A dyslexia dictation that explains why you go wrong.
An ordinary dictation gives a grade and stops there. This one listens to how the word was written : it sorts each error into its family — b/p confusion, a forgotten silent letter, an accent, an agreement, a homophone — and from that infers where the writing stands and what to work on next. It is a spelling dictation in French.
Free · no sign-up · read aloud · 100 % offline, nothing leaves your device
Listen, write, understand
The dictation happens in three steps, and it's the third that changes everything : instead of a score, you get an explanation for each error and a direction to work in.
How it works
1. You listen
The sentence is read aloud in French. The speed is adjustable : slow it down as much as you need, and have it read again without limit.
2. You write
You type what you hear, at your own pace. No timer, no pressure. A more readable font and colored syllables are one click away.
3. You understand
Every slip is named — not just struck through in red. You see the family of the error, what it says, and the family to work on first.
What it spots — and can name
Two errors that look alike don't share the same cause. Writing « bapa » for « papa » isn't the same difficulty as writing « les enfant joue » : the first is phonological, the second grammatical. The dictation tells them apart (examples in French — the language it dictates) :
« bapa » → papa · « peti » → petit · « eleve » → élève
« lavion » → l'avion · « burit » → bruit
« Les enfant joue » → les enfants jouent · « son partis » → sont
- Voiced / voiceless — b↔p, d↔t, f↔v : the sounds are almost the same, the ear hesitates.
- Inversion — letters out of order (« burit » for « bruit »).
- Silent letter — the ending you don't hear (petit, grand).
- Accent — é, è, ê forgotten or misplaced.
- Addition / omission — a letter too many, a letter missing.
- Word segmentation — « lavion », « jai » : the boundary between words.
- Homophones — a/à, son/sont, ou/où, et/est : same sound, different meaning.
- Agreement — noun plural, subject-verb agreement, gender.
- Capital letter — the start of a sentence.
The writing stage : knowing where you stand
Errors aren't a shapeless heap : their distribution tells the story of an acquisition stage. The dictation places the writing on four stages, grounded in research on written-language acquisition :
- Phonological — the sound isn't stable yet (voiced/voiceless confusions, inversions).
- Alphabetic — the sound is right, the spelling wavers (accents, silent letters).
- Lexical — the word is nearly right ; it's its spelling image that's missing.
- Morphosyntactic — the latest stage : agreements and grammatical homophones.
That's the point of the approach : you don't work on agreements with someone still tripping over b/p. The stage tells you where to start — and the dictation offers to replay the most fragile family first.
Who is it for ?
People with dyslexia
Children and adults alike : practice without being judged, and finally understand what your errors are made of.
Speech therapists
A breakdown by error family and a writing stage — enough to make a profile objective and target remediation.
Families & teachers
Gentle practice at home or in class : free, private, no ad screens.
Frequently asked questions
Is the dictation really free ?
Yes, entirely, and ad-free. No account to create, no paid version, no limit on the number of dictations.
Are the sentences read aloud ?
Yes : each sentence is read in French by the browser's speech synthesis, with an adjustable speed, and you can have it read again as many times as needed.
Do you have to sign up ? Where does the data go ?
No sign-up. Everything is computed on your device : what you write never leaves the browser and is sent to no server.
Does it work without internet ?
Yes. Once the page is loaded, everything works offline — and the whole application fits in a single HTML file to download, which opens with a double-click, no installation and no administrator rights.
How is it different from a classic dictation ?
A classic dictation counts errors. This one classifies them, infers a stage, and suggests what to work on again. The goal isn't the grade, it's the direction.
What it's built on
- Research-grounded — built on Lexique 4 (French lexical database ; New, Pallier et al., 2026) and on written-language acquisition stages.
- The same engine as the corrector — the dictation and the dyslexia corrector share the same cognition of the language : sounds, spelling, context.
- Measured, not hacked together — the rules are tested on real corpus, and ideas that don't hold are rejected and documented : the research page →
- Private by design — everything runs on your device, no data is sent.
Are you a speech therapist ?
The tool is ready, but it lacks the essential : real field feedback. If you support people with dyslexia and would try this dictation, your view is worth more than any metric. A printable trial sheet already exists.