How to Pronounce Any Word: A Speech Scientist's Method
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Preview draft (not yet reviewed by L.C.). This hub page will link to every word page on the site as the library grows.
Dictionaries tell you what the standard pronunciation is. They rarely tell you how to work it out when you meet a new word, a name, or a word borrowed from another language. Here is the method a speech scientist uses.
1. Find the syllables
Say the word slowly and count the beats. Each beat is a syllable, built around a vowel sound. “Worcestershire” looks like five syllables on the page but is usually said with three: WUUS-tuh-shur. Spelling is a poor guide to syllable count in English, so trust your ear and a recording over the letters.
2. Find the stressed syllable
English words have one syllable that is louder, longer and higher in pitch than the rest. Getting the stress wrong is the most common reason a word sounds “off” even when every sound is right. Compare REcord (the noun) with reCORD (the verb). In dictionary IPA, the stressed syllable is marked with a raised tick ( ˈ ) before it.
3. Read the IPA
The International Phonetic Alphabet gives one symbol per sound, so it removes the guesswork of English spelling. You do not need all of it: about 44 symbols cover the sounds of English. A few that trip people up:
| Symbol | Sound | As in |
|---|---|---|
| ə | the relaxed “uh” (schwa) | the a in about |
| θ | voiceless “th” | thin |
| ð | voiced “th” | this |
| ʃ | “sh” | ship |
| ŋ | “ng” | sing |
TODO (L.C.): link the interactive IPA chart with sounds once it is published.
4. Hear real speakers, not just a synthetic voice
Text-to-speech voices are consistent, but they can mislead on names, loanwords and regional words. Listen to several people who actually use the word: news presenters, people from the place a name comes from, or the owner of the name. Short video clips that start at the moment the word is said are ideal for this.
TODO (L.C.): add a clip-cued YouTube example here with the YouTubeEmbed component (start and end times).
5. Check whether there is more than one correct answer
Many words have accepted variants: either (EE-ther or EYE-ther), schedule (SHED-yool in Britain, SKED-jool in the US), often (with or without the t). Where variants exist, this site gives each one, says where it is used, and does not pretend one is “right”.
Coming next on this site
- How to pronounce names (and how to spell your own name phonetically)
- An interactive IPA chart with sounds
- Word pages, starting with Porsche, Edinburgh, açaí and gyro