Minimal Pairs Practice

Hear a word — pick what was said. 10 rounds per session.

Train your ear

Each round plays one word from a minimal pair. Pick the one you heard. Ten rounds, scored at the end.

What is this?

A minimal pair is two words that differ by exactly one sound — ship vs sip, beat vs bit, thick vs tick. Practicing the contrast directly is the fastest way to train your ear to hear the distinction, which is especially useful for ESL learners (the th/t and ʃ/s contrasts are notoriously hard) and phonetics students learning to transcribe English.

Audio is generated by your browser's speech synthesizer, so quality varies by device. For best results use Chrome or Safari on a laptop; on Android, try switching your system TTS voice to "Google US English."

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the practice game free?

Yes. No signup, no account, no usage limits.

How does the audio work?

Each word is spoken with your browser's built-in speech synthesis. Quality varies by device — Chrome and Safari on a laptop tend to sound most natural; on Android, switching the system TTS voice to a different one (Google US English) usually helps.

Why minimal pairs?

A minimal pair is two words that differ by a single sound (ship vs sip, beat vs bit). Practicing the contrast directly is the fastest way to train your ear to hear the distinction — especially useful for ESL learners and phonetics students.