te <- structure(list(Syllable = c("[pa]", "[ta]", "[ka]", "[pa]", "[ta]",
"[ka]", "[pa]", "[ta]", "[ka]", "[pa]"), PA = c(15.9252335141423,
2.17504491982172, 5.26727958979289, 4.48590068583509, 2.1316282072803e-13,
14.1415335887116, 3.51720477328246, 0.839953301362556, 5.74712643678048,
7.01396701583887), transient_mean = c(4.43699436235785, 4.8733556527069,
5.52844792982797, 3.63255704032305, 4.99835680315547, 5.5387775503751,
3.19517346916471, 4.40360523945946, 4.14203491258186, 3.51900453101706
), transient_sd = c(0.871280094068596, 1.51392328075964, 2.65764846931951,
1.25416942799974, 1.13391173514884, 1.75904804912773, 1.54594113209317,
1.69526308849507, 1.73693971862859, 1.31626295142865)), class = c("tbl_df",
"tbl", "data.frame"), row.names = c(NA, -10L))

> te
# A tibble: 10 x 4
   Syllable       PA transient_mean transient_sd
   <chr>       <dbl>          <dbl>        <dbl>
 1 [pa]     1.59e+ 1           4.44        0.871
 2 [ta]     2.18e+ 0           4.87        1.51
 3 [ka]     5.27e+ 0           5.53        2.66
 4 [pa]     4.49e+ 0           3.63        1.25
 5 [ta]     2.13e-13           5.00        1.13
 6 [ka]     1.41e+ 1           5.54        1.76
 7 [pa]     3.52e+ 0           3.20        1.55
 8 [ta]     8.40e- 1           4.40        1.70
 9 [ka]     5.75e+ 0           4.14        1.74
10 [pa]     7.01e+ 0           3.52        1.32

> te %>%
+   spread(Syllable,PA:transient_sd)
Error: `var` must evaluate to a single number or a column name, not an integer vector
Call `rlang::last_error()` to see a backtrace