How syllables are counted
English spelling makes syllables surprisingly hard to count automatically: “fire” and “hour” are one syllable for some speakers and two for others, “-ed” is silent in “walked” but not in “wanted”, and “e” at the end of a word is usually silent. Textkiln uses the open-source syllable library, which combines pronunciation rules with a list of exceptions and handles plurals and common suffixes. It agrees with dictionary syllabification for the large majority of everyday words, but it is a rule-based estimate (check names and unusual words yourself).
Checking poetry
Choose a pattern to check each line:
- Haiku: three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables (the English adaptation of the Japanese form, which actually counts on, sound units).
- Tanka: five lines of 5-7-5-7-7.
- Custom: any pattern, such as 10-10-10-10 for iambic pentameter or 8-6-8-6 for common meter. The pattern repeats if your poem is longer.
Lines that miss the target are flagged in red.
Syllables and readability
Syllables per word drive several readability formulas. Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch–Kincaid use average syllables per word; Gunning Fog and SMOG count words of three or more syllables. The 3+ syllable words figure here is the same measure those formulas use.
Worked example
Here is what the Syllable Counter returns for its built-in example. Settings used: Check lines against: Haiku 5-7-5. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond
Splash! Silence again.| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 17 |
| Words | 13 |
| Per word | 1.31 |
| 3+ syllable words | 0 |
Questions
How many syllables are in a haiku?
Seventeen in the English form: 5 in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 in the third.
Is the syllable count always exact?
It is a rule-based estimate that is right for most common words. Pronunciation varies by accent, so words like “fire”, “poem” or “every” can legitimately be counted differently.
Last reviewed · How Textkiln tools work