🔤 Syllable Counter — count syllables line by line
Paste a poem, a lyric or any text. Every line gets its own syllable count, and if you pick a form - haiku, tanka, limerick, sonnet - each line is checked against it and told how far off it is. The total, the average per word and a Flesch readability score follow underneath. Counting is a vowel-group rule, not a dictionary, so an odd word can miss by one.
How each word is counted
No dictionary is consulted. Each word is stripped to plain letters and put through a vowel-group rule:
3 letters or fewer -> 1 syllable
otherwise:
drop a trailing -es, -ed or -e (not after l or a vowel)
drop a leading y
count runs of a e i o u y, max 2 letters per run
never return less than 1Quick has one run (ui) and scores 1. Wonderful has three (o, e, u) and scores 3. The two-letter cap on a run is what splits beau·ti·ful into four, and the trailing-e rule is what flattens sci·ence to one.
| Word | Counted | Actually |
|---|---|---|
| every | 3 | 2 |
| business | 3 | 2 |
| beautiful | 4 | 3 |
| science | 1 | 2 |
| rhythm | 1 | 2 |
Counting by the line: haiku, tanka, limerick, sonnet
A poem is counted a line at a time, and that is what the table above the totals does. Pick a form and each line is held against it:
| Form | Syllables per line |
|---|---|
| Haiku | 5 · 7 · 5 |
| Tanka | 5 · 7 · 5 · 7 · 7 |
| Limerick | 8–9 · 8–9 · 5–6 · 5–6 · 8–9 |
| Sonnet (iambic pentameter) | 10 on every line, fourteen lines |
A line that lands reads on target; one that does not shows its count and the
difference — 7 (+2) is two too many — and the form it wants. The
sample on the page is Bashō's frog, in the usual English rendering: 5, 7, 5. Change
"silent" to "quiet" on the first line and nothing moves; change it to "solitary" and the
line reads 7 (+2). The counter never edits your words; it only tells you
where the count is.
The readability score underneath
Flesch Reading Ease is built from the same counts:
206.835 - 1.015 × (words / sentences) - 84.6 × (syllables / word)The haiku on the page has 13 words, 2 sentences (the split is on .
! ? only, so the first two lines and "Splash!" are one) and 17
counted syllables, so 206.835 − 6.60 − 110.63 = 89.6, reported as Easy.
"Dr. Chan agreed." reads as two sentences and inflates the score. Digits are not words
here, so a passage full of figures is measured on its prose alone. The score is clamped
to 0-100, hiding the negative values dense legal writing really produces.
Frequently asked questions
How many syllables are in "beautiful"?
Three: beau-ti-ful. This counter says four, because it cannot join three vowels into one sound and reads eau as ea plus u.
What is a good Flesch Reading Ease score?
60 to 70 is plain English that most adults read comfortably, and the level most web copy aims for. Below 50 you are writing for a specialist audience; above 90 reads like a children's book.
Why is my syllable total different from my own count?
The rule works on spelling, not sound, so silent vowels, three-vowel clusters and words carrying a syllable in y alone all miss. Expect a few percent of drift across a page and a wrong answer on any single odd word.
How many syllables does a haiku have?
Seventeen, in three lines of five, seven and five. Choose Haiku above and the counter
marks each line as on target or shows how far off it is — a line reading
7 (+2) has two syllables too many.
Does it count syllables per line or for the whole text?
Both. Every line gets its own count beside it, which is what a poem or a lyric needs, and the total, the average per word and the Flesch score are worked out for the whole passage underneath.
Will it fix a line that has the wrong number of syllables?
No. It tells you which line is off and by how much, and leaves the words alone. Which syllable to cut or add is the poem's decision, not the counter's.