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In this section, there will be a discussion on how to separate polysyllabic words into syllables. This is called syllabification.
Let's take a word like banana 
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Now, we can look at the word banana in terms of consonants and vowels: CVCVCV.
The first step is to find the nuclei of the syllables in the word. There are three vowels, and since vowels are usually nuclei, there are three nuclei, and thus, three syllables.
Therefore, at this point, we have the following structure:
Now, we have to decide which consonants are onsets, and which consonants are codas.
In working with English, it is usually best to give every syllable an onset, where possible. So, if we give every syllable an onset, we have the following structure:
In the above structure, every segment is syllabified, and thus, we are done.
Let's take another word: racket 
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In terms of consonants and vowels, the word racket has the following structure: CVCVC. As stated above, the first step is to find the nuclei of the syllables in the word. In this case, there are two vowels.
Now, we can give both syllables an onset:
Now, we have a consonant that is not associated to some syllable structure. Therefore, we can associate it to the end of the final syllable:
Since this consonant is at the end of the syllable, it is considered a coda.
Now try the word flood on your own. As practice in transcribing words into IPA, which of the following transcriptions of flood would be correct? To see if you're correct, place your mouse pointer over the transcription that you think most closely matches the pronunciation of the word flood.
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If you had trouble with the transcription, you might want to review the section on the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Once you've determined what you think the syllabification of flood is, go the the next section.
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