How To Teach Siri Better Pronunciation

How To Teach Siri Better Pronunciation

Siri making a meal of your boyfriend’s name? Or is it just not getting the right amount of twang in when trying to say the name of your local pub? If you think Siri’s pronunciation skills leave something to be desired then you can retrain the assistant yourself in just a few minutes — here’s how to go about it (and a few other Siri-related hacks for a better Apple experience).

Launch Siri as usual, by pressing and holding the power button (for some of you, it could be the Home button) or saying “Hey Siri” at your iPhone. Then, say “learn to pronounce David Nield” or whatever the name is that Siri keeps getting wrong. With the latest version of iOS, Siri directs you to open the Contacts App.

siri pronunciation

In the Contacts App, select the contact you want Siri to learn and tap Edit up the top right of the contact.

Scroll down to add field and select. Here you have a choice of a number of options. You can select Pronunciation first name or Pronunciation last name, or opt to enter the Phonetic first or last names to make it easier for Siri to understand you and pronounce names.

On older versions of iOS, this was done through prompts that would require you to say the name once before Siri has a couple of attempts itself. If your iPhone isn’t running the latest iOS, you follow the prompts provided to get the same job done.

Retrain Siri with your voice

It’s not just Siri pronunciation you can change. If Siri isn’t registering your voice all too well, you can retrain the assistant. Go to Settings then Siri & Search, turn off Listen for “Hey Siri“, then turn on Listen for “Hey Siri again.

You can also change how Siri responds to your commands.

Go to Settings, Siri & Search, then do any of the following:

  • Change the voice for Siri: Tap Siri Voice, then choose a different variety or voice.
  • Change when Siri provides voice responses: Tap Siri Responses, then choose an option below Spoken Responses.
  • Always see the response from Siri onscreen: Tap Siri Responses, then turn on Always Show Siri Captions.
  • See your request onscreen: Tap Siri Responses, then turn on Always Show Speech.

This article has been updated to reflect iOS 15 changes to how you can help Siri pronounce names.


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