Pronunciation technology
What the recitation check does — honestly
It listens to Arabic sounds and nothing else. Here is what it checks, what it never judges, and how accurate it is today.
What it checks
- Each word: said, missed, changed or added.
- Letters that are easy to confuse: ح/ه, ع/ء, ق/ك, ص/س, ذ/ز, ث/س, ض/د, ط/ت, ظ/ز.
- Harakat, shaddah and sukun.
- Madd length (letter engine, still in testing).
What it never judges
- Whether you prayed, or how often.
- Counts of dhikr or tasbih.
- Positions and movements of the prayer.
- Rulings, your faith or your intentions.
How it works
Two engines give the same kind of result, so the app never changes when one is swapped for the other.
Word engine (live)
A speech model trained on Quran recitation writes down what it hears. We line it up with the expected words and look for commonly confused letters. In Chrome, Edge and Safari the browser's own speech service may do this step.
Letter engine (in testing)
Turns the voweled text into the sounds you should make, lines your audio up with them, and scores each sound — including madd length. It stays switched off until it proves better on real recordings.
How accurate is it?
We do not have real-world accuracy numbers yet.
No labelled recordings of real learners have been evaluated so far, so we cannot tell you how often it is right on real voices. We will publish those numbers here as soon as we have them.
Pipeline self-check (not real accuracy)
To test the scoring logic we generated correct and mistaken versions of Al-Fatiha, Tashahhud, Durood, ruku, sujood and Sana. These numbers show the logic works; they say nothing about how a model hears real people.
| Engine | Mistakes marked correct | Correct marked wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Letter engine | 0.0% (0/40) | 0.0% (0/5) |
| Word engine, if the model writes what it hears | 7.5% (3/40) | 0.0% (0/5) |
| Word engine, if the model “corrects” to the Quran text | 100.0% (40/40) | 0.0% (0/5) |
From docs/PRONUNCIATION_EVAL.md, generated 2026-09-26.
The real risk
A model trained on the Quran often writes the correct text even when a letter was said wrongly — so the mistake slips through. It also cannot hear madd length. That is why the letter engine exists, and why we tell you when the check is unsure.
Why teachers still matter
A good teacher hears tone, rhythm and small tajweed details that no model catches today, and knows you. The check is for practice between lessons, not a replacement for a teacher.
Your voice
Audio is processed in memory and discarded after the check. We save only the score, which words were clear and which letters to practise.
Learn moreHelp us measure it
We need labelled recordings from reciters and teachers to measure real accuracy. Volunteer as a reciter and help us publish honest numbers.