Burmese words cannot end in a consonant sound. For example, "cat" would not be a word in Burmese because it has a "t" sound at the end. However, words are written with consonants to indicate special vowel sounds that are allowed at the end of Burmese words. These consonants have a special mark on them (်) called asat. When these consonants are combined with the vowels that are already written, they are called syllable rhymes.