How many consonants are there in the English alphabet?

Talaith, Y is a consonant that is sometimes pronounced as the vowel "e" (family), or the vowel "i" (cry).

I vote 20 as Y is counted as a vowel so is not a pure consonant.

JPhQ, when we learned the vowels in school it was "a,e,i,o,u and sometimes y" So yes, y can be either a consonant or vowel in English

Mike T, in French Y is considered as a vowel

JPhQ, That's interesting. As a teacher, I would have thought that all students would learn that there are only 5 vowels and the other letters (21) are consonants.

there are 5 vowels A E I O U still got it wrong

First time I heard of Y as a consonant...