diff --git a/src/client/components/CustomForms.tsx b/src/client/components/CustomForms.tsx
index 66a3e10..495b679 100644
--- a/src/client/components/CustomForms.tsx
+++ b/src/client/components/CustomForms.tsx
@@ -69,11 +69,39 @@ export function strandedNotice(count: number): string | null {
   } you've already recorded.`;
 }
 
-/** How often a rule comes round, in the words the form offered. */
+/** Whether a number opens on a vowel sound when read aloud. */
+function takesAn(n: number): boolean {
+  // Eight, eleven and eighteen, plus every number in the eighties — which is
+  // still inside the 365 ceiling `interval` is capped at, so nothing larger
+  // needs considering.
+  return n === 8 || n === 11 || n === 18 || (n >= 80 && n <= 89);
+}
+
+/**
+ * How often a rule comes round, in the words the form offered.
+ *
+ * "Cycle" rather than "every N days", because this sits directly beneath a
+ * start and an end — a duration — and a reader who has just been thinking in
+ * durations reads "every 26 days" as another one. Naming the shape of the
+ * repetition is what separates the two, and "cycle" is the word this genre
+ * already uses for it.
+ *
+ * A cycle of one unit is named rather than numbered: nobody says "a 1-week
+ * cycle". A longer one takes the singular unit, because a hyphenated
+ * "26-day" is an adjective, not a count.
+ */
 export function cadenceLabel(repeat: Repeat | null): string | null {
   if (repeat === null) return null;
-  if (repeat.interval === 1) return `every ${repeat.unit.replace(/s$/, "")}`;
-  return `every ${repeat.interval} ${repeat.unit}`;
+  if (repeat.interval === 1) {
+    const named: Record<RepeatUnit, string> = {
+      days: "daily",
+      weeks: "weekly",
+      months: "monthly",
+    };
+    return `on a ${named[repeat.unit]} cycle`;
+  }
+  const article = takesAn(repeat.interval) ? "an" : "a";
+  return `on ${article} ${repeat.interval}-${repeat.unit.replace(/s$/, "")} cycle`;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -617,7 +645,7 @@ export function EventForm({
       {repeatMode === "forever" && !measuring && (
         <div className="mt-2 grid grid-cols-2 gap-2">
           <label className={labelClass()}>
-            Every
+            Cycle length
             <input
               type="number"
               min={1}
@@ -678,7 +706,7 @@ export function EventForm({
               seeing that spelled out is how they catch a wrong number. */}
           <p className="mt-1.5 text-xs leading-relaxed text-faint">
             after it ends
-            {repeat !== null ? ` · ${cadenceLabel(repeat)} in all` : ""}
+            {repeat !== null ? ` · ${cadenceLabel(repeat)}` : ""}
           </p>
         </>
       )}
diff --git a/test/custom-ui.test.tsx b/test/custom-ui.test.tsx
index c797da0..c168676 100644
--- a/test/custom-ui.test.tsx
+++ b/test/custom-ui.test.tsx
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ describe("stating a repeat", () => {
         onCancel={() => {}}
       />,
     );
-    expect(html).toContain("every 8 days");
+    expect(html).toContain("on an 8-day cycle");
     expect(html).toContain("from your dates");
     expect(html).not.toContain("Wait");
   });
@@ -433,7 +433,7 @@ describe("stating a repeat", () => {
     expect(html).toContain("after it ends");
     // A week's gap after a week's window is a fortnightly rule; both readings
     // are shown so the reader can check the one against the other.
-    expect(html).toContain("every 2 weeks");
+    expect(html).toContain("on a 2-week cycle");
   });
 
   test("with no end date there is nothing to measure, so it asks", () => {
@@ -446,7 +446,7 @@ describe("stating a repeat", () => {
         onCancel={() => {}}
       />,
     );
-    expect(html).toContain("Every");
+    expect(html).toContain("Cycle length");
   });
 
   test("a delay needs an end date to be measured from", () => {
@@ -564,12 +564,33 @@ describe("the sheet says how often", () => {
       at: AT,
       updatedAt: AT,
     });
-    expect(cadenceLabel(rule.repeat)).toBe("every 2 weeks");
+    expect(cadenceLabel(rule.repeat)).toBe("on a 2-week cycle");
   });
 
-  test("an interval of one drops the number and the plural", () => {
-    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "weeks", interval: 1, until: null })).toBe("every week");
-    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "months", interval: 1, until: null })).toBe("every month");
+  test("a cycle of one unit is named, not numbered", () => {
+    // "on a 1-week cycle" is what the general form would produce and nobody
+    // says it. The adverb is the natural reading and costs one lookup.
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 1, until: null })).toBe("on a daily cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "weeks", interval: 1, until: null })).toBe("on a weekly cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "months", interval: 1, until: null })).toBe("on a monthly cycle");
+  });
+
+  test("a longer cycle takes the singular unit as an adjective", () => {
+    // "26-day", not "26-days" — the hyphenated form is adjectival.
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 26, until: null })).toBe("on a 26-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "months", interval: 3, until: null })).toBe("on a 3-month cycle");
+  });
+
+  test("the article follows how the number sounds, not how it is spelled", () => {
+    // "a 8-day cycle" is the kind of wrong that reads as sloppiness rather
+    // than as a bug. Eight, eleven and eighteen open on a vowel; so does
+    // everything in the eighties, which is still inside the 365 ceiling.
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 8, until: null })).toBe("on an 8-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 11, until: null })).toBe("on an 11-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 18, until: null })).toBe("on an 18-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 84, until: null })).toBe("on an 84-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 7, until: null })).toBe("on a 7-day cycle");
+    expect(cadenceLabel({ unit: "days", interval: 80, until: null })).toBe("on an 80-day cycle");
   });
 
   test("a non-repeating event has no cadence to show", () => {