Guide to Respellings

New! Struggling with word pronunciation? Try our latest feature, Respelling Suggestions, to achieve the perfect pronunciation every time. 

Respellings allow you to give precise pronunciation instructions to the avatar to get the correct pronunciation every time. 

In this article:

What are Respellings?

How does it work?

What's new with Respellings?

Respellings Punctuation Rules

Reference Charts

Respellings for Acronyms

Respellings Examples

Common Respelling Errors

What are Respellings?

Respellings lets you format a word within the Studio text editor that tells the AI exactly what sound each syllable should make—and which syllables should be emphasized.

Screenshot 2024-03-26 at 2.12.56 PM

How does it work?

Without Respellings, you had to play with phonetic spellings.

For example, to get “covid” to sound right, you might try typing co-vid or coah-vid or kohvyd until you get the right sound. 

With Respellings,  you can now give the AI specific cues to help shape its predictions. 

You can teach the AI how to pronounce covid right every time by entering ::KOH-vihd::

What’s new with Respellings?

Our next version, currently labeled New,  introduces two major changes to Respellings.

  • Each respelling must be associated with an original word. To help the transition, you will now be prompted to add your original word for any respellings found in your script.
    respelling_module
  • We’ve also introduced a new Respelling toggle feature. 
    • Respellings still work the same, but you don’t need to rely on the double colon format (:: ::).
    • In the Studio Editor & Pronunciation Library, you will now see Respelling toggles that allow you to choose whether to save your Replacement as a creative spelling or a true Respelling.
    • Existing Respellings that you’ve saved in your library will still function, even if you’ve saved them in the double colon format (:: ::). 

      replacement_wsl_newreplacement_beautiful_wsl

Respellings and punctuation rules

Every respelling must be contained within two colons using all lowercase letters except for the emphasized syllable in all caps.

For example, ::STOO-dee-oh:: for Studio.

  1. Type two colons first. 

    Our test sentence is "Come visit scenic Saskatchewan!"

    So first, you'd type Come visit scenic ::

    Respellings_Step_by_step_1

  2. Next, spell out the sounds for the first syllable. Come visit scenic ::sask

    For vowel sounds like the “a” in ball, or blended sounds like “th” in the, we recommend looking your sound up on the charts below or here. This will help the AI know the exact sound you want.

    Respellings_Step_by_step_2

  3. Type a dash, then the sound of the second syllable. Come visit scenic ::sask-ach

    Respellings_Step_by_step_3
  4. Repeat this process for each syllable in your word. Come visit scenic ::sask-ach-oo-wehn

    Respellings_Step_by_step_4
  5. When you have finished your final syllable, type two colons instead of adding another dash to let the AI know this is the end of your word. Come visit scenic ::sask-ach-oo-wehn::

    Respellings_Step_by_step_5
  6. Put any emphasized syllables in ALL CAPS. Come visit scenic ::sask-ACH-oo-wehn::!

    Note: Every word in the English language has at least one emphasized syllable. Some words or acronyms might sound better with two emphasized syllables.

    Respellings_Step_by_step_6

  7. That’s it! Your word is ready for the AI to pronounce it correctly.
  8. Test it out in the Pronunciation section of Studio and listen to the result.

Found the perfect spelling? Save it to your Pronunciation Library to use later. 

Reference charts

Use the column headers like a fill-in-the-blank sentence:
“To hear “a” as in all, type AW. For example, ::AWL::”

VOWELS

CONSONANTS

To hear

as in

type

Example

To hear

as in

type

Example

a

ant

A

::ANT::

b

bunk

B

::BUHNK::

a

spa

AH

::SPAH::

ch

chart

CH

::CHAHRT::

a

all

AW

::AWL::

d

dust

D

::DUHST::

a

eight

AY

::AYT::

f

first

F

::FURST::

e

egg

EH

::EHG::

g

glow

G

::GLOH::

e

ease

EE

::EEZ::

h

horse

H

::HORS::

i

in

IH

::IHN::

j

jell

J

::JEHL::

i

isle

Y

::YL::

k

kite

K

::KYT::

o

oat

OH

::OHT::

l

laugh

L

::LAF::

o

ooh

OO

::OO::

m

mask

M

::MASK::

o foot UU ::FUUT::

n

nest

N

::NEHST::

u up UH ::UHP::

ng

ring

NG

::RIHNG::

       

nk

rink

NK

::RIHNK::

VOWELS COMBOS

p

pop

P

::PAHP::

To hear as in type Example qu quote KW ::KWOHT::
ar car AR ::KAR::

r

rain

R

::RAYN::

er error ERR ::ERR-ur::

s

slice

S

::SLYS::

or more OR ::MOR:: sh shy SH ::SHY::
ow cow OW ::KOW::

t

tarte

T

::TART::

oy oy OY ::OY:: th though DH ::DHOH::
ur urn UR ::URN::

th

think

TH

::THIHNK::

       

v

van

V

::VAN::

        w

win

W

::WIHN::

        x axe KS ::AKS::
       

y

yes

Y

::YEHS::

       

z

zen

Z

::ZEHN::

       

zh

measure

ZH

::MEH-zhur::

Respellings for acronyms

When you need to Respell an acronym or initialism, where each letter is spoken as itself (ASPCA, LCD, BBC, FBI).

A → ::AY::

N → ::EHN::

B → ::BEE::

O → ::OH::

C → ::SEE::

P → ::PEE::

D → ::DEE::

Q → ::KYOO::

E → ::EE::

R → ::AR::

F → ::EHF::

S → ::EHS::

G → ::JEE::

T → ::TEE::

H → ::AYCH::

U → ::YOO::

I → ::Y::

V → ::VEE::

J → ::JAY::

W → ::DUH-buhl-yoo::

K → ::KAY::

X → ::EHKS::

L → ::EHL::

Y → ::WY::

M → ::EHM::

Z → ::ZEE::  or ::ZEHD::


The alphabet would be like this:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ → ::ay-bee-see-dee-ee-ehf-jee-aych-y-jay-kay-ehl-ehm-ehn-oh-pee-kyoo-ar-ehs-tee-yoo-vee-DUH-buhl-yoo-ehks-wy-ZEE::

Respellings of common American English words

Some of the words in this list have more than one emphasized syllable.

Note: There are also a few words with equal emphasis on both syllables, such as 'although'. These are rare. ::AWL-DHOH:: and ::awl-dhoh:: would technically both be correct Respellings. 

administrative → ::uhd-MIH-nuh-stray-tihv::

engineering → ::EHN-juh-NEE-rihng::

approximately → ::uh-PRAHK-suh-muht-lee::

instruments → ::IHN-struh-muhnts::

assistance → ::uh-SIH-stuhns::

membership → ::MEHM-bur-shihp::

available → ::uh-VAY-luh-buhl::

opportunities → ::AH-pur-TOO-nuh-teez::

commercial → ::kuh-MUR-shuhl::

permission → ::pur-MIH-shuhn::

communication → ::kuh-MYOO-nuh-KAY-shuhn::

photography → ::fuh-TAH-gruh-fee::

compliance → ::kuhm-PLY-uhns::

programming → ::PROH-gra-mihng::

described → ::dih-SKRYBD::

responsibility → ::ree-SPAHN-suh-BIH-luh-tee::

electronics → ::ih-LEHK-TRAH-nihks::

scientific → ::SY-uhn-TIH-fihk::

Getting a Respellings error?

Check to make sure that:

Your respelling has two colons at the beginning and two colons at the end.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ :ihg-ZAM-puhl:


You don’t have any blank spaces inside your Respelling.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ ::ihg ZAM puhl::


Your non-emphasized syllables are all lowercase and your emphasized syllables are all uppercase.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ ::Ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ ::ihg-Zam-puhl::


You don’t have anything other than plain letters or dashes inside your respelling

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl:: 

⛔ ::ihg/ZAM/puhl::

⛔ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl!::

⛔ ::ihg-ZÆM-púhl:: 


Your spelling has some content inside of it.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ :: ::

⛔ ::


The first and last parts of the Respelling have to be letters.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl::

⛔ ::-ihg-ZAM-puhl-:: 


There are no special characters before or after the Respelling.

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl:: dot com

⛔ ::-ihg-ZAM-puhl-::.com 

 

✅ ::ihg-ZAM-puhl:: - Word

⛔ ::-ihg-ZAM-puhl-::-Word 


Still, getting an error?

If you have previously added a Respelling to your Pronunciation Library that includes words with diacritic marks or special characters, the AI may have a hard time pronouncing these respellings.

To avoid this, you may want to uncheck the Pronunciation toggle or remove these entries.