What you can do here
Joy English offers short lessons from beginner to proficiency level (A1 to C2). In a listening lesson you hear a sentence, type what you hear, check your answer word by word, ask for a one-word hint if you need it and read a short explanation; each has five sentences and takes a few minutes. Grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, use of English, writing and exam practice lessons combine a short explanation, recording or text with exercises that are checked when you ask; if you are stuck on a question, a hint rules out a wrong option or shows the first letter and length of the answer. Writing lessons and some exam practice also give you a model text and a task that you review yourself with a checklist and a spelling and grammar check. In a finished listening lesson you can tap any word to see its level, save it for review or look it up, and each lesson page shows the words that may be new at your level. Sound pairs train your ear for English sounds that are easy to confuse, such as ship and sheep or light and right, and for short words that sound alike in quick speech, such as can and can’t, with words read by six voices. Review today brings back the sentences, questions, words and sound pairs you found hard after 1, 3, 7 and 14 days, including words you save from listening lessons. Exam practice follows the style of well-known tests such as IELTS and TOEIC but is our own independent material, not an official test.
Where the lessons come from
Dialogues, stories and short reports come from VOA Learning English, which is in the public domain, and from African Storybook, which is published under a Creative Commons Attribution licence. Other dictation lessons are our own: original conversations, stories, exam-style recordings, short talks, medical English, pronunciation, number and spelling practice, read by an open-source text-to-speech voice. We choose the sentences, prepare the audio and write the explanations and vocabulary notes. Grammar, vocabulary, use of English, writing and exam practice, the listening scripts and the A1, A2, C1 and C2 reading texts are written by us; listening recordings are read by an open-source text-to-speech voice. B1 and B2 reading texts are unchanged excerpts from VOA Learning English articles with our own questions. Every lesson names its source and licence.
Account optional
You can practise without signing up. Your answers and progress are saved in the browser you use. If you create a free account with your email address or with Google, your progress is also saved to your account, so you can continue on another device.
Practice, not a test
Suggested levels and answer checking help you choose and practise. They are not an official assessment or certificate. Levels are suggestions, and we correct lessons whenever we or our learners find a problem.