For English learners who watch TV
Learn the lines people actually say.
SpeakLines reads every line of a TV series, scores each one for how useful it is, and gives you the few hundred worth saying out loud.
Type any English line into the script page. The score uses word counts from all 236 episodes of a ten-season sitcom.
You rehearse a line before saying it for real. Type it below and see what it's worth.
Keeper. Put it on your list.
I just need to know what you're going to do.
everyday wordless commonrarefiller, not scored
Score = 100 × commonness × learning load × length fit × recurrence × stands alone
The numbers
500 lines take you from 60.6% to 93.5% of the words.
We ran SpeakLines on every episode of a ten-season sitcom. Words like the, you and oh already make up 60.6% of everything said. Each line on the study list adds words you haven't met yet, so the first few hundred do most of the work.
- Episodes read
- 236
- Lines of dialogue
- 105,087
- Distinct lines scored
- 59,947
- Set phrases found
- 643
- Words learned in the first 500 lines
- 856
Set phrases are word groups that keep turning up together, like wait a minute and break up with. They count as things to learn alongside single words.
Tested on seasons it never saw.
A list should help with the episodes you haven't watched yet. So we built it from the early seasons only and measured it on the last two, which it never read. After the first 500 lines, you know every word in about two in three lines there.
Ten-season sitcom · list from seasons 1–8 · tested on 9–10
92.8% of the words
69.7% of the lines, every word known
after the first 500 lines. Before them: 60.3% and 16.6%.
Twelve-season sitcom · list from seasons 1–10 · tested on 11–12
92.4% of the words
67.5% of the lines, every word known
after the first 500 lines. Before them: 59.3% and 12.9%.
Coverage counts words, not understanding. Studies put comfortable listening at around 95–98% of words known, and speed, accents and grammar matter too. Function words like the and you are counted as already known; names are left out.
How it works
From a full series to a study list in three passes.
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Count every word
Each word is counted in its dictionary form, along with how many episodes it shows up in. A word said forty times in a single episode won't outrank tomorrow.
went, going, gone → go
don't → do not -
Score every line
Five checks, multiplied together. One rare word, or a line that only makes sense in its scene, pulls the whole score down.
commonness × learning load × length × recurrence × stands alone -
Put them in order
The list is built one line at a time. Each pick has to bring words or phrases you haven't met. After you've seen a word three times, it stops counting. You can cap how many new words a line may bring, and skip the words you already know.
line 1 adds: know, think, believe, get back together
line 2 adds: want, say, sorry, I’m sorry
Study list
Set your own pace.
The first lines of the study list for the ten-season sitcom. Cap how many new words a line can bring, or tell SpeakLines what you already know, and the list is rebuilt around it.
Highlighted: new words this line adds. Underlined: new set phrases. Percent: share of the show's words covered so far (names excluded).
What we check
What makes a line worth learning.
Click any example to load it into the script page and see its score.
Commonness0 to 1
Every word in it is one you'll hear again. One rare word drags the whole line down, unless it is common in everyday English: words in the top 5,000 of film and TV subtitles get a minimum score, so one of them won't sink a line.
Learning load0.25 to 1
It has real words to learn, beyond you, is and the. Set phrases add to it.
Length fitbest at 5 to 12 words
Long enough to teach something, short enough to say in one breath. Fillers like all right and you know don't count toward length.
Recurrence×1 and up
A line said word for word in episode after episode is a set expression. It earns a bonus.
Said word for word in 41 of 236 episodes.
Stands alone0 to 1
You can understand it without the scene around it. Lines that start with And or He lose points. Lines that trail off are left off the list.
Out of 236 episodes
Lines you'll hear in almost every episode.
Short, fixed and everywhere. SpeakLines puts these at the front of your list.
Coming soon
Score your own show.
Upload the subtitles of any series or movie you watch. SpeakLines gives you its study list: the lines worth saying, in the order worth learning them.
- Works from a single episode or one movie. When there isn't much dialogue, it leans on word counts from 50 million words of film and TV subtitles.
- Your pace. Let each line bring up to one, two or three new words, or take the fastest route.
- Skips what you know. Lines are picked around the words you already have.
- Chinese translations and read-aloud audio for every line, with spaced review so the lines stay with you.