[Shay Ben Moshe]

לי זה עובד:

function br2nl($string) {
	return preg_replace('/\<br(\s*)?\/?\>/i', "\n", $string);
	}

function countlines($string) {
	$string = br2nl($string);
	$string = nl2br($string);
	$string = explode("<br />",$string);
	return count($string);
	}

echo countlines("text text <br /> text \n text <br>");