US English phonetic pronunciation

This topic provides a US English phonetic chart to assist you in correcting US English baseform phonetic sounds.

“ae”

AE

add cat pan

ae

The short “a” sound.

“ah”

AA

are drop collar

ah

Rarely wrong but sometimes an open 'o' sound is used instead of the 'ah'. So spell 'mot' as 'maht' to change it from 'moat' to 'mott'.

“uh”

AH

one come

'Uh' or double the following letter

Very rarely wrong; sometimes an unstressed sound is used instead. So spell 'merom' as 'meromm'.

Short “o”

AO

all off caution

or

Very rarely wrong. Try spelling 'Audi' as 'Ordi'.

“au”

AW

how about

ou au ow

If 'ow' is mispronounced as 'oh' try switching to 'au' or 'ou'.

“eh”

AX

enable moment

eh

The unstressed “eh” sound as in “moment” or “enable” but not as in “enter”.

“er”

AXR

another over or

er

The unstressed “er” sound as in “another” over or “or” but not as in “her”.

Long “i”

AY

fire why eye

y ai add an e

Rare but if 'Byron' is mispronounced more like “Birron” then try spelling it as 'Bairon' or “Byeron” or even 'Byre-on'.

“eh”

EH

enter pleasant

eh

Rare but replacing the vowel letter or letters by 'eh' usually works. For example if 'pleasant' were mispronounced as “pleesant” then 'plehsant' corrects it.

“er”

ER

bird turn her

er

Never observed but 'er' should work.

Long “a”

EY

train eight A

ai ay ey

If 'wacome' is mispronounced “wah-come” then one of 'waicome' 'waycome' or 'weycome' should fix.

Short “i”

IH

if it pick

ih

The short I sound as in “it” “if ” or “pick” but not as in “lasting”. 'Piro' should be pronounced with a short I and is mispronounced as “pyro” then 'pihro' should work.

“ix”

IX

discuss saving budgeted decided

ix

The unstressed short “i” sound as in “discuss” “budgeted” “decided” or “saving”.

Long “e”

IY

any he obvious

ee ey ie

If 'matrio' was mispronounced as “mah-try-oh” then 'matreeo' 'matreeoh' or 'mahtreeoh' should fix.

Long “o”

OW

quote open go

oh ow oe

'bow' should be right for 'beau' and 'dohl' should work for 'dole'.

“oi”

OY

avoid enjoy dive why

oy

The long “i” sound (or oi sound) as in “avoid” “employ” “dive” or “why”.

Short “u”

UH

good full could put

uh

The short “u” sound as in “good” “put” “full” or “could”. If 'clough' should be pronounced as in “cluf” then 'cluhf' should work.

Long “u”

UW

tooth blue view use you

oo yoo

The stressed long “u” sound as in “to” “use” “you” or “view”. Try 'bloomehn' for the German pronunciation of 'blumen'.

Usually non-vowel sounds are not a problem for the Run Time baseform engine unless the name is of foreign extraction, as in the British pronunciation of Schedule (Schxhule). The table below lists the consonant sounds if you need to select a different sound than that produced by the automatic pronunciation rules.

“b”

B

be able

The “b” sound as in “be” or “able”.

“bd”

BD

sob tab blurb

The hard “b” sound at the end of a word.

“ch”

CH

cheap child

The soft “c” sound before “h”. The “ch” sound as in “cheap”.

“d”

D

and David

The “d” sound as in “David” or “and”.

“dd”

DD

The “d” sound at the end of a word.

“dh”

DH

the either

The voiced “th” sound as in “the” or “either” but NOT as in “thesis” or “thing”.

“dx”

DX

butter greater regarding order

The very short “t” or “d” sound as in “butter” “greater” “regarding” or “order”.

“d$”

D$

A dummy sound that marks the beginning and end of a sentence.

“f”

F

father rough

The soft “f” sound.

“g”

G

again peg

The hard “g” sound.

“gd”

GD

log tug

The “g” sound at the end of a word.

“hh”

HH

here who

The “h” sound.

“jh”

JH

jeep roger

The soft “g” sound.

“k”

K

because dark scale

The “k” sound but not the “j” sound at the beginning of a word.

“kd”

KD

cake

The “k” sound at the end of a word.

“L”

L

level parallel

The “L” sound.

“m”

M

am must

The “m” sound.

“n”

N

final not none

The starting “n” or the unaccented “n” in the middle of a word as in “final” “not” or “none”.

“ng”

NG

bang think singing

The “n” followed by a “g” or “k” sound.

“p”

P

adoption amps rapid

The “p” sound but not at the beginning of a word.

“pd”

PD

pop tarp mop

The “p” sound at the end of a word.

“r”

R

abroad brace read

The “r” sound followed by a vowel sound in the same syllable.

“s”

S

sit circus decide

The “s” not followed by an “h” sound.

“sh”

SH

action shade splash

The “sh” sound.

“t”

T

adapter retry let

The “t” (not “th”) sound not at the beginning of a word.

“td”

TD

date quit

The “t” sound at the end of word.

“th”

TH

thesis thing

The unvoiced “th” sound but NOT as in “the” or “either”.

“ts”

TS

The “ts” sound at the end of a word.

“v”

V

eleven improve very

The “v” sound.

“w”

W

frequent way question anywhere

The “w” sound.

“y”

Y

emulate yes senior you

The “y” sound that leads into a vowel.

“z”

Z

pans goes zero

The “z” sound.

“zh”

ZH

Asia pleasure Zho

The soft “z” sound.

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