How many vowel sounds are there in English?

This is a bit of a tricky question! It depends on how you define "vowel sound". Here are a few ways to look at it:

1. Based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA):

* There are 20 vowel sounds in standard American English, represented by different symbols in the IPA.

2. Based on traditional vowel classifications:

* There are 5 "short" vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 5 "long" vowels (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). This makes a total of 10 vowels.

* However, this doesn't account for the many diphthongs (combinations of vowel sounds) that exist in English, such as "oi" in "boy" or "au" in "house".

3. Based on how vowels are pronounced:

* It's difficult to say definitively how many "vowel sounds" there are based on pronunciation alone. This is because the pronunciation of vowels can vary depending on the surrounding consonants and the speaker's regional dialect.

In short, there's no single, universally agreed-upon answer to this question. The most accurate answer is likely 20, based on the IPA, but it's important to remember that the actual number of vowel sounds in English is complex and can vary depending on how you define them.