Statistics

Problem Statement for "SyllableCounter"

Problem Statement

In the English language, a syllable can be loosely defined as a unit of uninterrupted sound. One can usually count the number of syllables in an English word by 'sounding it out'. In general, however, it is difficult to write a program to count the number of syllables in a word.

Here, we'll use the following procedure to count syllables: Each group of vowels {'A', 'E', 'I', 'O', 'U'} appearing in the word will add one syllable to the total number of syllables in the word. A group of vowels is either separated by consonants (all letters A-Z that are not vowels) or the group appears at the beginning or end of the word. So, for example, the word "HELLO" contains 2 syllables according to the above procedure due to the vowels 'E' and 'O'. The word "FOOBAR" also contains 2 syllables, even though there are 3 vowels in the word. This is because the two 'O' vowels are considered one group of vowels. Finally, the word "TELEVISION" contains 4 syllables.

Create a class SyllableCounter containing a method countSyllables which takes a String word as input. The method should return an int corresponding to the number of syllables in word according to the above algorithm.

Definition

Class:
SyllableCounter
Method:
countSyllables
Parameters:
String
Returns:
int
Method signature:
int countSyllables(String word)
(be sure your method is public)

Constraints

  • word will contain between 3 and 50 characters inclusive.
  • word will contain only uppercase letters ('A'-'Z').
  • word will contain at least one vowel and at least one consonant.

Examples

  1. "HELLO"

    Returns: 2

  2. "VOLUME"

    Returns: 3

    Note that this returns 3 because of the vowels O, U, and E. Your method should return 3 despite the fact that in spoken English, the E at the end doesn't actually create a syllable.

  3. "TELEVISION"

    Returns: 4

  4. "BOOKKEEEEEEEEEEEEPER"

    Returns: 3

  5. "THISISASENTENCE"

    Returns: 6

  6. "SLKJSGLKAKHDGHELHDGILKLHDGOLOOOOOL"

    Returns: 5

  7. "AEIOUS"

    Returns: 1

  8. "LSKHOIEOHWLHSOGIHOIWHEOHWOCAAAAOIHOGDHOWEIOHASDOIH"

    Returns: 12

  9. "HELLOWORLD"

    Returns: 3

  10. "HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHA"

    Returns: 1

  11. "TESTARGUMENTTHISISA"

    Returns: 7

  12. "NOHIDDENMESSAGESHERE"

    Returns: 8

  13. "TRYHASONESYLLABLE"

    Returns: 5

  14. "SYLLABLE"

    Returns: 2

  15. "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY"

    Returns: 10

  16. "KWYJIBO"

    Returns: 2

  17. "ILOVETHESIMPSONSTHEYARESOOOOOOOOCOOL"

    Returns: 11

  18. "AABACADAEAFAGAHAIAJAKALAMANAPAQARASATAUAVAWAXAYAZA"

    Returns: 22

  19. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZ"

    Returns: 1

  20. "AEIOUZ"

    Returns: 1

  21. "ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

    Returns: 1

  22. "ZAEIOUOUOEUOEUOEUOEUOEUOEUEUE"

    Returns: 1

  23. "HEA"

    Returns: 1

  24. "SLKJSGLKAKHDGHELHDGILKLHDGOLOOOOOL"

    Returns: 5

  25. "ABA"

    Returns: 2

  26. "AZX"

    Returns: 1

  27. "ABAB"

    Returns: 2

  28. "ABC"

    Returns: 1

  29. "HEAUL"

    Returns: 1

  30. "AACCAEU"

    Returns: 2

  31. "AEIOUVVAEIOU"

    Returns: 2

  32. "EHH"

    Returns: 1

  33. "OBYBYBYBYBYBO"

    Returns: 2

  34. "RACNGGRNYTTRLQOASHIYGYFTXIMOADDPDIGBJTPZQGWZFGUYFL"

    Returns: 7

  35. "AAN"

    Returns: 1

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