Flashcards with IPA and natural audio for language learners

Lexica is flashcards for language learners that show how every word sounds. Each card carries the word's IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, and one tap adds a natural voice reading the word and its example sentence.

Why IPA beats a respelling

Respellings like “bon-ZHOOR” only work if you already pronounce English the way the writer does. IPA gives every sound its own symbol, so /bɔ̃ʒuʁ/ means the same thing to a learner in Madrid, Manchester or Mumbai. It also marks what a respelling hides: which syllable carries the stress (ˈ), which vowels are long (ː), and the sounds your own language doesn't have, like the French nasal vowel in bonjour or the German ç in ich.

You don't have to learn the whole chart first. Most languages use a few dozen symbols, and after a week of reviews you'll read the ones that matter for yours.

What a card holds

Every card Lexica makes has the word with its article or gender, the IPA, a short translation in your language and an example sentence that shows the word in use. On the card above, die Sehnsucht comes with /diː ˈzeːnˌzʊxt/, the translation “longing (for something far away)” and the example “Sie hat Sehnsucht nach dem Meer”.

Hear the word and the example

Reading the IPA tells you what to aim for; hearing the word tells you how it sounds at speed. Once a card exists, open it and tap Generate audio next to the word, or next to the example, and Lexica adds a natural voice for it. On iPhone the same button is in the card's form. From then on, a speaker next to the word plays the clip, in reviews and in the deck's table of cards.

Each new clip uses one AI action, so the free plan's 20 AI actions a day cover cards and clips together. A clip is made once and saved with the card, and playing it again in later reviews costs nothing. If you'd rather hear every word without tapping, turn on Play pronunciation and the front clip plays as each card appears.

Choose where IPA and the example show

Some learners want the pronunciation on the front, to say the word before they see the answer. Others keep it on the back as a check. In Profile › Study › Cards you choose, separately for the IPA and for the example sentence: front side, back side, both sides or hidden. On iPhone the same choice is in the card style menu during a review.

Cards and IPA in 78 languages

Lexica makes cards in 78 languages, from Spanish, French and German to Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi. The IPA reads the same way whatever the script, so a word written in kana or Devanagari still comes with symbols you can sound out.

Start from a word list or your class notes, and the cards arrive ready to say out loud. Lexica then schedules each one with FSRS-6 spaced repetition, so it comes back just before you'd forget it.