Teaching Siri To Pronounce Your Name

If Siri mispronounces your name, you can teach it the proper pronunciation easily. You can also teach Siri how to pronounce other names in your contacts. Soon, with macOS Sierra, you can do the same on your Mac.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. On today's episode let's look at teaching Siri to pronounce your name correctly.
Before you teach Siri how to pronounce your name you want to make sure that in the Contacts app that your contacts is properly set up with your name there and it's set up as you. Now that should all be done by default when you first set up your iPad so for most people it's taken care of.
Then you just talk to Siri to get it all done. Learn to pronounce my name. Ok, how do you pronounce the name? Gary.  OK, thank you. Which pronunciation should I use?
Then it gives you options. In this case it has given me two options and I can play them to hear them. They both sound the same to me so I'll just select the first one. 
OK, how do you pronounce the name? Rosenzweig. OK, thank you. Which pronunciation should I use?  So that's wrong. That's correct so I'm going to select the second one. Great. I'll pronounce it. Gary Rosenzweig from now on.
Now you can do this with other contacts as well simply by naming them. Learn to pronounce Lara Persaud. OK, how do you pronounce the name? Lara. OK, thank you. Which pronunciation should I use? So, it's the first one. OK, how do you pronounce the name? Persaud. It's the second one. Got it, Gary. It's Lara Persaud from now on.
So soon you'll be able to do the same thing on the Mac using Mac OS Sierra because Siri is there.
Learn to pronounce my name. OK, how do you pronounce the name. Gary. OK, thank you. Which pronunciation should I use?
OK, how do you pronounce the name? Rosenzweig. OK, thank you. Which pronunciation should I use? Got it, Gary. It's Gary Rosenzweig from now on.

Comments: 7 Responses to “Teaching Siri To Pronounce Your Name”

David

8 years ago

Great video for names. How about other details in contacts. I live in a city with a difficult name to pronounce. Do you know if there are ways to teach siri to pronounce city names as well? When I say the name of my city to Siri, she never understands what word I said. This has bugged me for quite a while. If I ask to find a business in my city, she never understands the name that is being spoken. I would be great if someone could address this issue.

Gary Rosenzweig

No way to teach Siri something like this in a just-for-you kind of way like you can with contacts. You'll need to report the issue to Apple. Try http://www.apple.com/feedback, though there is no Siri category. I'd submit it under iPhone maybe?

Joe Finkelstein

Gary, Tried to get Siri to correctly pronounce Tirza Ziv. Should be Tear´za (as in ear) and Zeev. Keeps coming out like Terza Ziv (live with short i). Any ideas? Thanks.

Tom Sepull

Gary, I have the same problem as Joe. My last name is pronounced with a long e, like See Pull. Siri keeps saying Se, (like Said without the d) Pull. Siri can't replicate an "ee" sound? Strange. I even added the pronunciation field to my contact info. Neither works. Do you know any work-arounds? Thanks, Tom

Bre Lauterbach

Total failure with Siri on both first and last name!
(same failing results over 7 tries)
Instead of "Breee" got "B-r-e" and "Bray"
The "t" in Lauterbach was constantly changed to a "d" even when I overly stressed it

Timo Kamberger

Gary, In German i ve got the problem, that Siri pronounce in "Music" brandnames like U2 in german aswell: "uzwei". Is there a way to change the pronunciation for some bands into english? Do u have an idea on that?

All: Sorry, no suggestions beyond just trying the feature. Hopefully Siri will continue to get better over time.

Comments Closed.

Teaching Siri To Pronounce Your Name

Comments: 7 Responses to “Teaching Siri To Pronounce Your Name”

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