Paste your lyrics and see how many syllables each line has, as you type. Every line gets a count and a bar, so you can see at a glance where a verse runs long or a chorus line comes up short, and tap any word for its own count. English words are counted from a pronunciation dictionary of about 55,000 words, so tricky words like every, fire or orange come out right, and words that can be sung two ways show both counts. Stress marks show which syllables carry the beat. Spanish, Portuguese and Italian lyrics are counted from the spelling with each language's rules for diphthongs and hiatus, with an option to join vowels between words (synalepha). Words the tool has to guess are marked as estimated. It runs in your browser, needs no sign in and costs nothing.
Paste or type your lyrics into the box. Each line shows its syllable count and a bar right away, and the total for the whole song is shown at the top. Leave an empty line between sections, or put a label like [Chorus] on its own line, and each section gets its own pattern of counts.
Some words are said and sung more than one way. Fire can be one long syllable or two (fi er), every can be three syllables or two (ev ry), and hour can be one or two. The tool shows the dictionary's main count first and the other one next to it, and each line shows the range it can be sung in, so you can pick what fits the melody.
English counts come from a pronunciation dictionary. When a word is not in it, like slang, a new name or a made up word, the tool counts it from a known word plus a regular ending (dreamin' from dreaming) or from its spelling, and marks it as estimated. Check those words by saying them out loud.
English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. English uses a pronunciation dictionary. Spanish, Portuguese and Italian are spelled close to how they sound, so the tool counts from the spelling with each language's rules for vowels that join (cie lo) and vowels that split (dí a, pa ís). Other languages are not counted yet.
A filled dot is a stressed syllable, the one you lean on when you say the word, and an empty dot is unstressed. Stresses that land on the strong beats of the melody sound natural, while a stress on a weak beat can make a word sound off. For Spanish, Portuguese and Italian the stress comes from the spelling and the accent marks.
In Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, a vowel at the end of one word and a vowel at the start of the next are usually sung as one syllable (la‿alegría). Poets and songwriters in those languages count lines that way. Turn the option on to count the line as it is sung, or leave it off to count every word on its own.
When the second verse has the same number of syllables per line as the first, it fits the same melody, so the song feels tight. Use the section patterns to compare verses line by line, then trim or add words where a line runs long or short. For the end of the line, find words that fit in the Rhyme Finder, and when the song is done, run Check Lyrics for Copyright.
It is free and needs no sign in. Your lyrics are counted in your browser and are never sent to our servers. If you want a first draft to work from, Write Song Lyrics writes lyrics from a prompt.