Rule one: a syllable is two letters or one. Count letters, not sounds: every letter of the alphabet, the doubled letter a tashdīd stands for, the madd on Alif (Alif Madd, آ), and a hamza inside a word.

The weight law. Two letters → long (=). One letter → short (–). A long is meant to last about double a short. A syllable that may go either way is called flexible.

Rule two: begin with a consonant if you can. Every letter counts as a consonant except Alif (ا) and Alif Madd (آ), which are always vowels, and و, ی, ے when they are the second letter of a syllable. Syllables that begin with Alif (ا) or Alif Madd (آ) normally occur only at the start of a word. ع and a hamza inside a word act as consonants; a hamza is never the second letter of a syllable.

Rule three: the split follows pronunciation. Use the ordinary spoken word, not the spelling alone; when unsure, ask a native speaker or check a dictionary that marks pronunciation.

Small words like ہے and میں can go either way. Many common one-syllable words (کو، سے، کا، ہے، میں، بھی، نے، ہوں، یہ، وہ، جو، تو, and also دو، تھا، ہی، سا، سی، کے، کی، ہو، یوں) are flexible: two letters, so normally long, but the poet may scan them short. Once the meter of a line is known, each one is simply long or short there. The form is consonant + vowel or consonant + h; particles, pronouns, postpositions and verb forms are the likeliest to bend. When in doubt, treat every such one-syllable word as flexible on a first reading.

Words that do not bend. تا، گو، یا are virtually always long; so are کیا، کیوں، جیوں (one long syllable despite the cluster) and Arabic or Persian noun monosyllables such as mai, jaa, juu. In modern usage بہ، کہ، نہ are always short (Mir sometimes scans kih and nah long).

The word اور (aur). A special case that is a common source of error: it is scanned (= –) as two syllables or (=) as one.

Word endings can bend too. Inside longer words, flexibility is almost always at the end. A final two-letter syllable ending in ی, ے or ہ is nearly always flexible; one ending in و or alif often is (more in Indic verb forms than in Persian or Arabic words). Exceptions in the middle of a word are rare (koī = x x). As a rule of thumb, treat every final consonant + vowel (or consonant + h) syllable as flexible until the meter says otherwise.

Words that can split two ways. Some consonant-heavy words may be divided in two ways: barhaman (= – =) or (– = =); barkat (= =) or, in the older Arabic reading, (– – =).

Spelling that shows the scansion. Some words change their weight when their spelling changes, and are then scanned exactly as written: meraa (= x) versus miraa (– x); ek (= –) versus ik or yak (=); vahaañ (– x) versus vaañ (=). A tashdīd may also be present without being written, as in rakhaa: (– x) or (= x).