Listen Pick

Hear an English word and tap the matching one of three pictures!

Game settings

Difficulty

Everyday words everyone knows, like dog and apple. Great for a first try.

Press "Start" and an English word is read aloud. Tap the picture that matches the word you hear, out of three! The word is shown when you're right. 10 questions in all.

Sound first, letters later — learning English the way you learned your first language

When children learn their mother tongue, the very first thing they do is listen. Long before they can read a single letter, they soak up the sounds around them and build connections between what they hear and what they see. Listen Pick recreates this natural order for English.

The screen shows only pictures — no written translations. Your device reads an English word aloud, and you tap the picture that matches. Only after a correct answer do the spelling and meaning appear. The flow — sound, then image (meaning), then text — mirrors the hear-understand-read sequence of first-language acquisition.

Difficulty changes the vocabulary, not the rules

The three difficulty levels swap out the word list itself rather than making the game more complicated.

Easy — familiar one- to two-syllable words like dog, apple, and sun. Short sound chunks that are easy to catch
Normal — slightly longer words such as elephant, umbrella, and butterfly. More syllables mean more chances to replay
Hard — less familiar words like octopus, telescope, and flamingo, often three syllables or more. A stage for stretching the vocabulary

Pictures as meaning anchors

The choices are pictures rather than text because the goal is to grasp meaning without going through translation. When you hear "dog," the picture of a dog registers before any written word does — and once that sound-to-image circuit is in place, seeing the written word later brings the sound back first.

The spelling and meaning shown after a correct answer serve as a written check on what the ears and eyes already understood. With listening, seeing, and reading lined up in a single question, the memory sticks better than any one channel alone.

How it works and privacy

Listen Pick runs entirely in your browser. Words are read by your device's built-in speech synthesis (Web Speech / en-US), sound effects are synthesized on the fly with Web Audio, pictures are system emoji, and the word list is bundled in the app. There are no external connections at all. The only thing saved is your best score per difficulty, stored in your device's localStorage.

Frequently asked questions

Q. Is it free?: A. Yes, completely free with no sign-up. There's no limit on how many times you can play.
Q. Can I play on a phone or tablet?: A. Yes. You just tap a picture, so it works on phones, tablets and computers alike.
Q. What age is it for?: A. Tapping a picture is simple, so even young children who can't read yet can enjoy it. The harder level also suits older kids learning English vocabulary.
Q. There's no sound / it won't read the word aloud.: A. Words are read using your device's speech synthesis (Web Speech). If your browser or device doesn't support it, the reading may not play — but a correct answer still shows the word as text, so you can keep learning. Also check that sound isn't turned off.
Q. What happens if I get it wrong?: A. That card fades and you can pick again on the same question. The answer isn't given away, so you can listen again and think it over. Only questions you get right on the first try count toward your score.
Q. Is the word read in Japanese or English?: A. In English (en-US). Since the goal is English listening practice, the word is read with English pronunciation even in the Japanese interface, and the meaning is shown alongside the answer.
Q. Are my score and records saved online?: A. No. Everything runs in your browser, and the only thing saved is your best score per difficulty, stored only on your own device.