4 ms·

Duolingo has (automated) vocal lessons.

• simias 7y ago
  That's the worst part of the app because they use synthetic voices for most courses (the only one I know that doesn't is the Latin one, probably because there aren't many off-the-shelf Latin text-to-speech). I'm often hanging on the (absolutely terrible from a usability perspective) Duolingo forums to help people attempting to learn French and as such I often encounter people complaining that they can't figure out what the voices are saying. As a native speaker I can generally make out what it's supposed to say but it definitely sounds off and artificial. And even when the pronunciation is technically correct it's completely flat and lacks the natural emotion and emphasis a native speaker would use. The fact that an app who's supposed to teach you languages relies on crappy text-to-speech to teach you pronunciation tells you everything you need to know about Duolingo.
  • organsnyder 7y ago
    The Spanish voices are quite good—real people, and with similar pronunciation to what I hear from native speakers.