public class Word
{
    private String theWord; // the word converted to lowercase
     private String theWordOriginal; //the original word
    private static final String vowels = "aeiouy";

    Word(String w)
    {
        theWord = w.toLowerCase();
          theWordOriginal = w;
    }

    //-----------------------------------------------------------------
    // Things to note
    // 1. e endings ignored
    // 2. consecutive vowels count as one syllable
    // 3. words of length three or shorter count as a single syllable
    //-----------------------------------------------------------------
    public int countSyllables()
    {
        int syllables = 0;

        // check if word is of length 3
        if( theWord.length() <= 3 )
        {
            syllables = theWord.length() > 0;
            return syllables;
        }

        // prune the word to ignore 'e' at the end
        String prunedWord;
        if( theWord.endsWith("e") )
            prunedWord = theWord.substring(0, theWord.length()-2); // if last letter is an e, remove it and then do calculation
        else
            prunedWord = theWord;  // else, we just use the string as is

        /*
            Now go thru each character
            if last character is not a vowel and current one is
                increment syllable count
            save current vowel state in lastIsVowel
        */

        boolean lastIsVowel;
        for(int i = 0, len = prunedWord.length(); i < len; i++)
        {
               boolean curIsVowel = isVowel( prunedWord.charAt(i) );
            if ( curIsVowel && !lastIsVowel ) syllables++;
               lastIsVowel = curIsVowel;
        }

        if( syllables == 0 ) syllables++;

        return syllables;
    }
    public String getWord()
    {
        return theWordOriginal;
    }
    static boolean isVowel(char ch)
    {
        return vowels.indexOf(ch) >= 0;
    }
}