How to Use the Sentence Counter
Paste your text into the box or type straight into it. The counts change as you type, and the list under the results shows every sentence in order with its length in words. The bar beside each one is grey under 10 words, blue from 10 to 25, and yellow over 25, so a run of long sentences or a page of very short ones shows up at a glance.
A whole manuscript works too: the counts cover all of it, and the list shows the first 500 sentences. To see how many printed pages the same word count fills, use the words to pages calculator.
Where a Sentence Ends
This counter ends a sentence by the rules below, and the list shows exactly where it split yours. Another counter may split the same text differently.
- A full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis followed by a space ends a sentence. A closing quotation mark stays with it, so "Who's there?" counts as one sentence.
- If the next word starts with a lower-case letter, the sentence goes on. "Is it?" she asked. is one sentence, and so is Wait... what?
- Titles and initials don't end a sentence: Dr., Mr., Mrs., St., e.g., i.e. and single capitals such as the J. in J. Smith.
- A line break always ends a sentence. A chapter heading or a list item without a full stop counts as a sentence of its own, so paste the prose without headings if you want a count of prose alone.
Every line that has text on it counts as a paragraph. A blank line between paragraphs doesn't add one. The Per paragraph row divides one count by the other; to compare it with published fiction, see how many sentences eight bestselling novels put in a paragraph.
Average Sentence Length
The example in the box has 90 words in 8 sentences, an average of 11.3 words.
The counter calls a sentence long when it runs past 25 words, the same line the readability checker uses. It's also where GOV.UK's style guide tells its writers to split up sentences that are over 25 words long. That guidance is written for public information. In fiction, a sentence over 25 words is a reason to read it again, and some of them earn their length.
The average hides the spread. The example's sentences run from 2 words ("Who's there?") to 29 (the empty street). The Sentence Length table counts how many fall in each band; in the example, five of the eight are short.
How Words and Characters Are Counted
A word is a run of letters or digits. A contraction such as who's or a hyphenated word such as well-known counts once, and so does a number such as 3.50. Letters with accents and other alphabets count the same way, so it works for any language that separates words with spaces. Chinese and Japanese don't separate words with spaces and aren't counted correctly.
Characters counts every character, with spaces and line breaks. Without spaces drops spaces, tabs and line breaks and keeps the rest, punctuation included. Use the first for a limit that says "characters" on a store listing or an ad, unless the form says spaces aren't counted.
Sentence Counter FAQ
How many sentences are in 500 words?
At the example's 11.3 words a sentence, 500 words come to about 44 sentences; at 20 words a sentence, 25. Paste the text to get the real number.
Does a sentence fragment count as a sentence?
Yes. A fragment that ends in a full stop is one sentence, so Then nothing. counts as one.
