How many syllables does the word "surreal" have?

depends if you pronounce it sur-reel or sur-ree-al. first version is two sylablles second it three

Phonetically surreal has two syllables. I’ve never met anyone who pronounces any third syllable. Look at the root words, two of them: Sur and real. Adding another syllable would make it sound like cereal. See the difference? It’s in the number of Rs in the word. The double r in surreal combines the following vowels into one syllable, where the one r in cereal separates the e and a into two distinct syllables.

Two.

Depends how you say it. I speak with an Aussie accent so for me it’s two = sur-real. I’ve never heard someone say “sur-ree-al”, like Devin said, it would sound like cereal or serial.

It’s two - “sur-reel” … if it were three, it would be “cereal”.

I usually hear it as 2 syllables but I noticed that for emphasis some people pronounce it with 3 syllables with the accent on the middle as sə-REE-al.

3. The third syllable is what I call ‘swallowed’. The word ‘rhythm’ has a similar ‘swallowed’ syllable.

Three

Two - Sur-real !

Three, because I consider that the word “real” has two syllables itself. The word “reel” might be described as one syllable but it’s pretty hard to say it with one, I mean, hard on the mouth and tongue, lol.

Why do I think “real” has two syllables? Because generally we pronounce it as REE-yull, and the Y sound is the thing that breaks it into 2 syllables.

We pronounce “surreal” as suh-REE-yull. I hear all three.

very interesting. I see what you mean!

TWO