And yet there are some complex names or surnames that lead to the most peculiar pronunciations, especially when we are talking about certain foreign languages. Fortunately, we can help Siri with some more information so that she can pronounce any name just the way we would like it to.
A little audit for Siri
When we save a contact in the Contacts app on our iPhone, iPad or Mac, we usually fill in the information of the name, company, telephone, email, etc. There is, but, much more information that we can store from a contact. The one that interests us right now is the pronunciation of names and surnames.
Let us note, before doing so, that the system offers us two fields related to this variable: phonetics and pronunciation. While the first allows us to write down the special characters typical of phonetics, the exact representation of the sound, it is in pronunciation where we will act. Why? Apart from why Siri will use that information to pronounce the name and surname of our contacts, because there we write as it soundswithout having to know the phonetic symbols.
Just like adding custom pronunciations for the read text, let’s see how to make Siri correctly pronounce any name from among our contacts. The steps are as simple as these:
- We open the app Contacts on our iPhone or iPad.
- We open the contact that interests us.
- We hit the button Edit.
- under section Grades click on add field.
- we select Name (pronunciation) either Surname (pronunciation) as we need.
- We write the name and/or surname exactly as it sounds.
- we press okay.
This is all. Now we can go to Siri to, for example, ask it to call a contact by phone and we will see that the name of the person is pronounced correctly. Also, if we have the incoming call announcement activated, we will appreciate the difference in the way of reading the name by Siri.
A minor detail, one that many of us may not pay attention to, but which, depending on the name we are using, will make a difference. Sometimes, due to ignorance of these options, we can try to get used to how Siri pronounces certain names, but the truth is that it should be just the other way around. And that with the pronunciation of the surnames and names we can get Siri to act exactly as we expect.
In Applesphere | So we can improve the quality of the voice notes that we record with our iPhone, iPad or Mac