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Guide to Phonetic Respelling for Custom Pronunciation

Updated

What is phonetic respelling?

When the Text-to-Speech system pronounces certain words incorrectly in a script, we can correct that pronunciation by using phonetic respelling for those words. Phonetic respelling is when you type out how a word sounds syllable-by-syllable. For example, typing "WussTer instead of the original word, "Worcester," to get proper pronunciation. 

Phonetic Respelling is particularly useful for the following cases:

  • Proper nouns: Names of people, places, or brands that have unique pronunciations (e.g., Siobhan, Amazon).
  • Homographs and heteronyms: Words that have the same spelling, but different pronunciations depending on meaning or grammar (e.g. “read” in present tense vs “read” in past tense.
  • Acronyms and initialisms: Sequences of capital letters may be spoken as a word (ASAP) or letter-by-letter (REI Systems).
  • Technical and domain-specific terms: Specialized vocabulary, drug names, programming tools, etc., often have irregular or brand-led pronunciations (e.g. hydroxyzine, Kubernetes and LIBOR).
  • Foreign words: Words borrowed from other languages keep spellings that don’t map cleanly to English sounds (e.g. jalapeño, croissant).
  • Regional variants of words: Acceptable pronunciations differ by dialect or region (e.g. Tomato in US English vs Tomato in UK English).
  • Numbers, symbols, and units: Digits, math symbols, and unit abbreviations maybe read too literally, too fast, or ambiguously by TTS engine (e.g., “mm” as “millimeter” vs “mm”).

Best approaches for Phonetic Respelling in Vyond 

1. For best results, capitalize the first letter of each syllable without spaces.

Proper nouns

  • Vyond → VeeYond
  • Siobhan → ShiVon

Homographs and heteronyms

  • I will read this book → I will Reed this book
  • I have read a book → I have Red a book

Acronyms and initialisms

  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done AySap
  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done ASAP

Technical and domain-specific terms

  • Kubernetes → KooBerNayTeez
  • LIBOR → LyeBor

Foreign words

  • Jalapeño → HahLuhPayNyo
  • Croissant → KwahSahnt

Regional variants of words

  • Tomato → TuhMayToh
  • Tomato → TuhMahToh

Numbers, symbols, and units

  • 0.5mm → zero point five millimeters
  • ≤ → less than or equal to

2. If capitalizing the first letter of each syllable still doesn’t give you the intended result, you can try adding an apostrophe before each capital letter.

Proper nouns

  • Siobhan → ‘Shi’Von

Homographs and heteronyms

  • I will read this book → I will ‘Reed this book
  • I have read a book → I have ‘Red a book

Acronyms and initialisms

  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done ‘Ay’Sap
  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done ‘A’S’A’P

Technical and domain-specific terms

  • Kubernetes → ‘Koo’Ber’Nay’Teez
  • LIBOR → ‘Lye’Bor

Foreign words

  • Jalapeño → ‘Hah’Luh’Pay’Nyo
  • Croissant → ‘Kwah’Sahnt

Regional variants of words

  • Tomato → ‘Tuh’May’Toh
  • Tomato → ‘Tuh’Mah’Toh

3. If approach 1 & 2 do not work, try capitalizing the first letter of each syllable and adding a space between each syllable.

Proper nouns

  • Siobhan → Shi Von

Homographs and heteronyms

  • I will read this book → I will Reed this book
  • I have read a book → I have Red a book

Acronyms and initialisms

  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done Ay Sap
  • Can you get this done ASAP → Can you get this done A S A P

Technical and domain-specific terms

  • Kubernetes → Koo Ber Nay Teez
  • LIBOR → Lye Bor

Foreign words

  • Jalapeño → Hah Luh Pay Nyo
  • Croissant → Kwah Sahnt

Regional variants of words

  • Tomato → Tuh May Toh
  • Tomato → Tuh Mah Toh

Vowel sounds

Sound

Respelling

Example

a (as in cat)

a

apple, track

ay (as in say)

ay

eight, rain, plate

ah (as in father)

ah

last, palm

aw (as in law)

aw

caught, all, saw

e (as in bed)

e

met, bread

ee (as in feet)

ee

meat, sea, be

i (as in sit)

i

igloo, gym

eye (as in eye)

ye

pie, high, buy

o (as in pot)

o

hot, stop

oo (as in boot)

oo

blue, flew, moon

uu (as in book)

uu

put, could, foot

uh (as in cup)

uh, a (for Google TTS)

some, about, bus

ow (as in cow)

ow

now, out, bough

oy (as in boy)

oy

toy, coin

er (as in her)

er

bird, fur, learn

Consonant sounds

Sound

Respelling

Example

b

b

baby

ch

ch

church

d

d

did

f

f

fluffy, phone

g (hard)

g

go, greg

h

h

hello

j

j

judge, giant

k

k

cat, kite, pack

l

l

lemon

m

m

mom

n

n

nun, know

ng

ng

sing, finger

p

p

puppy

r

r

roar, write

s

s

sit, city, pass

sh

sh

shoe, sure, emotion

t

t

tan

th (soft)

th

thin, math

th (hard)

TH

this, mother

v

v

vest, of

w

w

wow, when

y

y

yes, yellow

z

z

zoo, rose, is

zh

zh

measure, azure

Pro-Tips

  1. Keep it Simple: Only use respelling for words the system gets wrong. For acronyms you want read as letters, just use hyphens or spaces (e.g., U-S-B, U S B).
  2. Listen and Iterate: Generate the audio and listen. If it's not quite right, adjust the respelling. Sometimes changing the stress (by capitalizing a different syllable) is all you need.
  3. Test with a Sentence: Sometimes a word sounds right in isolation but needs tweaking to flow naturally in a full sentence. 

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