A Guide to Respellings

A respelling system that allows you to give precise instructions to the AI.

In this article:

What are Respellings?

How does it work?

Respellings Punctuation Rules

Reference Charts

Respellings for Acronyms

Respellings examples of common words in American English

Getting a Respellings error?

What are Respellings?

Respellings give you a way to format a word in the Studio text editor that tells the AI exactly what sound each syllable should make and which syllables should be emphasized.

How does it work?

Before, you’ve probably tried entering a variety of “phonetic cues” to get the AI to pronounce tricky words.

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::

Respellings Punctuation Rules

To help shape the AI's predictions, you’ll need to enter your word following these punctuation rules:

Note: Every respelling will be contained within the two colons with all lowercase letters except for the emphasized syllable. For example, ::STOO-dee-oh:: for Studio.

  1. Type two colons. This lets the AI know that you are about to type a single word with exact directions for how to pronounce it.

    Our test sentence is Come visit scenic Saskatchewan!

    We will first enter  Come visit scenic ::

    Respellings_Step_by_step_1

  2. Next, type 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. In your respelled word, 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 predict.
  8. Click “create” and listen to the result.

    You can enter your respelling in your Pronunciation library

    Respellings_Step_by_step

 

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::


All together, you get…

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 examples of common words in American English

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-:: 


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 under Render Options or remove these entries.