Listening practice
Dictation
Listen to a sentence and type exactly what you hear. Play it again or more slowly as often as you like. Choose a level to practise at your own stage.
Press Listen, type the sentence you hear, and check it. You can play it again or more slowly as many times as you need before you answer. When you check, every word of the sentence comes back marked: green for the words you got, red for the ones you missed.
Why Dictation Works
Dictation is one of the oldest exercises in language teaching, and it has lasted for a reason. To write a sentence down you have to hear every word, including the small ones that disappear in fast speech, such as a, the, to and of. Then you have to spell them. Gaps in your listening show up straight away, in a way a multiple-choice question can hide.
How This English Dictation Practice Works
- Each sentence is a real example sentence written for learners at that CEFR level, from A1 to C2, and between 4 and 16 words long.
- Listen plays it at normal speed; Slower plays it at three-quarter speed without changing the voice. There is no limit on replays.
- A hint tells you how many words the sentence has.
- Capital letters and punctuation don’t count, and a word like “two-litre” is right with or without the hyphen.
- A session is 8 sentences. Your score counts the sentences you wrote perfectly.
Reading Your Result
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Perfect! | Every word is there and in the right order, with nothing extra. |
| You got 6 of 8 words | Six words of the sentence were in your answer. The two in red were missed or misspelled. |
| Extra words: 1 | You wrote a word that is not in the sentence. Listen again for where it came from. |
The marking lines your words up with the sentence, so one missing word does not make everything after it wrong.
Tips for Better Dictation
- Listen once to the whole sentence before you type anything.
- Type the words you are sure of first, then replay for the gaps.
- Use Slower for a difficult part, then listen at normal speed again so your ear gets used to real speed.
- Look at your red words. If they are mostly short words like “the” or “of”, you are hearing the content but missing the grammar words, which is very common.
- If you have a free account, missed sentences go to your Mistakes notebook in My Account, so you can come back to them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the dictation practice free?
Yes. You can practise without an account. With a free account you also earn 1 XP for each perfect sentence, and your missed sentences are saved to your Mistakes notebook.
Which level should I choose?
If you have taken the free English Level Test, the tool starts at your level. Otherwise start one level below where you think you are: dictation is harder than it looks, even at A2.
Does spelling count?
Yes. A misspelled word is marked as missed, because writing what you hear correctly is part of the exercise. Capital letters and punctuation do not count.
Can I slow the audio down?
Yes. Press Slower to hear the sentence at three-quarter speed. You can switch between normal and slow speed as often as you like.
Are the sentences read by a real person?
They are spoken by a clear computer voice, so every sentence at every level sounds the same way and is always available. Each sentence is written for learners at its CEFR level.
For listening without typing, try the Listening Quiz, or browse more lessons on the Listening page.
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