitable rhymes of other types. Examples:

• remember - summer
• together - pitcher
• forever - suffer
• person - compassion