Hi! Got an English text and want to see how to pronounce it? This online converter of English text to IPA phonetic transcription will translate your English text into its phonetic transcription using International Phonetic Alphabet. Paste or type your English text in the text field above and click “Show transcription” button (or use [Ctrl+Enter] shortcut from the text input area).
Features:
- Choose between British and American* pronunciation. When British option is selected the [r] sound at the end of the word is only voiced if followed by a vowel, which follows British phonetic convention.
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols used.
- The structure of the text and sentences in it (line breaks, punctuation marks, etc.) is preserved in phonetic transcription output making it easier to read.
- An option to vary pronunciation depending on whether words are in stressed or weak position in the sentence, as in connected speech (checkbox “Show weak forms”).
- Words in CAPS are interpreted as acronyms if the word is not found in the database. Acronym transcriptions will be shown with hyphens between letters.
- In addition to commonly used vocabulary the database contains a very substantial amount of place names (including names of countries, their capitals, US states, UK counties), nationalities and popular names.
- You can output the text and its phonetic transcription along each other side-by-side or line-by-line to make back-reference to the original text easier. Just tick the appropriate checkbox in the input form.
- Where a word has a number of different pronunciations (highlighted in blue in the output) you can select the one that agrees with the context by clicking on it. To see a popup with a list of possible pronunciations move your mouse cursor over the word.
Note that different pronunciations of one word may have different meanings or may represent variations in pronunciation with the same meaning. If unsure which pronunciation is relevant in your particular case, consult a dictionary. - The dictionary database is regularly amended with most popular missing words (shown in red in the output).
- The text can be read out loud in browsers with speech synthesis support (Safari – recommended, Chrome).
*) American transcriptions are based on the open Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary.
Hey, have you considered making an API that allows programs to access this transcriber. Specifically Python? It’d be a nice touch.
Thanks for the suggestion. It’s a popular request, it’s still under consideration though.
¿Como puedo cambiar la voz del transcriptor?
Por el momento no puedes. Quizás en el futuro.
Hi! I just got/ˈspaɪərəlz/ for “spirals”, and it feels to me like there is an extra ə that shouldn’t be there?
when your mouth forms the English ‘r’ after a vowel, then there always is to hear a tiny little bit of an ‘ə’
This is so helpful. It works well with the IPA font I have too. I don’t need the app on my phone but I am willing to contribute.
Hello tophonetics.com,
well there is a problem, I am trying to transcribe paragraphs but your site doesn’t offer ” | ” and ” || ” symbols for the beginnings of the sentences and the ” , ” parts when i put these symbols myself to Parentheses sections, system puts symbols to every word and always uses the strong form of the words . As far as I know in connected speech they should be weak [ I used the weak form section but it didn’t change.] I hope you can enlight me on these.
Thank you in advance.
Can you give an example, what you enter and what you expect as the output?
oh sure. Well, the text was;
“Astronomers are always searching for the best instruments and the best places to look at the stars. Over the years, astronomers have developed huge telescopes to improve their ability to view the universe. The larger the telescope, the better the view. One of the largest telescopes in the world is 200 inches (508 cm) across.”
|| əsˈtrɒnəməz ər ˈɔːlweɪz ˈsɜːʧɪŋ fə ðə bɛst ˈɪnstrʊmənts ənd ðə bɛst ˈpleɪsɪz tə lʊk ət ðə stɑːz || ˈəʊvə ðə jɪəz | əsˈtrɒnəməz həv dɪˈvɛləpt hjuːʤ ˈtɛlɪskəʊps tʊ ɪmˈpruːv ðeər əˈbɪlɪti tə vjuː ðə ˈjuːnɪvɜːs || ðə ˈlɑːʤə ðə ˈtɛlɪskəʊp | ðə ˈbɛtə ðə vjuː || wʌn əv ðə ˈlɑːʤɪst ˈtɛlɪskəʊps ɪn ðə wɜːld ɪz 200 ˈɪnʧɪz (508 ˈsɛntɪˌmiːtəz) əˈkrɒs ||
i hope this helps
The idea to keep the original text punctuation (which is not part of IPA recommendations) was to make it easier for the reader to follow the transcription.
Weak forms option enables reduced pronunciation of auxiliary words depending on their place in the sentence. At the moment it doesn’t affect parentheses in any way.
Parentheses you specify are indeed applied on per word basis currently. I will consider what you described above as a feature request, so it may be added in the future. Thanks.
Here is an American transcription which is phonetically better than British transcription.
“əˈstrɑnəmərz ɑr ˈɔlˌweɪz ˈsɜrʧɪŋ fɔr ðə bɛst ˈɪnstrəmənts ænd ðə bɛst ˈpleɪsɪz tu lʊk æt ðə stɑrz. ˈoʊvər ðə jɪrz, əˈstrɑnəmərz hæv dɪˈvɛləpt hjuʤ ˈtɛləˌskoʊps tu ɪmˈpruv ðɛr əˈbɪləti tu vju ðə ˈjunəˌvɜrs. ðə ˈlɑrʤər ðə ˈtɛləˌskoʊp, ðə ˈbɛtər ðə vju. wʌn ʌv ðə ˈlɑrʤəst ˈtɛləˌskoʊps ɪn ðə wɜrld ɪz 200 ˈɪnʧəz (508 cm) əˈkrɔs.”
“Àstränàmàrz är ŏlweiz sàrching fŏr dhà best instràmànts ănd dhà best pleisiz tu luk ăt dhà stärz. Ovàr dhà yirz, àstränàmàrz hăv divelàpt hyuj telàskops tu impruv dher àbilàti tu vyu dhà yunàvàrs. Dhà lärjàr dhà telàskop, dhà betàr dhà vyu. Wàn àv dhà lärjàst telàskops in dhà wàrld iz 200 inchàz 508 cm àkrŏs.”
Not entry for subroutine.
Thanks! Added to British.
thanks man thank you so much
There is no entry for ethnographer. Also, when I paste the phonetics into my Word document, some of the pronunciations are underlined and others are blue. I can undo that. The problem is that some of the words turn dark red and cannot be turned black to match the rest of my document. Is there a reason for that? I do make some changes in your transcriptions, using a system that I was taught in graduate school that uses /ey/ for the vowel in rain and /ow/ in the word so. Is this why the color changes?
In Microsoft Word, you want to paste as “text only”, so it doesn’t copy the link to change the pronunciation. You can do this by right clicking and under paste you will see a clipboard with an “A” on it, that when you point at it will say “Keep Text Only”. That will solve your problem, which isn’t a problem with the website, it’s Word copying the webpage code and not just text. Good luck!
Подскажите пожалуйста, для чего в транскрипции русскими букрами ставят ‘ или , ?
Например в слове тэˈмейˌтoу или такой вариант ˈстроˌбери
Это фонетические знаки первичного (ˈ) и вторичного (ˌ) ударения. Они сохранены в русской транскрипции, поскольку различаются английском произношении.
Большое спасибо.
Мочиму m читает как ю исправте