American English Phonemes

The unit of sound the recognition engine actually recognizes are phonemes. All phrase formats are ultimately translated into phonetic spelling for decoding. These phonetic spellings can be directly entered if surrounded by curly braces. See Using Phonetic Spellings and Adding Foreign Words for more information about working with phonemes. You may also be interested in Australian English Phonemes, UK English Phonemes, Mexican Spanish Phonemes, Colombian Spanish Phonemes, Canadian French Phonemes or Indian English Phonemes.

The English phonetic alphabet used by the decoder:

Phoneme Example #1 Phonetic Spelling #1 Example #2 Phonetic Spelling #2
Vowels
AA barn B AA R N top T AA P
AE bat B AE T crab K R AE B
AH what W AH T cut K AH T
AO more M AO R auto AO DX OW
AW cow K AW house HH AW S
AX about AX B AW T dial D AY AX L
AXR butter B AH DX AXR career K AXR IH R
AY type T AY P life L AY F
EH check CH EH K mess M EH S
ER church CH ER CH bird B ER D
EY take T EY K hail HH EY L
IH little L IH DX AX L rib R IH B
IX action AE K SH IX N Africa AE F R IX K AX
IY team T IY M keep K IY P
OW loan L OW N robe R OW B
OY hoist H OY S T joy JH OY
UH book B UH K look L UH K
UW flew F L UW who HH UW
Constants
B web W EH B bear B EH R
CH chair CH EH R statue S T AE CH UW
D reed R IY D dark D AA R K
DH with W IH DH other AH DH AXR
DX forty F AO R DX IY butter B AH DX AXR
F four F AO R graph G R AE F
G peg P EH G exam IX G Z AE M
HH halt HH AO L T Jose HH OW Z EY
JH cage K EY JH Jack JH AE K
K coin K OY N back B AE K
L late L EY T really R IH L IY
M lemon L EH M AH N mail M EY L
N night N AY T any EH N IY
NG ring R IH NG ankle AE NG K AH L
P pay P EY beep B IY P
R rest R EH S T prior P R AY AXR
S sit S IH T bass B AE S
SH blush B L AH SH sure SH UH R
T raft R AE F T taped T EY P T
TH three TH R IY youth Y UW TH
V van V AE N river R IH V AXR
W swap S W AA P wing W IH NG
Y yes Y EH S year Y IH R
Z arms AA R M Z blaze B L EY Z
ZH Asian EY ZH AH N genre ZH AA N R AX
Note: The AO phoneme denotes a near-open, back, rounded vowel. The vowel in "more" and the first vowel in "auto" sound different to most American English speakers, but our acoustic model considers them the same.
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