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 the 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.
- The 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”). Weak forms are italicized in the output.
- 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, Chrome).
*) American transcriptions are based on the open Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary.
We encourage students of linguistics/phonetics to do their own work during their assignments and remind them that submitting transcriptions produced by this website for academic credit is a breach of academic integrity.
NB: Audio playback!
The speech playback feature is heavily dependant on the OS/browser combination you use. If you want your comments about audio quality to be helpful, please, mention your OS and browser (ideally with versions).
At the moment we recommend Chrome on desktops for full audio playback functionality, which includes
Safari dev team has been progressively destroying its in-browser voice support over the last few years and has other TTS implementation issues they don’t seem to be willing to address. There’s little we can do about it at the moment, unfortunately.
On Android, Firefox seems to work best, then Edge. Chrome or Brave on Android aren’t recommended, while Opera doesn’t seem to support speech at all.
Let us know how Audio playback works for you by replying to this comment, especially if you use less common OS/browsers. Thanks!
I’m on Firefox/Windows, and it’s not working for me.
Hi, audio playback is extremely fast, too fast for a non-native English speaker to learn, unless I’m doing something wrong..?
Thanks
You can change the playback rate with the slider next to the playback controls. The default speech rate may differ based on your OS and the browser. What OS/browser are you using?
Thanks guys, I’ve tried that but it is not correlating at all to changing speed? Great page by the way!
Chrome ..
What happens, the speech rate is not affected at all? What OS are you on, is it Chrome on Android by any chance?
It doesn’t work well for me, the audio cuts off when I put an intermediate text and it’s not that long, it’s just a short text but no, no, I read the text, it just reads the first two words and it cuts off and I’m using Chrome and it doesn’t work for me but on the computer it does but not on the tablet, my tablet is a Samsung Galaxy 9 a
Ok, thanks for the feedback. The speech cuts off in Chrome on Android, but ok in Chrome on mac or PC?
On Android, Firefox seems to work best, then Edge. Chrome, Brave on Android didn’t work for me, while Opera doesn’t seem to support speech at all.
The word ‘clunky’ isn’t transcribed
Thanks!
why it stop at the middle
Know issue with Safari, looking for a solution rn.
Is it possible to type the text in English together with the transcription but without reading the transcription
For example:
Do you want to grab lunch? [du ju wɑnt tə ɡræb lʌntʃ]
And just read “Do you want to grab lunch?” without reading [du ju wɑnt tə ɡræb lʌntʃ] ??
Why would you want to input both the text and its transcription? Can you explain what you’re trying to achieve?
The IPA for “bioscience” comes out /baɪoʊˈsiəns/, but “biosciences” becomes /baɪˈɔsiˌɛnsɪz/. I don’t think it is correct.
Thanks!
Hi! It seems that the pronunciation of the word ‘vase” in British is incorrect, transcription is different than the pronunciation of the word by the narrator. Transcription seems to be “va:z”, while the narrator uses the American “veis”. Please take a look at it!
Looks like an Windows voice models’ issue. Pronounced correctly on mac.
Why are the a in “and” and the a in “cat” listed as the same phonetic letter?
Because they are in their dictionary forms. If you want to see weak forms, tick the “Show weak forms” checkbox.
This word is missing: gargantuous
Would “gargantuan” work instead?
I can still use the website normally on Chrome, but for the past two weeks, the audio hasn’t been working. Please kindly check. Both the British and American pronunciations are silent.
I’ve already checked my device and browser settings, but the issue persists.
Indeed the Google remote voices in Chrome stopped working, will investigate.
Did you try selecting other voices? Daniel, Serena are good for British. Nicky, Samantha – for the American.
I’m sad that neither iOS, Chrome, nor Edge are working with toPhonetics. The sounds aren’t natural. I don’t know which path to take.
Your operating system should allow you to download additional voices. Try installing English voices (both UK and US). Then they will appear in the voice selection dropdown. If you’re on mac, don’t install “enhanced” voices as Apple has not only made them unavailable in Safari, but they also block not-enhanced voices as well. They should appear in Chrome though.
Let us know if you want to try and sort it out together over the email.
I like this page