Pronunciation practice for English learners

Say the English word. See every sound.

A learner picks a sound, taps the mic and says the word. A few seconds later they see a score for each sound, which one slipped, what it sounded like instead, and a tip for the next try.

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Pronunciation practice is part of Pro. Try Pro free for 14 days.

9,000+
Practice words
Beginning · middle · end
Sorted by position in the word
American English
Scoring reference

How it works

Pick a sound, say the word, see each sound

1. Pick a sound

TH, R, L, V, Z and the rest of the English consonants, plus blends like “st” and “str” and the R inside vowels in “car” and “bird”. Choose where it comes in the word.

2. Tap and say it

The word appears on screen. Tap the mic and say it; the round moves from easier words to harder ones.

3. See every sound

An overall score, a score for each sound, what a slipped sound sounded like instead, and a short tip. Hear the word read aloud next to your own recording, then try again.

What the result tells a learner

Which sound, not just which word

A word-level score says “think” was off. The sound-level result says the TH came out as an S, which is the part a learner can actually fix.

What it sounded like instead

When a sound slips, the result names the sound the engine heard, like /b/ for /v/. That is often the first time a learner hears the difference.

Private, repeatable practice

Learners can repeat a word as often as they like with nobody listening, which matters for students who are nervous about speaking up in class.

No score for silence

If the mic heard no speech, the learner is asked to try again instead of being given a number for nothing.

Where to start

Sounds English learners often practise

A good first target is a sound that changes meaning and comes up often: think and sink, very and berry, light and right. Each of these has a word list and practice words in the app.

TH /θ/ /ð/

think, three, this, mother

Words and tips

Uncommon across the world's languages, so learners from many backgrounds use a close neighbour such as t, d, s, z or f. In our own benchmark recordings of Mandarin-speaking children reading English, “th” coming out as another sound was one of the recurring patterns.

R /ɹ/

red, carrot, car, bird

Words and tips

R is made in very different ways across languages: tapped, trilled or made at the back of the mouth. The English r, and the r inside vowels as in car and bird, often takes longer to settle.

L and R /l/ /ɹ/

light / right, glass / grass

Words and tips

Some languages, Japanese for example, do not treat English l and r as two separate sounds, so pairs like light and right can be hard to hear apart before they are easy to say apart.

V and B /v/ /b/

very / berry, vest / best

Words and tips

Most varieties of Spanish do not distinguish b and v the way English does, so very and berry can sound the same to a learner at first.

Final sounds and clusters e.g. /sk/ /pt/

desk, helped, cats

Words and tips

Languages that end syllables in few consonants, Mandarin among them, make word-final sounds and clusters easy to drop or soften. Final-consonant deletion also showed up in our benchmark recordings.

Z and S /z/ /s/

zoo / sue, eyes / ice

Words and tips

Plenty of languages have s but no z, or do not use the voiced–voiceless difference to tell words apart at the end of a word, as English does in eyes and ice.

These are common tendencies, not predictions: learners vary with their first language and its dialect, their age, and how long and how much they have heard English. For the sounds each language uses, see ASHA's phonemic inventories across languages.

What it does not do

  • It does not score fluency, rhythm or intonation, and it does not give proficiency levels such as CEFR or IELTS bands. It scores the sounds in a word.
  • It scores against American English. British English is available through our developer API (evaluated on adult British speech only) but is not a setting in the app yet.
  • It works in English only. There is no scoring or content in other languages.
  • It is not an assessment. It can flag a sound that was fine or miss one that was not. Our measured accuracy, and its limits, are on the benchmark page; the engine is fine-tuned on children's speech, and the public recordings we measure it on are of Mandarin-speaking children aged 6 to 15 reading English.

Pronunciation practice questions

How does the pronunciation practice work?
Choose a sound and where it comes in the word, and the app builds a round of practice words from easy to harder. The learner taps the mic, says the word, and gets an overall score, a score for each sound, a note on what a slipped sound sounded like instead, and a tip. They can hear the word read aloud and play back their own recording before trying again.
Is it American or British English?
The app scores against American English. Our developer API can also score against British English, where it has been evaluated on adult British speech only; that option is not in the app yet. If a learner is aiming for a different variety of English, read a low score on a sound that differs from American English as a difference, not a mistake.
Does a low score mean the learner was hard to understand?
Not necessarily. The score says how close each sound was to the American English reference, not how easy the word was to understand. A learner can be perfectly clear and still score lower on a sound their first language makes differently. Use the scores to choose what to practise, and keep the goal on being understood.
Does it check fluency, rhythm or intonation?
No. It scores the sounds in a word or short phrase the learner was asked to say. It does not measure fluency, rhythm, intonation or conversation, and it does not give proficiency levels such as CEFR or IELTS bands.
How accurate is it?
Scores come from ArticScore, our own engine, fine-tuned on children's speech. We publish how its sound-level scores compare with expert listeners on the speechocean762 recordings, which are Mandarin-speaking children reading English, including where it falls short. It is practice feedback, not an assessment, and it will sometimes flag a sound that was fine or miss one that was not.
What happens to the recordings?
Audio is sent for scoring and then discarded. A recording is only kept when a parent or guardian explicitly opts in, and it can be deleted at any time.
What does it cost?
Pronunciation practice is part of Pro, which you can try free for 14 days. Games marked Free stay free to play with a free account.

More on how scoring works for every learner, not only English learners: pronunciation scoring. Looking for games? See games for kids learning English.

Hear the difference, then fix it

Pick one sound and ten words. Pronunciation practice is part of Pro, and you can try Pro free for 14 days.

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