For the main Learning the International Phonetic Alphabet page, click here.

IPA listening tests

These pages contain listening tests to help you to develop your skills in identifying speech sounds as represented in the main sections of the IPA chart. The links below take you to tests containing sounds from the named categories.

System requirements

If IPA symbols seem to be absent this is probably because your browser cannot access a Unicode font: see this page for advice on installing and using such fonts. If no videos appear check whether your browser supports the video element and if not, try a browser which does.

How to work the tests

• Once you have created a test by picking one of the categories below, when you press "Sound X" a video will appear towards the bottom of your page. The video has been selected at random. Each sound/video may appear more than once in the test and this is especially likely to happen where there are not many sounds to choose from. You can use the controls on the video to play and replay it. You can also go back to previous sounds in the same test.
• To find out what you just heard/saw, click . If you click another sound while the answers are shown, the answer will update to tell you about the new sound you are hearing/seeing. If you want to hide the answers again at any point, click .
• Once you have finished with a set, click to generate another random test, or click on your browser's reload button. Note that there is no way to recover an earlier test once you have clicked or clicked on your browser's reload button, so don't click until you are sure you are finished with a particular test.
• The pages have to download and play video files which may lead to a short delay while each file loads.

Tests

• consonants
  • plosives
  • nasals
  • trills, taps, flaps
  • fricatives
  • laterals, approximants
  • pulmonics
  • non-pulmonics
  • all consonants
• vowels
  • primary Cardinal Vowels
  • secondary Cardinal Vowels
  • all Cardinal Vowels
• places of articulation
  • bilabial sounds
  • alveolar sounds
  • retroflex sounds
  • palatal sounds
  • velar sounds
• consonants and vowels (all of the above)