Learn English with Harry Potter

Harry Potter is a series of eight fantasy films, released from 2001 to 2011, based on J. K. Rowling’s novels. Here you practise one official compilation of scenes from the films’ own channel one caption line at a time: hear a line, say it, record it and play your take beside the cast’s. Free, no account.

Try one line now“That's it! Devil's Snare hates sunlight.” Listen once, say it back, then play your take beside the original. Free, no account.

Hermione Granger’s Best MomentsHarry Potter · start from the beginning

Video: Hermione Granger’s Best Moments, from the Harry Potter channel · watch it on YouTube
Length: 11 min · 97 caption lines
Speed: a typical line runs at about 160 words a minute by the caption timing
Accent: British (the captions are marked British English). A label for the variety of English, not a promise about anyone’s voice.
Practice lines: 8 on this page, each with the exact times of its caption line

What is Harry Potter?

Harry Potter is a series of eight fantasy films, released from 2001 to 2011, based on J. K. Rowling’s novels. The character Hermione Granger is played by Emma Watson, who also has a page here.

Why practise with Harry Potter?

Film dialogue is short and clear, and this compilation moves through many scenes, so you meet questions, commands, spell names and quick conversation in a few minutes. The films’ official channel published it with human-written captions, so what you practise matches what is said, and there are 97 caption lines. A typical line runs at about 160 words a minute by the caption timing. The lines come from different scenes, and the captions do not say who is speaking, so listen to the clip to hear each voice.

Practice lines, with what to listen for

Each line is one caption line of the video, with its time. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record, then read the note under it before you listen.

Hermione Granger’s Best Moments · Harry Potter

0:12 What did you do to your glasses?
A question that starts with “What”. Listen for whether “did you” is said in full or joined into one sound.
0:47 Standard Book of Spells, chapter seven.
A title read out: “Standard Book of Spells, chapter seven.” Listen for which words are stressed in a title and in “chapter seven”.
1:09 That's it! Devil's Snare hates sunlight.
Two short sentences. Listen for the pause after “That’s it!” and for the stress on “hates”.
5:11 that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you.
The end of a message passed from person to person. Listen for how the “that”s are kept light and where the names are stressed.
5:34 Please don't ask me to say it again.
A request. Listen for the stress on “again”.
5:38 Well, you can tell Ronald— I'm not an owl!
Listen for the break at the dash and the stress on “not” and “owl”.
8:35 I really couldn't care less.
An idiom: “couldn’t care less”. Listen for how the contraction is said, and which word gets the stress.
9:03 Anyway, it's you we've got to worry about.
Listen for “we’ve got to” and whether it is said in full or shortened.

What to listen for

Three things to listen for in these lines. They are prompts for your ears, not claims about how anyone sounds.

Pauses: In “Well, you can tell Ronald— I’m not an owl!”, listen for the break at the dash and the breath before “I’m not an owl”.
Linking: In “Anyway, it’s you we’ve got to worry about”, listen for “we’ve got to” and “worry about”, and whether the words run together.
Stress: In “I really couldn’t care less”, listen for which word gets the most weight, and how “couldn’t” is said.

Sada compares the words it recognises in your take, and their timing, with the caption line; it does not grade accent, pitch or individual sounds. How close a take sounds is for you to judge by ear, with the two playing side by side in Compare.

How to practise with Harry Potter

Open the first line under “Practice lines” and play it two or three times before you record.
Press Record and say the line after the speaker (Repeat mode) or along with them (Shadow mode), then open Compare and play your take beside the original.
Read the note for that line, listen to the original once more with it in mind, and go again until Sada shows every word as recognised.
Move to the next line. When a few lines feel easy, say them one after another as a short passage.
Come back to the same lines on another day: Sada shows your first take against your latest, so you can hear the change.

Keep going

Sada is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Harry Potter; names identify the video only. The video plays in YouTube’s own player from its official channel, Sada keeps no copy of it, and the lines quoted are the short caption lines needed for practice.

Questions people ask

Can I practise with official clips of Harry Potter?

Yes. Sada does not copy or store the video: it plays the official upload from Harry Potter in YouTube’s own player, and the words you practise come from that upload’s captions. Sada is not affiliated with Harry Potter, and if an upload is later removed or stops being embeddable, it will stop working here too.

Will I sound like the cast?

Copying a speaker is a way to practise rhythm, stress, pauses and word choice; it will not give you their voice or accent. Sada checks which words it recognised and how your timing compares, and you judge the sound by ear.

Why one compilation, not single scenes?

A single official scene is often too short to practise: the shortest one checked has only nine caption lines. The compilation is just over ten minutes long and has human-written British English captions.

Do I need an account, and does it cost anything?

No account and no payment. Sada is free, it runs in your browser, and your recordings stay on your device.

Can I use a different video?

Yes. Paste the link of any YouTube video that has usable captions into Sada and practise it the same way; human-written captions work best.

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