01Why a transcribing app misses these letters
Many apps that listen to you send your voice to a speech recogniser, which turns it into text, and then check the text. A recogniser is built to find the word you most likely meant. Said inside a sentence, a ق pronounced like k, a ح pronounced like an English h, or a ع dropped to a plain vowel often comes out spelled correctly. The text matches the target, so the app marks you right, and the letter you came to fix is never flagged.
Checking these sounds needs a different tool: a speech model that judges each sound against a reference, for instance by comparing ق with ك, ح with ه, ع with the glottal stop ء, and saying which one it heard. That is what “letter-by-letter feedback” should mean. A single percentage for the whole word or sentence does not tell you which letter to work on.
One letter apart. If an app asks you to say قَلْبٌ and you say it with a k, a recogniser expecting “heart” may still write قَلْبٌ. Only a tool that judges the ق itself will notice.
ح against ه. Say فَحْمٌ with an English h and you have said “understanding”. ح is the same breath with the throat narrowed; ه is breath with the throat open.
ع against the glottal stop ء. Replace the ع with a plain catch in the throat and you have said “pain”; a recogniser that knows you were reading “flag” may still print عَلَمٌ.
02A one-minute test for any app
Before paying, make the mistake on purpose. Pick a word with the letter you want to fix, say it once properly and once wrong: قَلْبٌ with a k, حُبٌّ with an English h, عَيْنٌ with a plain catch in the throat instead of the ع. An app that judges the letter flags the wrong version and names the letter. An app that only transcribes accepts both, or gives both a similar score.
Run it two or three times; a single result can be chance. Then check what the app does when it is not sure: a tool that can answer “unsure” rather than forcing a verdict is easier to trust than one that always has an answer.
03What to check on the app’s page
It names the letters it scores. “Pronunciation feedback” alone can mean a score for the whole sentence. Look for the letters you care about, listed by name.
It tells you which letter was off, and against what. ق heard as ك is a precise, fixable diagnosis; “78%” is not.
It shows you how to fix it. A tip on where the sound is made (deep in the throat for ع and ح, further back than k for ق) and a model to listen to.
It teaches fuṣḥā. In several dialects ق is pronounced as a glottal stop or as g. In fuṣḥā (Modern Standard Arabic) it is a ق, so a dialect app may accept what a fuṣḥā one corrects.
Device and price. Check that it runs on your phone or in your browser, what the free version includes, and whether scoring is part of the paid plan.
04The apps assistants and search results name
Each description below is the app’s own claim, from its store listing or website; none was tested for this page. Run the one-minute test on whichever you try.
Nabra. Its Google Play listing promises “instant, letter-level feedback on every sound you make”: each letter is colour-coded green, yellow or red, with a 100-point score and tips, and the scoring is stated to run on Azure AI Speech. It names ع, ح, ق, ض, ظ and غ, has drills of five practice words per letter, and says it is 100% Modern Standard Arabic. On Android (Google Play); we found no iPhone version, free to install, and the listing names no paid tier. Of the apps assistants name, the closest match to the question as asked, if you have an Android phone.
Takallam AI. Its App Store listing says it teaches Fus’ha (Modern Standard Arabic), starting from the letters: you say a word aloud, get scored on it, see which sound was off and hear it said properly. It does not list which letters it judges. It also has an AI tutor and explains in English. Free to download, with a free trial of Premium, from 9.99 USD a month or 39.99 USD a year. iPhone and iPad.
Arabic Sounds and Letter Spell. A paid iPhone and iPad app (2.99 USD) that drills the 28 letters one by one with articulation animations, a “voiceprint” that compares your sounds with standard ones, and “AI based voice scoring”. The listing does not say what the score measures.
Mondly. A multi-language course by Pearson, with free daily lessons, whose Arabic page says its speech recognition “checks your Arabic pronunciation in real time”. The wording is about words and phrases; it names no letters.
Parallel Arabic. An open-source platform built around Arabic dialects (web, plus an iPhone app), where you “say sentences aloud and get instant feedback”. Its wording is about sentences and names no letters, and it is dialect-first, so a ق pronounced the Cairo way may be the target rather than the mistake.
ChatGPT voice and other general assistants. Good conversation partners for spoken Arabic, but they do not advertise letter-level scoring. If one tells you your ع was fine, run the one-minute test before you believe it.
05Where Kalima fits
Kalima has a pronunciation drill: you read a target aloud and a dedicated speech scorer judges, letter by letter, eight contrasts learners miss: ح against ه, ع against the glottal stop ء, ق against ك, the emphatics ص, ض, ط, ظ against س, د, ت, ذ, and ث against س. For each rated letter it says whether it heard a slip, with a tip on how to make the sound; when a comparison is too close to call, it says so and judges nothing rather than guess. It does not score خ or غ.
The drill sits inside a fuṣḥā course: 118 concepts from the 28 letters up to classical prose, and an AI tutor, Bahir, who converses with you in fuṣḥā and corrects your sentences with explanations in English or French. Complete beginners start at the letters.
Limits, plainly. The drill is part of Kalima Pro (14.99 USD a month or 149.99 USD a year, shown in local currency); a first session with Bahir is free. Scoring happens in the drill, not during conversation, and it is AI practice guidance, not a certified assessment. It runs on the web at kalima.chat/app and on Android; there is no iPhone app yet. The free guides to ح, ع and ق on this site, with clips to listen to and compare, need no account.
06When something else fits better
If you are learning to recite the Qur’an, tajwīd has its own rules and is best learned with a qualified teacher; this page does not assess that use. If you want the pronunciation of one dialect, choose a tutor or speaker from that region; a fuṣḥā tool will correct you away from it. If you need a human ear that adapts week by week, a teacher remains the reference, and an app is practice between lessons. And if a sound difficulty comes with speech or hearing concerns, see a speech therapist rather than an app.