What is werdel?
werdel is a pronunciation-based word-guessing game. You type an English word, but the board evaluates its transcription in the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA. Both the answer and each accepted guess occupy five IPA positions.
The number of ordinary letters in the spelling can be different. That makes werdel especially interesting if you enjoy phonetics, accents, or the gap between English writing and speech.
Five IPA units, eight attempts
The daily board gives you eight guesses. Green feedback identifies a correct sound in the correct position, yellow identifies one elsewhere in the answer, and gray identifies an unavailable sound, taking repeated units into account.
The game uses British Received Pronunciation, including its non-rhotic treatment of R. Its rules treat a long vowel such as ɑː as one unit, distinct from its short counterpart. Affricates written tʃ and dʒ occupy two positions under the game's unit-counting rules.
Read the pronunciation the game produces instead of counting the letters you typed or relying on a different accent.
How to play
- Open werdel's Daily mode and review the pronunciation examples in How to Play.
- Think of a valid English word whose supported pronunciation contains exactly five IPA units.
- Type the word and press Enter. Check its transcription and the feedback tiles.
- Keep confirmed sounds in their positions, move yellow sounds, and test useful alternatives with the remaining guesses.
- Continue until you identify the word or use all eight attempts.
Spelling and sound can have different lengths
The official tutorial uses harbours to demonstrate the distinction:
h · ɑː · b · ə · z
That is five game units despite the longer written word. The R is not pronounced as a separate consonant in the accent used here, and the long vowel remains a single unit.
A useful next guess changes the sounds you still need to investigate. Merely changing the spelling may add little information if the pronunciation stays the same. Check vowel length carefully too: similar-looking IPA symbols can represent different feedback possibilities.