In most cases, flawless grammar and extensive vocabulary aren’t enough for successful communication in English. We mean that many language learners neglect pronunciation, mistakenly consider it as the easiest aspect. But don’t fall into error.
In order to avoid any potential failures, obviously, you should pay much attention to pronunciation. There are many ways to make you sound like a native speaker. But the most beneficial one is an app-looking digital assistant.
The Apppearl team has reviewed the best English pronunciation apps. So it remains to become familiar with our list, install the most suitable app, and start practicing. In a few days, people will confuse you with American or British.
1. ELSA Speak – Learn English Pronunciation
Probably you wondering how good you sound from a professional point of view. To learn this, you will be able to take the app’s test. It will define your scores in such parameters as pronunciation, stress, intonation, fluency, and so on. The assessment will be so close to an expert one.
As getting familiar with your pros and cons in phonetics, the app will generate a plan to work with. You will be provided with hundreds of lessons dedicated to English sounds. To make you interested in studying, the developers made them thematical, from everyday dialogues to official meetings. With this feature, your vocabulary will stay fit, too.
By studying the lessons, you will always have an opportunity to listen to a native speaker’s speech. After you repeat a word, the app will give instant feedback showing the mistakes to work on. Also, you will see a score of how close you are to an ideal pronunciation. If you need to improve it, the app will give some recommendations on articulation completed by the video tutorial. So you will surely achieve your goals.
If you prefer studying via mini-games, the app meets your requirements too. By playing them, you can improve pronunciation, word stress, rhythm, intonation, and listening. It will let you reconcile duty and pleasure.
Apart from this, you will always be aware of your progress. The app will define your general level as well as your success in different aspects, including Pronunciation, Fluency, Word Stress, Listening, and Intonation. You can’t imagine how it motivates.
The app offers its users to purchase a subscription. A pro version includes a larger collection of lessons on more topics, customized plans of practicing, and some tracking tools. However, the app is awesome even without additional features.
2. English Sounds Pronunciation
To begin with, the app supports three modes. The first one represents the Interactive Phonemic Charts with British or American sounds (depending on your needs). You will be welcomed with the introduction video on how to work with this chart. Then, feel free to tap icons to hear the sounds.
So, you get quite a lot of practice exercises. You will be able to deal with transcriptions and audio, record yourself, read aloud, and so on. Finally, there will also be quizzes with two options to choose from.
As a bonus, the app contains some tips on pronunciation appropriate for students and even for teachers. By the way, if you are a tutor, the app will be especially priceless for you. Here you can find a workshop video on how to teach students with this chart of sounds. So you can greatly benefit from this tool.
3. Howjsay English Pronunciation
In this case, the app represents a virtual dictionary with more than 175 000 words. It must be mentioned that the words cover almost all fields – from jargon to medical and scientific. In addition, you will have access to even personal names.
Well, to find out how to pronounce a particular word, you will need just to enter it in a search. After that, you will be able to listen to the pronunciation. As you can see, the algorithm is so simple.
Besides, you will be able to view the history of the last 1000-word search. And it is a great advantage that it will be available even without an Internet connection. That sounds brilliant.
As for other distinguishing features, the app is capable of pronouncing heteronyms accurately. Thus, if you deal with a word that is pronounced differently depending on a context, you will be explained about all the options of pronunciation in detail.
4. English Pronunciation Tutor
The app will tell you about the standard position of speech organs. With the app’s guides completed by illustrations, all your questions will be settled.
Apart from sounds (consonant and vowel), you will have an opportunity to learn how to pronounce endings or combination of sounds. Moreover, the app contains educational information on putting the right stress in words and sentences.
Apart from theory, much attention is paid to the practice, too. You will have 5 exercises at your fingertips. For example, one of the tasks requires repeating the words or sentences heard. After that, you can compare your pronunciation with the standard one. Other two exercises (one of them is a quiz) aimed at pronouncing or identifying words that sound similar. The fourth one specializes in the accuracy of pronunciation. Lastly, you can try yourself in the “Speech Recognition” exercise. You will be suggested to pronounce various words for further assessment by the app. Taking all these practices into account, you will have a fair chance to improve your pronunciation and sound clearly.
5. LearnEnglish Sounds Right
The app will show you a chart of English sounds arranged in accordance with the IPA chart (depending on a mouth shape). By tapping icons, you will hear a sound pronunciation as well as three example words.
To put it shortly, it will be so good for language learners as well as for teachers who face difficulties in training phonetics. No matter which category you belong to, the fact is that you will surely benefit from this tool.
6. Say It: English Pronunciation made easy
The last but not least app available on both platforms at once is called Say It. Being numerously awarded, it will surprise you for sure.
Let’s start with a built-in sound chart. With it, you will become familiar with all English sounds, listen to them, and repeat. There is no doubt that knowing the basics is essential in most cases.
Here is more to come. The app will provide you with access to over 35 000 words to work with. You can listen to any word in two modes – usual and slow ones. Apart from voice pronunciation, the app will generate a soundwave and syllables. Then, you will be able to record yourself pronouncing this or that word and compare it with a model. This feature will let you find mistakes at once. What is more, the app supports instant sharing of these records via email.
Now let’s talk about details. First of all, the app includes both British and American English options of pronunciation. At the same time, you will always have an opportunity to switch between them.
Secondly, the app’s list of words covers up to 75% of words used in TOEFL, IELTS, and other exams. So if you are preparing for one of them, we highly recommend you to install the app to make the examiner admire your clear pronunciation.
Then, if you need a quick assessment of your skills, just choose the test option across 3 levels. Alternatively, tap shuffle to make the app offer you a random word to pronounce.
Finally, your progress will be carefully tracked by the app. Fue to this feature, you will be able to observe your success much better.
Are you grinding for an exam at the moment? If your answer in an affirmative manner, here is the list of the best IELTS preparation apps for Android & iOS.
7. Shadowing
With the Shadowing tool, you will be given some words and expressions to repeat. Your task is to reproduce them as close as it is possible. After you do this, the app will show you the score of how you succeed in this matter.
Apart from improving pronunciation, you will also develop your skills in listening, speaking, grammar, and so on. What is more, the content will comprise various themes (sport, movies, food), which will broaden your horizon and enlarge the vocabulary.
8. Shadowing – English Speaking Exercise
In this app, you will find dozens of videos with politicians’ speeches, official statements, and so on. The task will remain the same – to repeat the words and record your speech with the app’s built-in mic. After that, you will see the words on transcript colored. In case they are green, they are pronounced correctly. Red color means mistakes. So you can benefit greatly from this type of exercise.
To make the task more complicated, you can also hide a transcript. In this case, your skills in listening will be also improved.
The app offers its users to install a premium version. Thus, after purchasing a subscription, the number of videos to work with will be increased.
9. American English Pronunciation
As it is clear from its name, the app is focused on American English only. It supports three modes to make you sound like a native American.
First of all, the app will teach you how to pronounce all the English sounds. By tapping the icons with sounds, you will be able to become familiar with a detailed guide on pronunciation completed by illustration and example words.
After that, it will be high time for practicing. Try yourself in every English sound and allow the app to correct you.
Finally, Test mode is one more thing that you should explore. The app will ask you to pronounce sounds to analyze your pronunciation. After that, you will see how good you are in pronouncing this or that sound.
10. Pronuncian – English Pronounce
You will be instructed in detail on how to pronounce sounds. There will be comprehensive guides and even videos for you to understand. As for the theory, the app is excellent.
When it comes to considering practice, there won’t be any disadvantages, too. You will have an opportunity to perfect pronunciation of every sound the English language has.
Like most apps above, this one has a practicing mode. You will be asked to pronounce words grouped according to the sounds they contain. Then, the app will rate your pronunciation for each unit.
By the way, the app supports two variants of English. So you can switch between British English and American English anytime.
11. Quick Pronunciation Tool
The way the app works is so simple. To hear a word’s pronunciation, you will need just to enter this word. After that, the app will pronounce it according to your needs. By it, we mean the number of capabilities to adjust the app’s pronouncing. Thus, you will be able to choose the volume, speed, and even pitch.
Despite pronunciation, you can also have instant access to a word’s definition, translation, and even illustration. Due to this feature, the app is so appreciated by users across the world.
As for practicing, you will be able to try some exercises, but the choice of them won’t be so wide. Also, they aren’t capable of checking a user’s pronunciation. So keep that in mind.
Considering other advantages of this awesome app, we can’t help mentioning that it supports 11 languages. So it will be a nice bonus for those who also study European languages, Hindi, Russian, Japanese, and so on. Plus, two options for English are available.
Lastly, you will be able to switch between light and night modes. And there is no Internet connection required.
12. (How to) Pronounce
Again, you will need to type a word to listen to its pronunciation. Apart from this, you will be able to add the most challenging words to Favorites for further training. After that, you won’t face any difficulties in spelling them.
Then, the app’s practice mode includes working with words that are usually mispronounced by the learners. The app will tell you about sounds as well as stress and pauses required. So you will sound so clear.
One more similarity is that the app supports 17 languages. As for the English, there will be three options available – American, British, and even Australian. That’s what makes the app so wonderful.
You may also like: 10 Best apps to learn a word a day for Android & iOS
