How to count sentences
- Paste or type your text, or press Sample to try it.
- Read the totals: sentences, words, paragraphs, average words per sentence, longest sentence and characters.
- Set the long-sentence limit with the slider (20 words by default). Sentences over the limit are highlighted.
- Tick “Only list long sentences” to see just the ones to shorten.
What is a good sentence length?
Readers handle short sentences with ease, and long ones get harder fast. Guidance from plain-language and readability research:
| Average words per sentence | How it reads |
|---|---|
| 8 or fewer | Very easy. Good for early readers, but can feel choppy |
| 9–15 | Easy, like popular fiction and news |
| 15–20 | Standard. Good for most web pages, emails and reports |
| 21–25 | Fairly hard. Fine for academic and expert readers |
| Over 25 | Hard. Most readers need to re-read |
Averages hide long outliers, so use the highlighted list to find the sentences that need splitting.
How to shorten a long sentence
- Split at “and”, “but” and “which”. Each joined clause can often stand as a sentence of its own.
- Move side notes into their own sentence. Text in brackets or between dashes is a good candidate.
- Cut filler. “In order to” becomes “to”, and “due to the fact that” becomes “because”. The filler words finder spots these.
- Use lists. Three or more items in a row read better as bullet points.
Sentence length is half of most readability formulas, and word length is the other half. To see the effect on your grade level, run the text through the readability checker, or count long words with the syllable counter.