--- title: "Dictation practice with YouTube videos · NoaLingua" description: "Turn a captioned YouTube video into sentence-by-sentence dictation with replay, word-level feedback, visible omissions and forgiving accent handling." url: "https://noalingua.com/features/youtube-dictation/" language: "en" modified: "2026-10-14" license: "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- Feature # Practise dictation with any captioned YouTube video Hear a real sentence, type it, then compare every word In short NoaLingua dictation hides the subtitle, plays one sentence and pauses for you to type what you heard. After you submit, it marks correct words, accent-only differences, wrong words and omissions separately. You can replay without losing your draft, reveal when stuck, then continue through the real video. Fit ## Who YouTube dictation is for Choose it for the workflow it actually supports, not for a promise the product does not make. ### Best for - Learners who recognise words in writing but lose them inside connected speech. - People who want real video sentences, replay and visible word-level differences after every attempt. ### Not the right fit for - Free speaking practice, pronunciation diagnosis or videos whose captions are too inaccurate to serve as an answer key. - Passive watching where stopping to type every line would interrupt the reason for watching. How to use it ## How to use YouTube dictation in NoaLingua - 1 ### Start Dictation from the Practice menu On YouTube, press U or open the NoaLingua menu and select Dictation. - 2 ### Type what you hear The sentence plays with its text hidden. Replay as often as needed; ordinary YouTube shortcuts stay disabled while the answer box has focus. - 3 ### Submit and inspect the differences Press Enter to reveal word-level feedback, then continue to the next line or replay this one with the answer visible. Mechanism ## Why NoaLingua behaves this way ### Why feedback is word by word A single percentage cannot tell whether you missed a sound, an entire word or only an accent mark. Dictation aligns the answer and caption as word sequences, then shows each difference where it happened. Capital letters and punctuation never count against you. Common plain-keyboard versions of special letters are accepted while the correct spelling is still shown. ### Why the answer stays hidden while you work Pausing, hovering and typing do not uncover the line. Reveal is an explicit choice, and replaying or moving to the next sentence hides the answer again. This makes dictation useful for the common listening gap: knowing a word on the page but failing to separate it from connected speech. ## Common questions about NoaLingua Can I replay without erasing my answer? Yes. Hear it again keeps the current draft and replays the same sentence. Do accents count as completely wrong? No. An accent-only difference is marked separately, and common keyboard substitutions can count as correct while showing the proper spelling. Will typing K pause or play YouTube? No. Player shortcuts are suppressed while the dictation input has focus. Can I reveal the sentence? Yes. Reveal shows it without deleting your draft; the next sentence hides its answer again. ## More NoaLingua features to read next [Feature Shadowing & Say It Back Whole-video shadowing, single-sentence drilling, and scored pronunciation feedback.](https://noalingua.com/features/shadowing/)[Feature YouTube practice books A video becomes vocabulary, listening and writing exercises you can keep or print.](https://noalingua.com/features/youtube-practice-books/)[Feature Practice games Meaning, production, grammar, context and challenges — built from your own deck.](https://noalingua.com/features/practice-games/) [Reference Why video dictation works The listening problem it isolates and a practical session length.](https://noalingua.com/answers/dictation-practice-from-video/) ## YouTube dictation is on the free plan. So is everything else. Free, with every feature. No account, nothing to cancel, and your deck stays on your machine. [Add to Chrome — Free Add to Chrome](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/noalingua-%E2%80%94-beyond-dual-s/ocimolffhgpeeoifjpjhgikgfbnmlkdh) Opens the Chrome Web Store listing **NoaLingua — beyond dual subs: video, web, PDF** — free, no account, Chrome 138 or newer. - [Free, and not a trial Every feature on the free plan — both PDF modes, shadowing, all 30 practice formats.](https://noalingua.com/pricing/) - [No account, no email Nothing to sign up for and nothing to cancel. There is no login screen at all.](https://noalingua.com/privacy/) - [Two dropdowns to set up Pick what you are learning and what you want translations in. That is the whole setup.](https://noalingua.com/getting-started/) - [Your words stay yours Export to Anki, CSV, a spreadsheet or a full JSON profile — free on every plan.](https://noalingua.com/docs/export-import/) [What happens after you install](https://noalingua.com/getting-started/) · [Pricing](https://noalingua.com/pricing/) · [What it cannot do](https://noalingua.com/limits/)