How to use the Pronunciation Checker
- Type a word (or a short phrase of up to eight words) and press Pronounce, or tap one of the examples.
- Tap American, British, Australian or Indian to hear it. Choose Slow to hear each sound clearly.
- Read the respelling — the stressed syllable is in bold — and the US and UK IPA. Copy the IPA with one tap.
- Scroll down for the meaning, with examples and similar words you can check next.
- Use Practise: listen, record yourself, then play your recording back and compare. Save tricky words to My words.
What does this tool do?
The checker covers about 126,000 English words. American pronunciations come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, a long-standing open dictionary from Carnegie Mellon University, and British pronunciations from Britfone, an open British English dictionary. Both are converted to the learner-style IPA you'll find in most English dictionaries, with stress marks, then split into syllables so you can see exactly where the stress falls.
Not everyone reads IPA, so every word also gets a plain respelling such as buh·NA·nuh for banana: the capitals show the stressed syllable, and the spelling reads like ordinary English. For a phrase, each word is listed with its own respelling and IPA.
The voices are your device's own speech voices. Most phones and computers include American and British English voices, and many include Australian and Indian English too; when an accent has no voice on your device, your default English voice reads it, and the settings panel says so. When the online dictionary has real recordings of the word from Wikimedia Commons, you'll also see Real recordings buttons for them.
The dictionary data is part of this site, so looking up a pronunciation sends nothing anywhere. Meanings come from the Free Dictionary API, which serves definitions from Wiktionary — that request sends the word to dictionaryapi.dev, and you can switch it off in Voices & settings. Your practice recordings never leave the page.
Why use it?
- American and British IPA side by side, plus Australian and Indian voices.
- Plain respellings with the stressed syllable marked, for people who don't read IPA.
- Slow, normal and fast speeds to hear every sound.
- Record yourself and compare with the voice, privately in your browser.
- Meanings, examples and similar words in the same place.
- Free, no sign-up, and works on phones.
Use cases
- Checking a word before a presentation, interview or meeting.
- English learners practising difficult words and word stress.
- Teachers preparing IPA and pronunciation notes for a class.
- Comparing American and British pronunciations of words like schedule, either and tomato.
- Writers checking how many syllables a word has for poems and lyrics.
Example: words that are often mispronounced
A few words people commonly get wrong, as the checker shows them:
| Word | Say it (US) | US IPA | UK IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| comfortable | KUHM·fur·tuh·buhl | /ˈkʌmfɚtəbəl/ | /ˈkʌmftəbəl/ |
| Wednesday | WEHNZ·dee | /ˈwenzdi/ | /ˈwenzdi/ |
| colonel | KUR·nuhl | /ˈkɝːnəl/ | /ˈkɜːnəl/ |
| schedule | SKEH·juul | /ˈskedʒʊl/ | /ˈʃedʒuːl/ |
| either | EE·thur | /ˈiːðɚ/ | /ˈaɪðə/ |
Common mistakes
- Stressing the wrong syllable. English listeners notice wrong stress more than a slightly different vowel — check the bold syllable first.
- Pronouncing every letter. Many English words have silent letters (knife, island, salmon); trust the IPA, not the spelling.
- Mixing accents in one word. Pick American or British and stay with it; both are correct.
- Learning from one fast listen. Use Slow, repeat it, then record yourself and compare.
Accuracy and limits
- Each word shows its most common dictionary pronunciation. Many words have more than one accepted pronunciation, and people say them differently by region.
- The respellings and syllable breaks are generated from the dictionary sounds by fixed rules, so a few long or unusual words may split slightly differently from a printed dictionary.
- About 15,000 words have British IPA from Britfone; other words show the American IPA only, but you can still hear them with a British voice.
- Device voices are computer speech. They're good guides, but listen to real speakers too — the Real recordings buttons play recordings by real people when the online dictionary has them.
Privacy
Everything you type is processed in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to our servers or stored by us. There's no account to create and nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
Is the pronunciation checker free?
Yes. Every word, voice, the IPA, the meanings and the practice recorder are free to use, with no sign-up.
Which accents can I hear?
American, British, Australian and Indian English, using the voices on your device. The IPA is shown for American and British English.
What do the capital letters in the respelling mean?
They mark the stressed syllable — the one you say louder and longer. In buh·NA·nuh, the stress is on NA.
Why does the Australian or Indian voice sound American?
Your device doesn't have a voice for that accent, so the default English voice reads it. On Windows and Android you can add English (Australia) and English (India) voices in the language or speech settings.
Is my recording uploaded?
No. Your practice recording stays in the browser tab and disappears when you leave. The page asks for microphone access only when you press Record yourself.
Where do the meanings come from?
From Wiktionary, through the free Free Dictionary API. Looking up a meaning sends the word to dictionaryapi.dev; you can turn meanings off in Voices & settings.
Can I check a sentence?
You can enter up to eight words. You'll hear the whole phrase, and each word is listed with its respelling and IPA.
Last reviewed by the M2Toolkit team.