Find the words in a lyric that will trip you up at speed, and see which lines get harder the faster you go.
A line can read perfectly well on the page and fall apart at a hundred and thirty beats a minute. The cause is almost always mechanical: three consonants in a row, an r next to an l, a word that ends in a cluster and runs straight into another one that starts with one. This scans for exactly those — consonant clusters, r/l alternation, polysyllabic words packed into fast lines, and the same initial sound repeated until the tongue runs out of room — then marks them in place so you can see which words to change and which to leave alone.
Reading aloud uses your browser’s built-in speech voice if it has one. Try it at “too fast” — that is where the problems show up.
Paste a lyric and the check runs here.
What actually makes a line hard to say
Three consonants together is manageable. Four is where most people start to simplify without noticing, and they simplify by dropping one, which is how “worlds” becomes “worls” on stage. Position matters as much as count: a cluster at the start of a word you are attacking after a breath is harder than the same cluster in the middle of a legato phrase.
The second cause is alternation rather than clustering. R and L, S and SH, TH and S — the tongue has to move between two nearby positions quickly, and repeating that three times in a line is what turns a fine lyric into an obstacle course. This is also why deliberate alliteration is worth checking: three words starting with the same sound is a device, and four is a hazard.
How to use the result
- Fix only the lines flagged as hard. Most lines are fine, and rewriting clean ones to chase a score is wasted work.
- Swap the word rather than the sound. “The world goes round” trips on two r/l pairs; “the earth goes round” does the same job.
- Listen at the “too fast” setting before you decide. Words you can say comfortably at normal speed are sometimes fine, and the fast pass finds the real ones.
- Leave deliberate alliteration in if it is working. The flag is a prompt to check, not a verdict.
- Watch word endings before word starts. A word ending in “sts” followed by one starting with “th” is worse than either alone.
Questions people ask
- Does it know which sounds are actually hard for me?
No. It uses a general model of English articulation — cluster length, r/l and s/sh alternation, repeated initials. Your own accent and habits decide the rest, which is why the read-aloud pass is there.
- Why is a normal word flagged?
Because the score is mechanical. A three-consonant cluster in a slow line is not a problem, and the tool cannot hear tempo — read the line at speed before acting on a flag.
- Does it count syllables?
Yes, with the same spelling heuristic the other tools on this site use. It is right most of the time and wrong on words like “fire” and “hour”, so treat the counts as approximate.
- Can I use this for a rap verse?
Yes, and it is where the check earns its keep. Set the speed to fast and read the flagged lines out loud; that is close to the real conditions.
What this tool does not do. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and it works with the internet switched off. The scoring is a general model of English articulation, not an assessment of your voice, your accent or your particular difficulties, and it has no idea what tempo the line is sung at. A high score is a prompt to read it aloud, not a diagnosis. See the site disclaimer. Written by Nico, who builds these tools and writes about writing at WrittenTone.