Syllable division rules for simple words and parts of compound words
| vowel | intersyllabic sounds | boundary | examples | notes |
| I. Short stressed | a) single consonant | within the consonant |  le ən
rı m
| |
| b) consonant cluster | between the consonants | ek1|s2|t3|rə
wın|dəυ
rıŋ|kl
| In case of intervocalic clusters we use the distributional criterion: the combination of consonants belongs to the following syllable, if such combinations are typical of English. | |
| II. Short unstressed, long, diphthong | a) single consonant | before the consonant | melə|dı
k :|nə
leı|bl
| |
| b) consonant cluster | maximally close to the vowel | ə|dres
ık|spektıd
fα:|stə
peı|trən
|
! The so-called thriphthongs in English are disyllabic combinations, because they contain two vowel phonemes: faı|ə.
Ex. 1 (from Test your pronunciation Unit 7, disc)
How many syllables?