Frequently asked questions

Addy's Parrot is an app you install on your computer. You give it a YouTube video — or a video from your hard drive — and Addy's Parrot helps you practice the English in that video one sentence at a time. Click any sentence and Addy's Parrot loops it. Click any word and Addy's Parrot shows you the dictionary. Record yourself and Addy's Parrot plays your voice back so you can hear how it sounded. Sentences you find hard come back tomorrow.

Download Addy's Parrot for Mac or Windows from this site and open it. Paste a YouTube link, or pick a local video file. Wait a minute while Addy's Parrot writes the subtitles. Then click any sentence to hear it loop — and try to say it back.

Addy's Parrot runs on macOS 12 (Monterey) or later — both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs — and on Windows 10 (build 1809) or Windows 11, 64-bit. There is no mobile version of Addy's Parrot yet; iOS and Android are on our roadmap but not available today.

Addy's Parrot is available in 13 interface languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, French, Japanese, German, Korean, Thai, and Indonesian. You pick the interface language separately from the language you're studying — so the dictionary in Addy's Parrot can translate English into your native language while you keep practicing English.

Right now, Addy's Parrot only supports videos in English — both for automatic subtitle generation and for the sentence-by-sentence practice loop. The dictionary, voice playback, and review queue are all tuned for English learners. Support for other source languages is on the Addy's Parrot roadmap, but it isn't available today.

Not really. Even if you only know a few words, you can pick a beginner-friendly video and let Addy's Parrot walk you through it one sentence at a time. The built-in dictionary in Addy's Parrot translates each word into your native language. The hardest part is just picking a video you actually want to watch.

On a Mac: open the .dmg you downloaded from the Addy's Parrot download page. A window pops up — drag the Addy's Parrot icon into the Applications folder.

On Windows: open the .exe installer you downloaded and follow the steps the installer shows.

The first time you launch Addy's Parrot, it sets itself up. The first launch can take a few minutes; after that, Addy's Parrot opens quickly.

Yes. Addy's Parrot is free to download, free to use, and has no ads. We don't plan to start charging — but if Addy's Parrot ever does add paid features, the version you already have on your machine keeps working without paying.

Nowhere — Addy's Parrot processes everything on your own computer. Your videos, the words and sentences you save, your voice recordings: none of them leave your machine. Addy's Parrot only reaches the network to (1) download a small set of tools on first launch, (2) check GitHub Releases for updates, and (3) fetch YouTube videos directly when you paste a link. You can turn off the update check in Addy's Parrot settings if you want.

Mostly yes. Addy's Parrot needs the internet the first time you set it up, and any time you paste a new YouTube link. Once a video is loaded and subtitles are generated, you can keep practicing offline. Looking up a word in the dictionary still needs the internet.

Not yet. Addy's Parrot is currently a desktop app for Mac and Windows. A mobile version of Addy's Parrot for iOS and Android is on our list, but it isn't available today.

If you use Addy's Parrot for fifteen minutes a day, some sentences start feeling easier within a week. Don't worry about being fast — the whole point of Addy's Parrot is that the same sentence comes back tomorrow, and the next day, until your mouth knows what to do.

No — Addy's Parrot doesn't give you a score or a grade. It records your voice and plays it back so you can hear what you just said. The idea is to train your own ear: once your version sounds like the original, you've got it.

Yes! Just send them the link to this Addy's Parrot website. Addy's Parrot is free for everyone.

Click the link below — it'll take you to a page where you can tell the Addy's Parrot team what happened. Write down what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. A screenshot helps a lot. We read every message.