Building pronunciation flashcards by hand is slow. For every word you look up the IPA, find or record audio, write an example sentence, add a translation, and paste it all into the right fields. Do that for a hundred words and you've spent an evening on data entry instead of learning.
This guide is about the automated version. Instead of assembling cards by hand, you select a word, press a hotkey, pick a deck, and IPAtics generates a complete card — IPA, native audio, example sentence, and translation — straight into Anki. Here's how to set it up and what lands on the card.
If you're already comfortable building cards manually, the Anki + IPA pronunciation workflow and the pronunciation deck tutorial cover that ground. This post is specifically about automating it.
What you'll need
Two pieces, both free to start:
- IPAtics — the desktop app for macOS and Windows. The free tier includes 5 lifetime Anki exports, which is enough to try the full flow end to end before deciding.
- AnkiConnect — a free, widely used Anki add-on that lets other apps talk to your Anki. IPAtics uses it to push finished cards into the deck you choose.
You'll also need Anki itself open while you generate cards, since AnkiConnect runs inside it.
Step 1: Install AnkiConnect
In Anki, open Tools → Add-ons → Get Add-ons and paste the AnkiConnect code from its add-on page. Restart Anki. That's the whole setup — AnkiConnect runs quietly in the background and exposes the connection IPAtics needs. Leave Anki running when you want to generate cards.
Step 2: Install IPAtics and sign in
Install IPAtics and sign in. It sits in the background with no window in the way. The only thing you need to remember is the hotkey: Alt+Q (Option+Q on Mac).
Step 3: Select a word and press Alt+Q
Read normally — in your browser, a PDF, an ebook, anywhere. When you hit a word you want to learn, select it and press Alt+Q. The IPA appears in a floating overlay right where you're reading, with native text-to-speech audio. For example, selecting obrigado shows /o.bɾi.ˈɡa.du/; selecting farfalla shows /far.ˈfal.la/. Tap any symbol to see its phonetic name and examples, and play the audio to hear it.
Step 4: Choose a deck and generate
From the overlay, save the word and choose the deck you want the card to go into. IPAtics generates the card and, through AnkiConnect, sends it straight into that Anki deck. No copy-paste, no manual field-filling. When you next open Anki, the card is already there, ready to review.
What lands on the card
Each generated card is complete on arrival:
- The IPA transcription of the word, in the correct variety.
- Native audio so every card has sound, not just text.
- An example sentence showing the word in real use.
- A translation for meaning.
So the card teaches spelling, pronunciation, and meaning together — the three things a pronunciation card needs — without you typing any of it.
The six card types and CEFR levels
IPAtics doesn't just make one kind of flashcard. Depending on what you're drilling, it can generate six card types:
| Card type | What it drills | |---|---| | Vocabulary | Word ↔ meaning recall | | Production | Recalling and producing the target word | | Sentence Cloze | The word in a fill-in-the-blank sentence | | IPA Reading | Reading the IPA and producing the word | | Sentence Translation | Translating a sentence containing the word | | Minimal Pair | Distinguishing near-identical sounds |
The cards are CEFR-aware, from A1 through C2, so example sentences and difficulty match your level rather than dropping advanced vocabulary on a beginner or trivial examples on an advanced learner.
After the free exports
The free tier includes 5 lifetime Anki exports — enough to run the whole flow and see the cards land. If automatic card generation becomes part of how you study, Premium (€4.99/month or €39.99/year) lifts the cap to unlimited cards, along with unlimited transcriptions and saved words. There's no lifetime plan.
In short
The manual version of pronunciation flashcards is real work. The automated version is: install AnkiConnect, install IPAtics, select a word, press Alt+Q, pick a deck. The IPA, audio, example, and translation assemble themselves and sync straight into Anki at your level.
See the full Anki pronunciation setup for more on the card types, or the Anki + IPA workflow and deck tutorial if you'd like to understand the manual approach the automation replaces.