Speech readability checker

Grade a script for the ear

The speech readability checker scores a script you will say, using sentence length and syllable load. Paste the spoken draft. The speech readability checker reports a letter, a short note, and the counts behind them. An empty box shows a dash and asks you to paste a script. There is no button to press. The grade updates as you type.

The letter is Unprompted's note for spoken delivery, not a school grade and not a legal readability certificate. A is "Easy to say" when the reading-ease figure is at least 80. B is "Clear" from 70 up. C is "Workable" from 60. D is "Dense for speech" from 50. F is "Hard to follow aloud" below that. The speech readability checker tells you to split a long sentence on C, to break sentences and cut stacked modifiers on D, and to rewrite in spoken sentences on F.

"The cat sat on the mat. The dog ran." is 9 words and 2 sentences. The speech readability checker grades that A. It is a control, not a model toast. Short and empty is still short and empty. After you see an A, ask whether the point is specific. The note on A says exactly that.

The two formulas, and the letter

Reading ease and grade level follow Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch–Kincaid. The speech readability checker computes reading ease as 206.835 minus 1.015 times average sentence length, minus 84.6 times syllables per word. Grade level is 0.39 times average sentence length, plus 11.8 times syllables per word, minus 15.59. Average sentence length is words divided by sentences.

A sentence is a chunk split on a period, question mark, or exclamation, ignoring empty pieces. If there are words and no punctuation, the speech readability checker counts one sentence. A complex word, for the extra percentage the page can show, is a word of three or more syllables under this page's syllable counter. That counter is a heuristic. It lowercases letters, drops a trailing silent-e pattern, and counts vowel groups. It will miss some pronunciations and overcount others. Use it to find heavy lines, not to publish a syllable total as linguistics.

The speech readability checker does not use Dale-Chall, Gunning fog, or a list of "simple words." Do not cite the letter as one of those indexes. If you need a different index, use a tool that states that index. This page states these two formulas and then translates ease into the spoken letter.

What to change first

Read average sentence length before you worship the letter. A speech readability checker result of C with one 40-word sentence is a split, not a vocabulary project. Break that sentence at the breath. Paste again. If the letter moves and the meaning survives, keep the split.

If the sentences are already short and the letter is still low, the syllables are the load. Replace one abstract noun with a concrete example you can say. "Utilization of the platform" is harder in the mouth than "how people use it." The speech readability checker will not suggest the replacement. You know the example. The grade only shows that the line is heavy.

Do not chase A by deleting the only specific detail. A script of tiny sentences can grade well and say nothing. The speech readability checker warning on A is there so you do not ship a vague opener just because the math is kind. Specific names and numbers are allowed to cost a little ease.

Proper nouns and product names can look complex to the syllable counter. If the speech readability checker dings a name you must say, keep the name and shorten the sentence around it. Do not rename a person to satisfy a heuristic.

A before-and-after you can repeat

Take one paragraph you would actually speak. Paste it into the speech readability checker and note the letter and the longest sentence. Split only that sentence into two, at a real breath, without adding adjectives. Paste again. If the letter improves and you can still say the point, the edit was the right kind.

If the letter does not move, the problem was not that sentence. Look at a stack of modifiers. Cut one. The speech readability checker should be used as a diff on your draft, not as a target you negotiate with synonyms.

Then read both versions aloud. A better letter that you stumble on is a worse script. The speech readability checker has no audio. Your mouth is the second test. Time the keeper on the speech length calculator if the slot is fixed. Clarity and duration are different failures.

Limits that keep the grade honest

The speech readability checker does not understand jokes, irony, or a pause. A perfect letter can still be the wrong tone for a funeral or a launch. It does not know your audience's expertise. A room of specialists can take a term the grade dislikes. Keep the term if they need it, and keep the sentence short.

It does not check facts, claims, or courtesy. It will grade a cruel sentence A if the words are short. Do not outsource judgment to the speech readability checker.

It does not store the script. Refresh clears the box. It does not compare you with a corpus of famous speeches. Any number you have seen for a TED talk's grade is not computed here unless you paste that transcript yourself, and even then you get this page's heuristic, not their studio transcript's official score.

Other readability sites sell a general writing editor. This speech readability checker is narrower: spoken sentences, these formulas, this letter. It will not rewrite the paragraph for you.

When to ignore the letter

Ignore it when the script is a quotation you must say verbatim. Ignore it for a single technical term embedded in an otherwise spoken line. Ignore it if you are pasting bullet labels and not sentences. The speech readability checker will still produce a number, and that number is not the talk.

Use it when you wrote the draft like a document: clauses chained with "which," stacked nouns, no breath. That is the draft the speech readability checker is for. Fix the longest sentence, paste once more, then stop. A third pass that chases one more point of ease is how a specific talk becomes bland.

Pair a D or an F with the pause planner only after the sentences are speakable. A pause cannot rescue a sentence you cannot finish on one breath. Pair an A with the speech timer so the short lines still fill the slot you were given.

Change the longest sentence, then regrade

The speech readability checker uses Flesch Reading Ease and a Flesch–Kincaid grade, then maps the ease score to a letter for the ear. Eighty and above is A, easy to say. Seventy is B, clear. Sixty is C, workable. Fifty is D, dense. Below that is F. The letter is Unprompted's note, not a school certificate and not a Dale-Chall or fog index. A complex word here is a rough count of three or more syllables. The speech readability checker can miss a syllable. Treat the count as a hint, then read the sentence aloud.

"The cat sat on the mat. The dog ran." is nine words, two sentences, and an A. That sample only proves the formula moves. It does not mean your talk should sound like it. The speech readability checker will not rewrite the draft and will not upload it. Split the longest sentence first, often anything past about twenty words, and run the speech readability checker again. If the letter improves and the talk gets vaguer, you cut the wrong thing. Put the concrete noun back.

Ignore the letter when the sentence is a name, a number, or a quote you must say exactly. The speech readability checker cannot tell a required legal line from a ramble. You can. Fix the ramble. Keep the line you are not allowed to paraphrase. Run the speech readability checker once more after that split, then stop chasing the letter.