How to customize VoiceOver pronunciations on your iPhone or iPad

Learn how to change the way VoiceOver pronounces certain words or phrases, like your name, city, and more.

Add a pronunciation

  1. In Settings, go to Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech > Pronunciations.

  2. Tap the Add buttonAdd button.

  3. In the Phrase field, enter the word or phrase you want to customize.

    iPhone screen showing SIM in the Phrase field and the pronunciation of SIM in the Substitution field.
  4. In the Substitution field, you can either:

    • Spell out how you want the phrase to be pronounced.

    • Or you can tap the Dictate Replacement buttonReplacement button to say the phrase the way you'd like it pronounced.* Tap each suggestion to play it, then tap Done when you've chosen the one you want to use.

  5. Choose which languages this pronunciation will apply to, the voice that it will play in, whether to ignore capitalized letters in the word, and which apps this pronunciation will apply to.

  6. Tap Play to play back your pronunciation. Then tap Back when you're done to save it.

*To use Dictate Replacement, turn on Enable Dictation in Settings > General > Keyboard.

Delete a pronunciation

  1. In Settings, go to Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech > Pronunciations.

  2. Tap Edit.

  3. Tap the Delete buttonDelete button next to the pronunciation that you want to delete, and tap Delete.

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