Dictation training for curious ears

Build listening & spelling all at once

Dictation may be the most efficient way to improve your listening, spelling, reading, and writing — all at once. Word By Word turns that idea into a playful, completely free practice loop: listen, type what you hear, check your accuracy, save your misspelt words, and turn weak spots into your next workout.

Currently supports macOS iPad EN & ES
Chapter 04

The Little Rocket

Listen carefully, then type the sentence you hear.

the rocket glowed... 92%
:)

Tap play.
Hear it again.
Win the sentence.

repeat
check
01

Listen with purpose

Sentence-level playback keeps practice focused instead of drifting into passive listening.

02

Type what you hear

The typing area turns every pass into active recall, not just recognition.

03

Turn mistakes into momentum

My Vocab keeps the words you miss, Focus turns them into targeted drills, and Create lets you make the next lesson fit your curiosity.

The reason to come back

Focus Drill turns mistakes into your next lesson.

It notices the words you keep misspelling, selects your most persistent weak spots, and weaves them into a fresh, coherent story for you to practise. Your errors stop being a score on a page and become the material for your next workout.

01Dictate normally and real mistakes accumulated automatically.
02Focus Drill turns your top weak words into a story.
03Listen, type, repeat — tricky words cleared in a fun way!
Your tricky words environment necessary opportunity
A new drill

The Unexpected Opportunity

Listen to a story that naturally uses the words you need most.

listen · type · improve

Built in from day one

Start with something worth hearing.

Word By Word includes 1,209 original listening and reading practice exercises across 13 learning tracks — from English A1 and Cambridge-style A2–C2 practice to IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, GRE, Spanish and SELE materials.

1,209built-in exercises
13learning tracks
4core skills in the loop
KET · A2 PET · B1 FCE · B2 IELTS TOEFL SAT GRE
What is inside? Sentence-level listening, dictation-friendly transcripts, short dialogues, monologues, interviews, academic talks, articles and exam-informed reading practice.
This is your starting point.Everything here is ready to practise — Create and My Import are optional ways to add your own material later.

Optional add-on · extend the level ladder

Want more practice? Generate a lesson at your level.

Create starts from the same level system as the built-in library. Give WBW a topic, and its AI shapes a fresh dictation episode to match your selected language, difficulty, vocabulary and sentence length.

  • Choose the level and language before you generate.
  • Get original, coherent listening material instead of a random text dump.
  • Save generated episodes into your own books and practise them like built-in lessons.
  • Use Create when you want more guided material inside the library’s progression.
Try Create
Your idea A short story about space travel B1 · English
Your new episode

The First Long Journey

Original text, tuned to your level and ready to listen, type and repeat.

guided · level-matched · yours

Optional add-on · bring your own text

Already have a passage? Practise it as-is.

Have an article, a class handout, a work email or a page you want to study? Paste it into My Import, save it under your own books and episodes, then listen, follow the transcript and practise it sentence by sentence.

  • Paste up to 1,000 characters per episode.
  • Edit, preview and save your own raw text.
  • Organise custom books and episode titles.
  • No level system and no AI rewriting — your text stays yours.
Try My Import

After the built-in library

Add your own material when you’re ready.

Create · optional

Guided by WBW AI

Start with a topic. WBW follows your selected level and shapes it into a new practice episode.

My Import · optional

Raw text from you

Start with text you already have. Paste it in, keep the wording exactly as it is, and practise it without AI rewriting.

Strongly recommended

Start in the app, then keep it close.

iPad

iPad: Add to Home Screen

  1. Select Open app in this page’s top bar.
  2. On the webapp page, tap Safari’s Share icon.
  3. Choose Add to Home Screen.
  4. Close Safari, then launch Word By Word from your Home Screen.
Mac

macOS: Add to Dock

  1. Select Open app in this page’s top bar.
  2. On the webapp page, click Safari’s Share icon.
  3. Choose Add to Dock.
  4. Close Safari, then launch Word By Word from your Dock.
Important: Open /app first, then save that page. Do not save this launch page — Safari must have the app open so it captures the correct icon and launch behavior.
sentence replay speed control accuracy check role-separated voices story materials offline-friendly app feel

Before you start

What to know today.

Does it work on phones or Android?

Not yet. The current product focus is macOS and iPad so the practice experience can stay stable and polished.

Do I need to install anything from an app store?

No. Open the web app in Safari, then save it to your Home Screen or Dock for the recommended experience.

What is the main learning method?

Short dictation loops: listen to a sentence, type it, check your result, and repeat the lines that need attention.

Can I practise with my own text?

Yes. Use Create for a level-matched episode generated from a topic, or My Import for raw text you want to keep exactly as written. My Import lets you create books and episodes, paste up to 1,000 characters per episode, and practise against the text you brought in.

Ready when you are

Make practice feel like opening a tiny learning studio.

Open Word By Word