How to tell if your English pronunciation is correct

To tell whether your English pronunciation is good enough, test three things: whether your recording sounds like a real speaker’s when you play them one after the other, whether speech recognition picks up every word, and whether a listener understands you first time. Sada does the first two free in the browser, showing which words it recognised and how your timing compares. The third needs a person, and checking each individual sound needs a teacher or a tool that grades sounds.

Try one line nowCheck yourself on one real line. Say Angela Lee Duckworth’s line after her: “The honest answer is, I don't know.” Then play your take beside hers: was every word recognised, and did you keep the h in “honest”, the w in “answer” and the k in “know” silent, as she does? Free, with no account.

Want to check your pronunciation now, with nothing to install? Sada’s free English pronunciation checker works on its own page: pick or type an English sentence, say it and see which words came across. To find which sounds need work, take the free English accent test: six sentences, one sound each, and no made-up accent score.

Check your pronunciation, step by step

Choose a short line and record it. Open the starter line (“You don't need to speak fast.” at 02:20.0) or use a line from any captioned YouTube video.
Open Compare and play your recording and the original one after the other. Do the rhythm, the stressed words and the word endings sound the same?
Read the word results. A missed word is a reason to listen to that word again in context; it is not proof that it was wrong.
For a word you doubt, listen to it in a dictionary with audio, then say it inside the sentence again.
Ask a person to listen to your recording and write down what they heard. What they could not write down is what to practise next.

Five checks, and what each one proves

Check	What it tells you	What it cannot tell you
Your take beside a real speaker	How close your rhythm, stress and word endings are, by ear.	It is only as good as your ear for the difference.
Word recognition	Whether each word of the line was recognised.	That every sound was correct. Noise or a distant microphone can miss a good word.
A dictionary with audio	The reference sound of one word.	Anything about how you said it.
A listener writing down what they heard	Whether you are understood by a real person.	Which sound caused a problem.
A teacher or a tool that grades sounds	Which individual sounds to fix.	It is usually not free. Sada does not do this.

What Sada can and cannot tell you

It can: show which words of a line were recognised, missed or added, and how your timing compares with the speaker, and let you hear both takes side by side.

It cannot: confirm that a sound is correct, give you a pronunciation score, an accent rating or an IELTS band, or say why a word was missed. A word match is a good sign, not a certificate.

Preparing for a test with a repeat task? The same check works on real sentences of the right length: PTE Repeat Sentence practice, TOEFL Listen and Repeat practice and Versant Repeat practice. Sada gives no test score.

Three real lines to check yourself on

“There's nothing wrong with a bit of silence in a talk, is there?”
Julian Treasure · 6:34 · Practise this line →
A tag question. Word feedback tells you whether every word came across; the melody of “is there?” you judge by ear.

“The honest answer is, I don't know.”
Angela Lee Duckworth · 4:27 · Practise this line →
Three silent letters in one line: H in “honest”, W in “answer”, K in “know”. Do they match the speaker?

“No one was over five foot five.”
William McRaven · 2:03 · Practise this line →
V and F side by side in “over, five, foot”. Compare the vibration of V with the plain breath of F.

What Sada does and does not do (checked 30 September 2026)

Price: free, with no account, sign-up or paid plan.
Where it runs: in a web browser on a computer or a phone; nothing to install and no extension. Recording needs microphone access.
What it plays: any YouTube video with usable captions (not every video has them), or a pasted transcript or an SRT or WebVTT file when captions cannot be read.
What it shows: which words of a line were recognised, missed or added, and how your timing compares with the speaker.
What it does not do: grade individual sounds, rate an accent, give a test score or an IELTS band, or hold a conversation.
Where your voice goes: speech recognition runs in your browser and recordings stay on your device. The first recording downloads a speech model once (about 75 MB on a phone).

Questions people ask

Can an app tell me if my English pronunciation is correct?

Some tools grade individual sounds; Sada does not. Sada shows which words it recognised and how your timing compares, and lets you hear your take beside a real speaker’s. For specific sounds, use a teacher or a tool that grades them.

What does a red or missed word mean?

The recogniser did not match that word of the line. Listen again: you may have left the word out or said it unclearly, but noise, a distant microphone or a caption mistake can also cause it.

If speech recognition understands me, is my pronunciation correct?

It is a good sign that your words are recognisable, but it is not proof that every sound is right, and it is not a test score.

How do I check one word?

Listen to it in a dictionary with audio, such as Cambridge, or search it on YouGlish to hear it in real videos. Then say it inside a sentence in Sada.

Is Sada a pronunciation test?

No. It is a practice tool, free and with no account. It gives no test score, proficiency level or accent rating.

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