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.
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
"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."TELEVISION"
Returns: 4
"BOOKKEEEEEEEEEEEEPER"
Returns: 3
"SLKJSGLKAKHDGHELHDGILKLHDGOLOOOOOL"
Returns: 5
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