Syllable Pattern Checker
A haiku is 5-7-5 and a tanka adds 7-7, and the tedious part is counting. This counts the syllables in each line and shows them against what the form wants, line by line, so an over-long second line is visible rather than the whole thing simply being wrong. The counter is a heuristic and honest about it — it will disagree with you on \u201cfire\u201d and \u201cpoem\u201d, as every automatic counter does.
What this generator does
Counts syllables per word by finding vowel runs, with the usual English corrections for silent endings, then totals each line and compares it against the pattern the form requires.
How to use this tool
- Choose the form you are writing.
- Type or paste your lines, one per line.
- Read the count beside each line against what the form wants.
- Adjust the lines that are over or under.
Understanding the controls
- Form
- Haiku, tanka, cinquain or lanterne — each with its own pattern, shown beside the name.
- Your lines
- One line of the poem per line of text. A missing line counts as zero rather than being skipped, so the form's shape stays visible.
Common use cases
- Checking a haiku or tanka before sharing it
- Counting syllables line by line while drafting
- Teaching syllabic forms with immediate feedback
- Comparing several short forms against the same text
- Finding which line is over rather than being told the whole is wrong
How this generator works
Each word is reduced to letters and its vowel runs are counted, with a trailing silent e removed and a leading y ignored — the standard heuristic, which handles most English words. Line totals are the sum of their words. Before display every line is recounted from its own text and every verdict is re-derived from the counts, so a stale number cannot survive an edit.
Randomness and fairness
Nothing here is random. The same text always counts the same way.
For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.
Limitations and good to know
- Syllable counting by rule is approximate: \u201cfire\u201d, \u201cpoem\u201d and \u201cevery\u201d are counted differently by different readers, and no heuristic settles them.
- English only — the vowel-run approach does not transfer to other languages.
- Proper nouns and unusual spellings are the most likely to be counted wrongly.
- Syllable count is not the whole of a haiku: the seasonal reference and the turn matter more, and no counter can check those.
Privacy and your data
Your lines stay in your browser. Nothing you write is uploaded, stored, or included in analytics — only the fact that the check ran.
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