r/learnfrench • u/Dry_Albatross5298 • 1d ago
Question Accurate transcription tools for pronunciation accuracy?
Hi everyone! I'm trying to find something that transcribes exactly what I am pronouncing in French (e.g., if I pronounce j'ai rather than je that's what I want the transcript to say). Purpose is to determine how accurate my pronunciation is. What I'm finding is MacWhisperer and others (such as google docs) are cleaning things up/algorithming what I am saying. Any thoughts? Or is there another way to go about this (aside from other humans)? Thank you!
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u/aa_drian83 1d ago
It's difficult to find accurate tools for this purpose, as explained by the other commenter. I would recommend instead doing some dedicated and targeted sessions with tutors who do pronunciation coaching.
If you wish to have a look anyway, a relatively practical tool to try would be Azure Speech : Speech Studio - Language learning. You can create a free (Microsoft) Azure account simply to use the playground and see if it's what you are looking for. They have support for French except the prosody and can provide phoneme analysis. Ideally you want to see the lexical transcript (as is) but I don't remember if this can be viewed on the playground or not. It can definitely be chosen via API. Not super accurate but it's one of the most decent ones accessible to public.
Something that is more visual and is free, would be Praat Praat: doing Phonetics by Computer but it could be an overkill and is not straightforward to use.
Alternatively, you can ask GPT Live (ChatGPT) or Gemini Native Audio or Gemini Flash multimodal (Gemini) what they "hear". I typed "hear" because since they are an audio-to-audio model, they tend to work better for this purpose compared to classic text based LLM.
Finally, easy method also is to use the Live Caption from Windows or in case of iPhone, it's "Sous-titres en direct". I use it often and mapped it to the triple-click power button shortcut. They are free, and the idea is if they transcribed everything perfectly, at least you are not that bad (even with the auto corrections, it's better than nothing).
Edit : forgot to mention, I also used often the transcription service for Microsoft Teams meetings. The backend is also Azure Speech and it's free if you have already Office 365 license. Create a meeting with yourself then look at the transcript later or in real time.
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u/Straight-Put-2142 1d ago
I have been unable to find advanced accent coaching for myself as someone already fluent in Spanish. Any ideas of how to come by that?
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u/aa_drian83 1d ago
You mean you wanted to find a person? Or an app/platform?
There is fonetix.org that is both a platform and also with an online atélier for up to 5 persons.
There is also phonetics classes like the ones in Alliance Française, CCFS Sorbonne or Cours d'Adultes de Paris, but they are all physically based in Paris and aren't necessarily advanced :
https://www.ccfs-sorbonne.fr/en/french-phonetics-courses/
https://www.alliancefr.org/en/course/product/in-person-phonetics-workshop-915
https://scap.paris.fr/Element/Details/10544Have you tried searching for tutors that specifically offered this service, via Preply or iTalki?
In my case, I mostly got corrections while doing reading sessions during my individual classes on the platform I am currently using, as well as during my physical individual classes and online group conversation classes. These help.
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u/Straight-Put-2142 1d ago
Yeah I have tried on italki and been turned down by various tutors as it not being their expertise. I've been told to search for a logopeda but they usually work with native (Spanish) speakers with speech disorders, like a kid with a lisp.
I meant a platform or way to search a platform. Thanks for trying to help!
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u/dipshit115 1d ago
Most transcription tools are designed to understand what you meant, so they often automatically correct pronunciation errors. For pronunciation, I’d recommend a tool that assesses phonemes/sounds rather than just transcription. If you’re practising a known sentence, forced alignment can also compare what you said with the expected sounds. Basically, good transcription ≠ good pronunciation — the AI might understand you even when the pronunciation is off.
But you can try local transcription tools built in your phone by changing the language