Is “california” four or five syllables?
“california” has 4 or 5 syllables, depending on how you say it. Most dictionaries count 4. kal-ih-FORN-yuh (4) vs kal-ih-FOR-nee-uh (5).
Every pronunciation, counted
| Say it like | IPA | Syllables | Count | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| kal-uh-FAWR-nyuh | /ˌkæl.ə.ˈfɔɹ.njə/ | k ae l · ah · f ao r · n y ah | 4 | CMU dictionary |
| kal-uh-FAWR-nee-uh | /ˌkæl.ə.ˈfɔɹ.ni.ə/ | k ae l · ah · f ao r · n iy · ah | 5 | Cambridge (UK) |
Syllables are shown in ARPAbet (the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary's phoneme alphabet). Respellings put the stressed syllable in capitals.
Why the count varies
Y/w glide formation. An unstressed i or u before another vowel (mill-i-on, It-al-i-an, on-i-on) is usually pronounced as a y glide, MIL-yun, which removes a syllable; careful speech keeps it.
What the dictionaries say
- Cambridge (UK) /ˌkæl.ɪˈfɔː.ni.ə/
- Cambridge (US) /ˌkæl.əˈfɔːr.njə/
- Wiktionary /ˌkælɪˈfoɹnjə/ (GA), /ˌkælɪˈfoɹni.ə/ (GA), /ˌkæləˈfoɹnjə/ (GA), /ˌkæləˈfoɹni.ə/ (GA)
For haiku, sonnets and song lyrics
For haiku, sonnets and other syllable-counted verse, 'california' is safest as 4 syllables, the count most dictionaries give. Poets have also used it as 5 syllables; either scans if the line is read naturally, but say which you mean if the count matters (haiku judges usually accept the dictionary count).
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Pronunciations from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, checked against Cambridge Dictionary and Wiktionary transcriptions. Hyphenation from the hyph_en_US patterns.