Change Pronunciation for text-to-speech

Revan12200 said:

I would like to change the pronunciation of specific words that my mac reads to me, however, there does not seem to be a way to do this. Tutorials online discuss changing a setting in the VoiceOver Utility, but unfortunately this only effects voice over and not text-to-speech. I'm asking this because I am studying science and it would be great if the mac could read words like photophosphorylation (and others) correctly!

Thanks for any help,
Daniel

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Have you tried changing your default system voice to a system custom voice? You can do that from the selector drop-down in the Speech/Text to Speech pref pane.
Different voices may give you a more pleasant listening experience.
I often use the optional voice "Daniel", which is actually a UK voice, but the accent works better to my ear. There may be another that is better for you.
Keep in mind that these are just different types of voice sounds, that rely on certain pronunciation rules. Most speaking will be pretty close to a standard pronunciation. The special optional voices, that you have to download, may be more natural sounding. BUT, long technical terms may be a little bit of a struggle, just as you would struggle your first time in trying to read "photophosphorylation" out loud… Again, the optional voices MAY be better behaved, but you might like to try several. My own favorite is the South African voice named "Tessa". If your local language is English, then you will not want to use voices from other languages - the pronunciation will be REALLY screwed up. But, there's Scottish, Aussy, South African, India, Ireland, UK, as well as several voices for US. You could try any, but each needs a large download (around 4-500 MB for EACH voice).