Boundaries · prose rhythm · long-sentence review
Sentence Counter
Count sentences, then inspect the distribution behind the total: words per sentence, questions and exclamations, shortest and longest lines of thought, and every sentence above your chosen review threshold.
Private browser tool
Paste prose to inspect its sentence rhythm
Your text stays here. Counting happens in this browser tab. This utility has no text-submission endpoint, does not add text to the URL, and does not save a draft in browser storage.
Live result
sentences
Detected segments that contain at least one word.
- Words
- 0
- Words per sentence
- 0
- Median length
- 0 words
- Longest sentence
- 0 words
- Shortest sentence
- 0 words
- Questions
- 0
- Exclamations
- 0
- Paragraphs
- 0
Long-sentence check
This is an editing flag, not a grammar verdict.
No sentences above 25 words
Sentence-by-sentence view
Review length, function, and where punctuation closes each thought.
| No. | Sentence | Words | Type |
|---|
Type prose to inspect each detected sentence.
This sentence counter uses the browser’s English sentence segmenter when available, including its handling of common punctuation and abbreviations. It counts only detected segments that contain a word, then measures each one with the same stated word-boundary rule used by our Word Counter. The sentence table is the evidence: it lets you see and correct any boundary the algorithm interpreted differently from you.
Boundary method
How the sentence counter decides where one ends
A full stop is not always a sentence boundary: it can belong to an abbreviation, initial, decimal, or web address. A sentence can also end with punctuation followed by a closing quotation mark. Rather than split blindly at every dot, the tool asks the browser's Unicode-aware English segmenter to identify sentence-like spans.
Statements
A detected segment that does not close as a question or exclamation is labelled a statement. This includes an unpunctuated final fragment because writers often paste a heading, note, or unfinished last sentence.
Questions
A closing punctuation run containing a question mark is classified as a question, even when a quote or bracket follows it. That is a structural label, not an attempt to detect rhetorical meaning.
Exclamations
A segment ending in an exclamation mark is labelled an exclamation unless the same closing run also contains a question mark. Multiple marks such as !! still describe one detected sentence.
Fallback: if the browser lacks
Intl.Segmenter, a conservative local parser splits on full stops,
question marks, exclamation marks, and ellipses while protecting decimals, initials,
and a short list of common abbreviations. The primary note reports which method ran.
Interpretation
Sentence length is a signal, not a score
The average tells you the centre of the draft; the median is less distorted by one unusually long sentence. The shortest and longest values expose the range. Together, those measures show whether the prose varies its pace or stays in one narrow pattern.
No universal word count makes a sentence “good.” A careful legal qualification may need more space than an instruction. A two-word sentence can be purposeful or abrupt. The adjustable long-sentence threshold therefore creates a review list, not an error list. Start at 25 words, read every flagged sentence aloud, and change only the ones that make a reader hold too many relationships at once.
Editing workflow
Read the distribution in four passes
- Verify boundaries. Scan the sentence table first. Names, specialist abbreviations, dialogue, and intentionally unpunctuated fragments deserve a human check.
- Compare average and median. A much larger average often means a few long sentences are pulling the draft upwards.
- Inspect the range. Repeated sentences of nearly identical length can flatten rhythm, while constant one-line statements can feel staccato. Variation should support the material.
- Review function. Questions can invite a reader forward; excessive exclamations can weaken emphasis. Counts reveal a pattern but cannot judge whether the pattern suits the audience.
Limits of automated counting
What punctuation cannot tell us
Sentence segmentation is an informed text-processing decision, not a grammar parse. Dialogue can contain several quoted sentences inside a larger reporting clause. Bullet points and headings may act like sentences without ending punctuation. Poetry may use lineation instead of prose punctuation. Specialist abbreviations can be unknown to a general English segmenter. The table stays visible for precisely this reason: you can audit the units behind every summary statistic.
The word counts inside the report treat letters or numbers joined by internal apostrophes or hyphens as one word. They are English-oriented and do not perform language-specific tokenisation for scripts that normally omit spaces.
Questions, answered
Sentence counter FAQ
Does a semicolon start a new sentence?
No. A semicolon normally joins closely related clauses within one sentence, so it does not create a boundary here. The same applies to a colon and comma. Ending punctuation or a segmenter's recognised structural boundary is needed.
Are abbreviations counted as separate sentences?
The browser's English segmenter recognises many common abbreviations and usually keeps their full stops inside the surrounding sentence. No general system knows every surname, credential, product name, or field-specific abbreviation, so confirm the rows when the count must be exact.
Does an unfinished line count as a sentence?
A final detected span containing words can count even without closing punctuation. This is useful while drafting but means headings, list items, and fragments may appear as sentences. The table shows exactly what was used.
What is a good average sentence length?
There is no context-free target. Audience knowledge, genre, clause structure, terminology, and the mix of sentence lengths matter more than one average. Use the number to compare passages and identify outliers, then edit by ear and meaning.
Is my draft sent to the server?
No. Sentence segmentation and every secondary statistic run in this browser tab. The page has no text-submission endpoint, URL parameter, or draft storage.