Syllable Counter

How to use the syllable counter

1. Type or paste your text into the box. Click Example to load a three-line haiku, or Open file to read a plain-text file (.txt, .md and similar).
2. Read the totals as you type: Syllables, Words, Per word (the average, to two decimals) and Lines (lines with text on them; empty lines are skipped).
3. If the text has two or more lines, check Syllables per line: a numbered table with each line and its count, made for haiku, verse and song lyrics.
4. Leave List every word with its syllables ticked to see each word followed by its count, so you can spot the one word that throws a line off. Untick it for long texts.

The per-line table appears for up to 200 lines and the word list for up to 400 words, so the page stays fast with a long document; the totals cover the whole text either way.

How the syllables are counted

The counter works from spelling, the way you would count by hand: it counts the groups of vowels in each word, then corrects for letters that are not pronounced and for vowel pairs that are spoken as two sounds. A list of exceptions holds common words where the rules fail, with counts that follow dictionary hyphenation.

Words such as social (2), nation (2), equal (2) and people (2) are handled by the same rules, so the vowel pair is not split where it should not be.

Edge cases: punctuation, hyphens, numbers and names

Words follow the same rule as the word counter: anything between spaces that contains a letter or digit. Abbreviations and numbers are the main reason a count differs from what you say aloud. TV is spoken as two syllables and 17 as three, so write numbers out (seventeen) and count spoken abbreviations yourself when you need an exact line count.

Some words have two accepted pronunciations. The counter gives one answer: fire, hour and our count as 1, flower and power as 2, family and different as 3. If you say fi-er in your poem, count it as 2 yourself.

Worked examples

The Example button loads this haiku:

An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond
Splash! Silence again

The totals read 17 syllables, 13 words, 1.31 per word and 3 lines.

Metered verse works the same way. These opening lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 count ten syllables each:

Temperate counts 3 here (tem·per·ate). If you read it as two syllables, the line has nine and the meter changes, which is exactly the kind of choice the word list helps you see.

Haiku and 5-7-5

A traditional Japanese haiku has seventeen sound units in three lines of 5, 7 and 5. In Japanese those units are on, which are often shorter than English syllables, so a seventeen-syllable English haiku is usually longer than a Japanese one. Many English-language poets now write haiku with fewer syllables and do not keep the strict pattern. If your class or contest asks for 5-7-5, the per-line table gives you the check in one look; if it does not, use the counts as a guide to rhythm rather than a rule.

Two habits help when a line is one syllable off:

• Swap a word for a synonym with a different count: silent (2) for still (1), quiet (2) for calm (1).
• Check words with two pronunciations first (fire, flower, every), because those are where your count and the tool’s most often differ.

When a syllable count helps

• Poetry assignments: haiku and other set forms fix the number of syllables per line, so a per-line count shows at once which line is too long or too short.
• Song lyrics: matching the syllables of a new verse to the old one keeps it singable on the same melody.
• Readability: formulas such as Flesch reading ease and Flesch-Kincaid grade use the average syllables per word. The Per word figure here is that average; the readability checker turns it into a score, and the Flesch reading ease guide explains what the score means.
• Names and slogans: short brand names, taglines and headlines are easier to say and remember, and the word list shows which word is the long one.
• Language learning: counting syllables in English words shows where the silent letters are, for example in walked and makes.

Limits of a spelling-based count

English spelling does not always show how a word is said, so any counter that works from spelling is an estimate. This one counts most everyday words correctly, and frequent problem words such as museum, react, realize, mosaic, poetic and fireplace are on the exception list. Other vowel pairs are still read as one sound when they are two: reinvent and coalition each count one short. Proper names and words borrowed from other languages are the least reliable. When a line must be exact, use the word list to check each word against a dictionary’s hyphenation, and count the line with the line counter if you also need empty lines included.

Questions