Italian dictation B1
Practice Italian at B1 with recorded story excerpts, karaoke highlighting, and feedback.
One sentence.
A little more understanding.
Real story recordings, manageable sentences, and corrections that show you exactly what to work on. Take your time. Replay is part of the practice.
Start listeningIl Calendario Fermo al Tre Marzo
⌘ / Ctrl + Enter to check · Alt + P to replay. Accents count; capitalization and ordinary punctuation do not.
110 stories. Plenty to discover.
Choose a theme you enjoy. Story levels describe reading difficulty; sentence length and speaking speed also affect the listening challenge.
16 stories match your selection.
A simple routine for better Italian listening
Listen for the whole idea
Play once at normal speed. Catch the speaker, action, and context before trying to recover every small word.
Zoom in on the gap
Write what you can, then replay. Listen for articles, pronouns, verb endings, and double consonants. Use slower playback when it helps.
Connect sound and spelling
Check your attempt, read the correction, and say the sentence aloud with the recording. Retry later with the transcript hidden.
Accents change meaning
È means “is”; e means “and”. Sì means “yes”; si is a pronoun. Use the accent keys beside your answer.
Double consonants matter
Notice how long the consonant lasts in pairs such as pala / palla and casa / cassa. Listen again before deciding a difference is only a spelling slip.
Italian dictation, explained
How does Italian dictation practice work?
Listen to one sentence from an existing story recording, write what you hear, and compare it with the source. Replay and slow down as often as you need. After checking, review the word-by-word corrections, then say the sentence aloud with the recording.
How is word accuracy calculated?
The score uses word-level edit distance: substitutions, missing words, and extra words reduce the score relative to the reference word count. Accents and spelling count; capitalization and ordinary punctuation do not. Curly and straight apostrophes are treated alike. This is a transcription score, not a general Italian proficiency score.
Do hints affect my score?
A first-word hint or transcript reveal marks that sentence as assisted. Your first submitted score is kept separately from your best score, so retries do not overwrite your original attempt. Slower playback and replays are practice aids and are always allowed.
Why are only some sentences available?
Exercises use original narration and existing word timestamps. Only sentences with reliable start and end boundaries and near-complete word alignment are included. A passage can be listenable without being suitable for sentence dictation.
Are numbers and alternative spellings accepted?
The comparison follows the source wording. Write numbers in the format used in the source when revealed, such as 19:15. A valid alternative spelling or a numeral written in words can still be marked different. Use the correction as a reference rather than a judgment of your comprehension.
Is my progress saved?
Drafts, first attempts, best scores, hints, and your current position are saved locally for up to eight recent recordings when browser storage is available. You can resume after reloading. Audio still needs a network connection, and progress is not synced between devices.
How do I choose a difficulty?
Start with a short A1 excerpt or an A0 story if you are new to Italian. The labels describe the source story’s reading level; speaking speed, vocabulary, and sentence length also affect listening difficulty. Aim for a useful challenge, then try a harder story when you can follow most of the words.