About the Sentence Counter
Sentence length has a big effect on how easy text is to read. Many style guides suggest aiming for an average of 15 to 20 words per sentence for general audiences. Very long sentences are harder to follow, while a text made only of very short sentences can feel choppy.
This tool splits your text into sentences using the sentence-boundary rules built into your browser, which cope with question marks, exclamation marks and ellipses. It reports the number of sentences, the total words, the average sentence length and your longest and shortest sentences.
How to use it
- Paste your text.
- Click Count Sentences.
- Use the average and the longest sentence to spot places to simplify.
Example
The report is ready. Did you review the figures in section two before the meeting on Monday? Great!
Sentences 3 Words 18 Average words per sentence 6 Longest sentence 13 words Shortest sentence 1 word
When to use it
- Improving readability of articles, emails and reports.
- Checking assignments that ask for a specific number of sentences.
- Finding overly long sentences to split.
- Comparing the writing style of different texts.
Frequently asked questions
How does the tool decide where a sentence ends?
It uses your browser’s built-in, language-aware sentence rules, which look at full stops, question marks and exclamation marks together with capital letters and spacing.
Can abbreviations like “e.g.” confuse the count?
Occasionally. Abbreviations followed by a capital letter may be treated as a sentence end. For most everyday text the count is accurate.
What is a good average sentence length?
For general web content, about 15 to 20 words is easy to read. Technical or academic writing is often longer.
Is the text I enter kept private?
Yes. The Sentence Counter runs entirely in your web browser, so your text is never uploaded to or stored on our servers. Like most free websites, TextForge shows ads from Google, which may use cookies. See our Privacy Policy for details.