Pronunciation App · Speech Analyzer
Read it aloud. See which sound drifted.
A score tells you how close you came. The Speech Analyzer in IPAtics also writes down what you actually said, in IPA, next to what you meant to say, and shows you the one sound that needs work.
Desktop app for macOS & Windows. The analysis runs on your computer.
One score tells you that. IPA tells you what.
Say think with an s and a score-only app tells you the word was not quite right. The Speech Analyzer tells you which sound it was, what it heard instead and what to do with your tongue. This is how that result reads:
- Target
- /ˈθɪŋk/
- You said
- /sɪŋk/
- /θ/ needs work
- /ɪ/ correct
- /ŋ/ correct
- /k/ correct
You said /s/ instead of /θ/
- Sound
- Voiceless dental fricative.
- Tongue
- Tongue tip lightly between teeth to create controlled friction.
- Lips
- Neutral, not rounded.
- Jaw
- Keep jaw slightly open and stable.
- Voice
- Keep vocal cords off; airflow should be unvoiced.
How an analysis works
Four steps, a few seconds each. Nothing to set up per word.
- 1
Choose what to say
Type a word or sentence, or pick one of your saved words, and choose its language. IPAtics transcribes the target the same way the overlay does.
- 2
Read it aloud
Press record and say it, up to 15 seconds per take. You can listen to a text-to-speech model of the target first.
- 3
The analyzer writes down what it heard
A phoneme-recognition model running on your computer turns your recording into IPA. It listens to the sounds themselves, not just the words, so a vowel that drifted shows up even when the word was recognisable.
- 4
Every sound gets a verdict
Your IPA is lined up with the target’s, sound by sound. Each target sound is marked correct, needs work or uncertain, and a sound you added or left out is marked too.
Why this works better than speech-to-text: a word recognizer hears ship even when you said it with the vowel of sheep, because ship is the likelier word. A phoneme recognizer has no word to fall back on, so it writes down the vowel you produced. Our guide to turning audio into IPA explains the difference, and how IPAtics transcribes covers where the target IPA comes from.
Five ways to practise
Every mode runs the same analysis. They differ in what you are asked to say.
Open Practice
Any word or sentence you type. The quickest way to check a word you just looked up.
Saved
The words and phrases you saved from the overlay, so practice follows what you actually read.
Minimal Pairs
One contrast at a time, such as ship and sheep. Listen to both words, say which one you heard, then say them yourself.
Trouble Sounds
Drills built from the sounds you miss again and again, so practice goes where your mistakes are.
Mastery
Your progress per sound, from not started through emerging, practicing and stable to mastered, with practice suggested from it.
New to contrasts? Start with the English minimal pairs learners confuse most, then pair the analyzer with the shadowing technique.
What it is, and what it is not
It checks a text you chose. Knowing the target is what lets it say which sound drifted, so it is a practice tool for words and sentences, not a transcriber for conversations or recordings of other people.
It compares you with a dictionary pronunciation. The target is the standard pronunciation of the variety you pick, such as US or UK English, so a regional accent that is perfectly understood can still show differences. Read them as differences from that target, not as errors.
It says when it is unsure. A sound it cannot judge is marked uncertain rather than wrong, and a recording that is too noisy or too quiet is sent back for another take.
It runs on your computer. The Speech Analyzer is a one-time download inside the desktop app, and it needs Python installed. After that, every analysis happens locally.
Try it free
Free accounts get a 3-day trial that starts with your first analysis, with up to 10 analyses a day. Premium has no daily limit and works in all 14 languages, like the trial.
The rest of IPAtics, from the select-and-press overlay to Anki cards, is on the features page.
Frequently asked questions
Find the sound, not just the score
Free for macOS and Windows, with a 3-day Speech Analyzer trial.