The three Yoruba tones
Every Yoruba syllable carries one of three tones, and they are levels, not shapes: High, Mid, and Low. Yoruba speakers teach them with solfège note names: low is do, mid is re, high is mi. If you can sing three notes, you can say the three tones.
- High, mi: a steady note near the top of your range. In writing, the acute accent: kó (build).
- Mid, re: a steady note in the middle of your range. Unmarked in writing: ko (sing).
- Low, do: a steady note near the bottom of your range. In writing, the grave accent: kò (reject).
Each tone is one steady note: no rising, no falling. Real speakers vary, and regional dialects differ in how they realise the tones. The app teaches Standard Yoruba and accepts a close fit, not an exact one.
The 15 syllables: five sets
Three tones per set, one base syllable carrying all three. Three are real minimal triples, words that differ only by tone; two are practice sets for drilling the levels.
- ko set: kó build, ko sing, kò reject.
- san set: sán cut grass, san bite, sàn watery.
- bẹ set: bẹ́ he jumped, bẹ he is forward, bẹ̀ he asks for pardon.
- ma set: má, ma, mà (practice).
- ta set: tá, ta, tà (practice).
Practise each set in turn and the levels separate fast. The spelling follows standard Yoruba orthography: acute accent for high, no mark for mid, grave accent for low.
The 12 two-syllable words, including the five igba words
Knowing single tones is only half the skill. Real words put the tones together, and the most famous example in Yoruba is the igba set: five different words on the same two syllables, told apart only by tone.
- The five igba words: ìgbà time (low-low), ìgbá garden egg (low-high), igbá calabash (mid-high), igba 200 (mid-mid), igbà climber's belt (mid-low).
- The ọkọ triple: ọkọ́ hoe (mid-high), ọkọ husband (mid-mid), ọkọ̀ vehicle (mid-low).
- Also: ìlù drum (low-low), ìlú town (low-high), pákó plank (high-high), pákò chewing stick (high-low).
Tone pairs unlock at 50 points, after you have the single tones down. Leave a tiny gap between the syllables so the check can hear both: the app splits your utterance at the gap and checks each half against its own target level.
At the boundaries: the glide is natural
In real speech, when a high and a low tone touch, Yoruba smooths the boundary into a small rise or fall. A high after a low is heard as a rising contour, the second syllable of ìgbá, garden egg. A low after a high is heard as a falling one, the second syllable of pákò, chewing stick. This is normal, not a mistake. The app grades the steady level of each syllable and skips the boundary glide: hold each syllable steady at its level.
Calibrate your voice range first
Before practising, press Set my voice range and slide slowly from your lowest to your highest comfortable note, saying a steady "ahhh" while you slide. The app measures your range from that slide and grades every utterance against it: 1.0 means the top of your range, 0.0 the bottom. This matters because the tones are three pitch LEVELS: a high tone for a low voice can sit below a mid tone for a high voice, and only your calibrated range tells them apart. You can recalibrate any time in Settings, and your range is stored only on this device.
How the live check works
Your browser samples the microphone and measures your pitch with autocorrelation, a standard signal-processing method that finds how often your voice waveform repeats. No model is downloaded and no audio is sent anywhere. Your pitch is compared to the three target levels by root-mean-square error, measured against your calibrated range. A match needs a close fit and a clear margin over the next-best tone, so a contour sitting between two levels is honestly reported as unclear rather than guessed. Press Hear the target to hear any tone as a steady note, placed inside your own range, before you say it.
The confusable levels
Three pairs trip learners up most. High vs mid: both in the upper half of your range; the difference is level alone, which is why calibration matters. Mid vs low: the mirror image at the bottom. A true halfway contour between two levels: the app reports it as unclear instead of guessing, because it is genuinely ambiguous, and names the level to aim for: do, re, or mi.
Standard Yoruba, and what the app does not grade
The tones taught here are Standard Yoruba citation tones. Regional dialects realise them differently, and other varieties of Yoruba can merge or shift them. This app grades single syllables and two-syllable words held steady. It does not grade full sentences, and it does not check grammar, vocabulary, or meaning. Background noise, a quiet voice, or a creaky voice can confuse the pitch tracker: if a native Yoruba speaker says your tones sound right, trust them over the app.
Quiz, points, levels and badges
Quiz mode asks for 8 items in a random order: +10 points per match, +20 bonus for a perfect round. Levels run New Voice, Tone Learner, Tone Star, and Master of Yoruba Tones. Badges cover the first matched tone, practising all 15 syllables, practising all 12 tone pairs, a perfect quiz round, and practising on seven days in a row. Confetti and chimes celebrate wins, and both can be turned off in Settings. Practice stays the core: the games are there to pull you back for one more tone.
Your voice never leaves your device
Voice frames are analysed on your device and discarded. The page security policy blocks connections to every outside server. There is no account, no analytics, no recording, and no cookie. The built-in Offline proof panel shows a live log of every network request the page makes, lets you simulate a fully offline session, shows exactly what is stored on your device, and deletes it all with one button. The app works offline after your first visit. Pitch tracking approximates tones, and regional variation exists: the target tones describe Standard Yoruba citation forms. Native-speaker review is being sought in parallel, not as a gate.
Learning tones too? Try the Mandarin Tone Trainer, the Cantonese Tone Trainer, the Vietnamese Tone Trainer, and the Thai Tone Trainer, the same live pitch feedback for four tone languages. For Japanese pitch, the Japanese Pitch Accent Trainer coaches high/low patterns mora by mora. For Hokkien, the Taiwanese Hokkien Tone Trainer coaches seven tones plus real tone sandhi. For sign language, Fingerspell teaches the ASL alphabet.
This is a home practice tool, not a teacher, therapist or safety device. Everything runs on your device: no video, audio or images are sent anywhere. Feedback is automatic and can be wrong. For real instruction, learn from Yoruba speakers or a Yoruba teacher, linked on the Resources page.