How Spelly scores
What Spelly hears, and how to read it
Spelly does not guess the words you said. It knows the sentence you meant to say, listens for each sound in it, and tells you which ones came out differently.
#Sound by sound
Every word is broken into its sounds, written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Spelly compares each sound you made with the one the word needs and marks it.
The word “weather”
- nailed
- close
- swap
- missed
#The four scores
Every recording gets four scores from 0 to 100. Together they say what went well and what to practise next.
Accuracy
Did each sound come out right?
The share of sounds that matched the sound the word needs. It is the score that tells you which sounds to work on.
- High:
- Your sounds landed where they should.
- Low:
- Some sounds were swapped for others, often the same few again and again.
- Tip:
- Open the words marked as swaps and look at the mouth and tongue for that sound.
Completeness
Did you say everything?
How much of the sentence actually made it into the recording.
- High:
- Every word and sound was there.
- Low:
- Words or sounds were dropped, or the recording stopped early.
- Tip:
- Wait a moment after pressing record and keep going until the last word.
Fluency
How smoothly did you speak?
How steadily the sentence flowed, compared with how it is normally said.
- High:
- The sentence kept moving, with natural pauses.
- Low:
- Long gaps or stops broke the sentence up, even if the words were right.
- Tip:
- Listen to the example first, then say the sentence in one go. Use sentences of a few words, not single words.
Clarity
How clearly did you speak?
How clearly each sound stood out from the ones around it.
- High:
- Sounds were distinct and easy to tell apart.
- Low:
- Sounds blurred together, or the recording was quiet or muffled.
- Tip:
- Record in a quiet room, close to the microphone, and open your mouth a little more than feels natural.
#Good to know
- One recording is a snapshot. The trend over many recordings says more than any single score.
- The room matters. Background noise and a distant microphone lower the scores even when the pronunciation is right.
- Use sentences, not single words. A single word is too short to judge how smoothly someone speaks.
- It compares, it does not judge accents. Scores show how close each sound was to the standard pronunciation, not whether an accent is good or bad.
Questions?
Tell us what you have in mind and we will get back to you.