Why dictation works
Dictation ties several skills together: hearing sounds, splitting a stream of speech into words, recalling spelling and grammar. When you compare what you wrote with the correct version, you notice specific gaps — for example, that you don’t hear the -ed ending or mix up “their” and “there”. This “noticing the gap” is one of the most valuable moments in language learning.
How dictation works in Cabe
- Three difficulty levels — from short simple phrases to long sentences.
- Speech speed — slow the voice down while it’s hard and speed it up as you improve.
- Number of sentences — from a quick warm-up to a full session.
- A fair check — capitalisation and punctuation are ignored, while apostrophes in contractions (don’t, it’s) count.
The audio uses your device’s text-to-speech, so no microphone is needed. If an English voice isn’t available, you can download one in your phone’s settings.
How to practise
- Listen to the whole sentence without typing.
- Listen a second time and type what you understood.
- If gaps remain, listen a third time.
- After the check, read the correct version aloud.
- Add words you didn’t catch to your own word list.
Tip
Two or three sentences every day do more than 30 sentences once a week: your ear gets used to speech gradually.