Our voice model is pretty good at predicting pronunciation, but a few things can trip it up: unfamiliar or rare nouns (i.e., company names, words borrowed from other languages, or specialized terminology), homonyms (read vs. read), acronyms, and numbers. With the following best practices, you can get words spoken just the way you want.
Acronyms Pronunciation
Acronyms as words
For an acronym as a word, try spelling the word the way it sounds.
Example: FEMA → ""feema"" or ""::FEE-ma::""
Acronyms as individual letters
If you want an acronym to be pronounced letter by letter, add spaces or dashes between them or use a Respelling for better control.
Example: TBD → ""T.B.D."" or ""T-B-D"" or ""::TEE-BEE-DEE::""
If using a Respelling, stressing the first and last syllables only tends to produce better results.
Example: ASAP → ""AY-ehs-ay-PEE""
Word Pronunciation
When the voice needs help predicting a word or text, you can provide it with a replacement spelling to get the correct pronunciation. You can also store your replacements to take advantage of reusing them over and over again.
Use a Respelling suggestion
Use the Respelling suggestions feature, which lets you add accurate Respelling replacements for common, industry-specific, uncommon, and complex words, among others you'd find in the Oxford dictionary, in American and British English. Simply click on the open book icon when adding a new replacement in Studio.
Create a phonetic Respelling
Use Respellings as a unique way to format a word by breaking down each syllable and which syllables should be emphasized.
Example: Triiodothyronine → ""try-yuh-uh-doo-THY-ruh-neen""
Create a replacement text
Create a Replacement to substitute a word, term, or phrase with an alternative way of spelling when the pronunciation of a word, term, or phrase is otherwise ambiguous:
Example: 1099-MISC, tax form
- Voices will vocalize as “ten ninety-nine M I S C”
- Add a Replacement so the voice will always say “ten ninety-nine Miscellaneous”
Emphasize a word or phrase
Add quotation marks ("""") around a word or phrase to direct the voice to pay particular attention. Learn how to get the right inflection.