Manual IPA lookup, copying, and audio sourcing can turn a small pronunciation deck into a long editing project. The workflow below is a repeatable 10-minute session template. Actual card counts and editing time depend on the words, language, model output, and the review standard you apply.
The two problems with manual pronunciation decks
If you've tried building one, you know the pain:
Problem 1: IPA lookup is slow. Wiktionary first, dictionary second, Forvo for audio, copy-paste each segment into Anki. Twenty seconds per word becomes ten minutes for thirty words.
Problem 2: One-card-type decks underperform. Most learners build "Word on front, translation + IPA on back." That tests recognition. It doesn't test production, sentence usage, or sound discrimination. After a year you can read the IPA but can't say the word.
A good pronunciation deck needs at least three card types per word. Building three cards manually means another three-fold slowdown.
What changed
IPAtics generates Anki cards directly from selected text. You highlight a word in any app, press Alt+Q, and the overlay gives you the IPA. From there, one click sends six card types to your running Anki app via AnkiConnect.
Six card types per word, AI-generated, CEFR-calibrated, language-specific grammar included. Ten seconds per word. No copy-paste.
Download IPAtics free for macOS and Windows to follow along.
The six card types
Each card targets a different recall axis:
| Card type | Front (you see) | Back (you recall) | What it trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Translation in your native language | The target word, its IPA, grammar, and an example sentence | Productive recall from meaning. |
| Production | The target word + IPA | Translation, grammar, usage in context | Confirming meaning from form. |
| Sentence Cloze | A sentence with a blank | The missing word, its IPA, and grammar notes | Word usage in context. |
| IPA Reading | Raw IPA: /baɪˈʃpiːl/ | The written word, grammar, meaning | Reading phonetic notation fluently. |
| Sentence Translation | A full sentence in the target language | Its translation and grammar breakdown | Connected meaning extraction. |
| Minimal Pair | Two similar IPA forms: /ʃɪp/ vs /ʃiːp/ | The two different words, meanings, translations | Sound discrimination. |
Each card type tests a different skill. A learner who can do all six knows the word in a way a single-card-type deck can't measure.
The 10-minute session structure
Use this as a starting structure and adjust it to your material:
Minute 0-1: Pick the source text. A YouTube subtitle file, a chapter of the book I'm reading, a transcribed podcast, a news article. Volume matters less than coherence — words from one context are easier to remember together.
Minute 1-5: Select and add. For each word I want to learn:
- Highlight it in the source.
- Alt+Q to get IPA.
- Hit the Anki icon in the overlay.
- IPAtics generates all six card types and sends them to AnkiConnect.
I aim for 15-25 words per session. More than that and the cards start blurring together.
Minute 5-7: Review generated cards. Open Anki and inspect every card preview. Fix an example sentence that is too long, a translation that misses the context, or any IPA/audio mismatch. Generated study material still needs review.
Minute 7-10: First-pass review. I review the new cards immediately to lock in the initial encoding. Anki's default new-card flow handles the rest from tomorrow on.
That's it. Keep the batch small enough to review every generated card, and adjust the number of new words when the daily review queue becomes difficult to sustain.
CEFR calibration
The most important thing AI-generated cards bring is level-appropriate example sentences.
A B2 learner doesn't benefit from a sentence with one new vocabulary word surrounded by C2 grammar they can't parse. The example sentence has to be slightly above the learner's level — comprehensible with effort, not impossible.
When you set your CEFR level once in IPAtics preferences, every generated card uses that as the upper bound for sentence complexity. Cards for an A2 learner reading German will get simpler grammar than cards for a C1 learner reading the same text.
Doing this manually means writing and reviewing level-calibrated sentences yourself, which adds work as the deck grows.
Language-specific grammar that auto-fills
For each word, the generated card includes grammar relevant to the target language:
- German: article (der/die/das), plural form, separable prefix if relevant.
- French: gender, plural form, irregular feminine if relevant.
- Spanish: gender, plural, irregular verb stems.
- Russian: gender, case endings for nouns, aspect pair for verbs.
- Turkish: vowel harmony pattern, possessive forms.
- Japanese: kanji + furigana, particle usage, pitch accent.
- Korean: hanja + hangul, formality level, irregular conjugation.
If you've ever built a Korean Anki card and tried to remember whether 읽다 takes ㅂ-irregular conjugation, you know what time this saves.
What about minimal pairs specifically
The Minimal Pair card type is the one most learners skip when they build manually, because finding good minimal pairs is hard. AI generation handles this — it picks two phonetically similar words that contrast on one phoneme, then puts both IPA forms on the front.
This card type can help English speakers practice the Spanish /r/ vs /rr/ contrast: pero /ˈpe.ɾo/ vs perro /ˈpe.ro/. Showing both side by side makes the tap-versus-trill distinction the focus of each review.
When this workflow breaks
Two cases:
Rare or domain-specific words. Legal, medical, and other specialist terms need extra scrutiny because a plausible example sentence can still use the term incorrectly. Check them against a field-specific source before keeping the card.
Languages with strong dialect variation. IPA transcriptions default to the standard variety. If you're learning a regional dialect, the IPA will be the standard form, which may differ. You'll know when this matters.
For everything else — language learners, exam prep, daily reading vocabulary — the workflow works.
A worked session target
Start with 15 words from one coherent source and one or two card types. Preview every card, then add more types only when each one tests a distinct skill. Six variants for every word can create more reviews than your daily schedule can sustain.
Download IPAtics free for macOS and Windows, connect it to your running Anki app, and try one reviewed session. Teachers can adapt the same steps with the IPA classroom guide. Here is how the automatic IPA and audio cards work.
Related reading: IELTS pronunciation: the IPA sounds examiners listen for · From PDF to fluent: a faster pronunciation workflow · The Anki + IPA pronunciation workflow · Minimal pairs in English