Syllable Counter: Count Syllables in Words, Lines and Haiku

By Alex Johnson. Most of the people who need a syllable count are writing a poem, usually a haiku for class. So this counter works line by line, checks the pattern for you, and lets you overrule it when your accent and the rules disagree.

Counting syllables by ear is easy for one word and tedious for a poem. Counting them by computer has the opposite problem: English spelling is irregular enough that no set of rules gets every word right. “Rough,” “through” and “though” share four letters and none of their sound. The counter below handles the regular cases automatically and leaves the final say to you.

How the syllable counter works

A syllable is a beat of sound built around a vowel sound. The counter finds the vowel sounds in each word from its spelling: it counts groups of vowel letters, then applies rules for the common traps. A final silent e is dropped (“make” is one syllable). A final -ed only counts after t or d (“wanted” has two, “played” has one). A consonant followed by -le keeps its own beat (“ta-ble”). Some vowel pairs split into two sounds (“ra-di-o,” “cre-ate”), and a list of a few hundred irregular words, such as “people,” “business” and “every,” is handled by name.

To check the rules, I compared the counter with the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, a free pronunciation dictionary from Carnegie Mellon University that lists the sounds of more than 130,000 English words. On the 5,000 most common English words the two agreed 98.9% of the time. The rules were tuned on those words, so the fairer test is the next 10,000, which the counter had never been adjusted for: it agreed on 95.2%. Most disagreements are names, abbreviations and less common words.

How to count syllables by hand

1. Say the word out loud at normal speed. Spelling misleads; sound doesn’t
2. Put a hand flat under your chin. Your jaw drops once for every syllable
3. Count vowel sounds, not vowel letters. “Boat” has two vowel letters and one sound
4. Ignore a silent final e, and count -ed only when it follows t or d
5. Treat y as a vowel when it sounds like one (“happy,” “myth”) and as a consonant at the start of a word or before a vowel (“yes,” “player”)

Words with more than one correct count

Some words genuinely have two counts, because people pronounce them differently. The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary lists both versions for each of these:

For a poem, use the count that matches how you would read the line aloud. If the counter disagrees with your reading, tap the word and set your own count.

Syllables in a haiku

The 5-7-5 rule comes from Japanese, where a haiku traditionally has 17 sound units, called on, arranged five, seven and five. An on is shorter than an English syllable: “haiku” itself is two English syllables but three Japanese sound units. The Haiku Society of America’s 2004 definitions note that most haiku in English are three unrhymed lines of seventeen or fewer syllables, with the middle line longest, and cite a translator’s estimate that about twelve English syllables take as long to say as seventeen Japanese on.

For a class assignment, follow the 5-7-5 pattern your teacher asks for, and the haiku check above will confirm each line. For your own writing, many poets treat 5-7-5 as an upper limit rather than a target.

Tanka and sonnets

A tanka is the longer Japanese form: five lines in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern, 31 sound units in all, often turning from an image in the first three lines to a feeling in the last two. A Shakespearean sonnet has fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, which means five pairs of syllables, unstressed then stressed, for ten syllables a line. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” counts to exactly ten. The sonnet check flags lines that run longer or shorter, though it can’t tell you where the stresses fall.

Blank lines in the counter separate stanzas, so a sequence of haiku separated by blank lines is checked one haiku at a time.

Syllables and readability

Syllable counts also drive readability scores. The Flesch Reading Ease formula and the Flesch-Kincaid grade level both use average syllables per word: Reading Ease is 206.835, minus 1.015 times the average words per sentence, minus 84.6 times the average syllables per word, so every extra tenth of a syllable per word costs about 8.5 points. The counter shows your average syllables per word, a quick check on whether a draft leans on long words. For overall length, the word counter and reading time calculator cover words and minutes.

Frequently asked questions

How many syllables are in a haiku?

A traditional Japanese haiku has 17 sound units in a 5-7-5 pattern. In English the 5-7-5 syllable pattern is the usual school rule, but most haiku written in English have 17 or fewer syllables, and many poets write shorter lines because English syllables carry more sound than Japanese units.

How many syllables are in "every"?

Two or three. The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary lists both EV-ree and EV-er-ee. The counter uses two; tap the word to change it.

How many syllables are in "fire"?

One or two, depending on accent. The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary lists both. The counter uses one.

How many syllables are in "family"?

Two or three: FAM-lee or FAM-uh-lee. Both are standard. The counter uses three.

Does Y count as a vowel in syllables?

Usually, when it makes a vowel sound, as in "happy" or "rhythm". At the start of a word or before a vowel, as in "yes" or "player", Y works as a consonant and does not add a syllable.

How do you count syllables?

Say the word slowly and count the vowel sounds, not the vowel letters. Putting your hand under your chin helps: your jaw drops once for each syllable. "Silent" letters, such as the final e in "make", add nothing.

How accurate is the syllable counter?

In our test against the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary it agreed on 98.9% of the 5,000 most common English words and 95.2% of the next 10,000. Names, rare words and words with more than one pronunciation cause most of the misses, which is why you can tap any word to correct it.