Paste or type any Latin below. The page reads it aloud and, for every word, shows the syllables, which ones are heavy, where the stress falls — and the rule that put it there. Click any word in the text to hear just that word.
🔇 No usable voice on this device. The analysis below still works, but nothing can be read aloud. Installing an Italian or Spanish language pack enables audio.
Heavy syllables are shaded; the stressed one is underlined. Hover a syllable to see why it is heavy.
| Word | Syllables | Broad transcription | Why the stress falls there |
|---|
This is what makes Latin easier than every other language in this course. You never have to look a word up, and there are no accent marks to memorise:
A syllable is heavy if it contains a long vowel (marked with a macron), or a diphthong, or is closed by a consonant. Everything else is light.
a·mā·re — the penult mā has a long vowel, so it is heavy: a·MĀ·re. But do·mi·nus — the penult mi is short and open, so the stress retreats: DO·mi·nus.
Muta cum liquida. A stop followed by l or r
(br, tr, cl…) does not close the syllable —
both consonants move to the next one. So te·ne·brae has a light penult and is
stressed TE·ne·brae, not te·NE·brae.
x and z count double. They stand for two consonants
(x = /ks/), so they always close the syllable before them:
ex·er·ci·tus, giving ex·ER·ci·tus.
Also: this page trusts the macrons in your text. A word written without them may be analysed with the wrong stress, because a long vowel you did not mark looks short. The summary line counts how many long words lack macrons.
Your course teaches both, and the toggle above switches the whole analysis:
| Spelling | Classical | Ecclesiastical |
|---|---|---|
| caelum | /ˈkae̯.lʊm/ | /ˈtʃe.lum/ |
| Cicerō | /ˈkɪ.kɛ.roː/ | /ˈtʃi.tʃe.ro/ |
| gēns | /ˈɡeːns/ | /ˈdʒens/ |
| vīta | /ˈwiː.ta/ | /ˈvi.ta/ |
| nātiō | /ˈnaː.tɪ.oː/ | /ˈna.tsi.o/ |
In Classical, c and g are always hard, v
is /w/, h is pronounced, and vowel length is real — ā is
literally held longer than a. Ecclesiastical is Italianate: c and
g soften before e and i, ae flattens to
/e/, gn becomes /ɲ/, ti before a vowel
becomes /tsi/, and h falls silent — except in mihi and
nihil, where it is /k/.
No operating system ships one, so a stand-in speaks and the text is quietly respelled first. The page never changes; only what is handed to the speech engine does.
Ecclesiastical wants an Italian voice — Italian simply is the
phonology of Church Latin, so barely anything needs changing.
Classical wants a Spanish voice: it has the same five pure vowels, a hard
c, and — crucially — Spanish u before a vowel is /w/,
which is exactly what Classical v is. So vīta is respelled
uita, and quis becomes cuis because Spanish otherwise swallows
the u in qu.
The notice above tells you whether the voice you have matches the pronunciation you chose. A mismatched pairing still works, but it is a poorer approximation.