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iOS 7's Siri Can Learn How to Pronounce Names

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Shortly before today's iOS 7 Beta 2 was released, one of 9to5Mac's readers found that iOS 7's Siri has the ability to correct pronunciations for names.
siripronunciation.png
Image via 9to5MacPreviously, getting Siri to properly pronounce names required a user to edit the "phonetic name" for a contact and manually adjust the spelling until Siri pronounced the name the correct way. Now, as 9to5Mac notes, a user can simply say "pronounce [insert name here]" to put Siri through a simpler name pronunciation learning process.

Within that process, Siri will ask the user to pronounce the name and then present a couple of pronunciations based on how it heard the user. The user is then prompted to select a pronunciation, which Siri will from then on attempt to use when saying the name in question.

While the feature was in iOS 7 Beta 1, it's unknown at this point whether there have been improvements in the recently released Beta 2.

Article Link: iOS 7's Siri Can Learn How to Pronounce Names
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/06/24/ios-7s-siri-can-learn-how-to-pronounce-names/
caligomez

caligomez

macrumors regular
Feb 8, 2011
246
88
San Juan, PR
What Siri desperately needs is a way to differentiate one language from another without having to strictly accept one at a time. There are many bilingual countries (and users) that have have to constantly use different language words in the same sentence.
 
Carlanga

Carlanga

macrumors 604
Nov 5, 2009
7,132
1,409
Great news for me; now to decide which language I'm gonna keep as the main one and the second just let Siri relearned names.

Can Siri relearn names in the music app also?
 
C

cRuNcHiE

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2007
778
46
You can do this in IOS6 too...

In the contact with 'My info' , edit and choose Add field. Then choose Phoenetic First name .

E.g I have put Krun Chee. Now Siri says my name right
 
BillyBobBongo

BillyBobBongo

macrumors 68030
Jun 21, 2007
2,535
1,139
On The Interweb Thingy!
MacRumors said:
Previously, getting Siri to properly pronounce names required a user to edit the "phonetic name" for a contact and manually adjust the spelling until Siri pronounced the name the correct way. Now, as 9to5Mac notes, a user can simply say "pronounce [insert name here]" to put Siri through a simpler name pronunciation learning process.
Click to expand...

cRuNcHiE said:
You can do this in IOS6 too...
Click to expand...

Sometimes it helps to read the article.
 
Last edited:
D

Dadditude

macrumors newbie
Jun 2, 2011
1
0
Here's hoping its not just limited to names. While I can't think of any right now, I know there are some words/phrases that Siri just pronounces oddly (to me), and it would be nice to be able to correct her.

Interesting thought that just occurred to me… if this is the case, you could slowly teach her to speak with a regional dialect or accent…
 
kockgunner

kockgunner

macrumors 68000
Sep 24, 2007
1,565
22
Vancouver, Canada
I tried it with some names and it just pronounces it with different intonations. Simple names still have a bit of unnaturalness to them.

Other observations:
- In beta 2 Siri can't seem to control the flashlight anymore.

- Some preset phrases seem so natural but answers that need to be 'built' like when there's a city name or termperature, you can hear a tinge of old Siri.
 
Tysknaden

Tysknaden

macrumors regular
Jun 19, 2013
198
0
Very nice! - I've never enabled Siri, but I am sure, that it would touch the core of my soul: Siri, finally able to pronounce my name. Correctly.
It is the nucleus of the core of my most secret wishes.
(Except the wish for an iOS7, which is not an insult for my degenerated European taste.)
Maybe... once... I will listen to Siri, correctly pronouncing my name. Meanwhile, I am staring at iOS7's screenshots :)
 
iThinkIt

iThinkIt

macrumors regular
Mar 21, 2012
164
0
Florida, USA
Yes..

Siri has been learning a lot lately.. but she tends to mumble and sometimes she says off the wall things that don't make since.

995045_4324477810309_2011489989_n.jpg
 
D

dwarnecke11

macrumors 6502
Nov 29, 2009
354
0
What's interesting is that my iPod shuffle gets my last name right... "War-nuh-key"

Siri pronounces it as "War-neck".
 
e-coli

e-coli

macrumors 68000
Jul 27, 2002
1,936
1,149
It was always rather irksome that I had to mispronounce my name when using Siri. Glad they fixed that. :)
 
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