#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = qw( chatterbox test abode );
my @vowels = qw( a e i o u );

# check each word in @array; so why using $i instead of $word?
WORD: for my $word ( @array ) {
  my $count = 0;

  # split $word into characters
  CHARACTER: for my $character ( split //, $word ) {

    # I see no need for regex if checking each character against each vowel
    # check if character is equal a vowel
    $count++ if grep { $_ eq $character } @vowels;

    # could be inserted to make it (maybe?; depends on the words which are checked) faster
    #last CHARACTER if $count >= 3;
  }

  print "$word has at least 3 or more vowels.\n" if $count >= 3;
}