The nature of and problems with words of more than one syllable are discussed in this paper, and strategies for teaching and reading such words are suggested. It is postulated that the major problem in reading words of more than one syllable is stress and its effect on vowel pronunciation. It is also reasonable to assume that words become more difficult to read as they become longer. In words of more than one syllable there is less consistency in their spelling-to-sound correspondences. A strategy is included for the ordered introduction of two-syllable words in reading in the following six steps: (1) one-syllable words with one-syllable inflectional suffixes, (2) two-syllable compounds with first syllable primary stress, (3) two-syllable words with both syllables receiving stress and thus both vowels conforming to previously learned spelling-to-sound correspondences, (4) two-syllable words with the common endings "y" and "le", (5) two-syllable words with stress on the first syllable and an unstressed vowel in the second, and (6) steps 2, 3, and 5 with primary stress on the second syllable. (TS)