Teaching Siri to Pronounce Names Correctly: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you're like me and enjoy using Siri to text friends on your Apple Watch, you might have encountered the occasional issue with pronunciation. Siri can sometimes struggle to pronounce names correctly, making it difficult to get messages across. However, what few people know is that you can actually teach Siri how to pronounce names correctly.

To start, let's take a look at an example of this in action. I have a contact whose name is quite challenging to pronounce, and no matter how many times I try, Siri just can't seem to get it right. So, I decided to put Siri through her paces and teach her how to pronounce the name correctly. The first step was to simply ask Siri to recognize the name "Saoirse Sinead." When I did this, Siri gave me a few options for pronunciation, which I then had to choose from.

To get started, simply go into your contact list on your iPhone and select the person whose name you want to teach Siri to pronounce correctly. Then, tap the "Edit" button to open up the contact's details. Scroll down to the "First Name" field and click on it, where you'll see a small pencil icon next to it. Tap this to reveal a text field where you can type in the correct pronunciation for Siri to use.

In my case, I typed in the correct way for Siri to pronounce the name "Saoirse," which is "SEER-shuh." Once I had done this, I also made sure to add the correct pronunciation for her last name, "Sinead," which is pronounced more like "SHIH-nayd." By doing this, I ensured that when I asked Siri to text my contact, she would use the correct pronunciations.

But how do you know if your name has been correctly recorded in this way? The answer is simple: just ask Siri who you are. When I did this, I was surprised to hear that Siri had got it wrong, despite having correctly inputted the pronunciation for my name. So, be sure to double-check that your name has been recorded correctly!

Another example of how this works can be seen in the way Siri handles international names. For instance, when I asked Siri how to pronounce the name "Yuri," she gave me a few different options, including "Yoo-ree" and "Yur-yee." However, when I chose one of these pronunciations, Siri was able to use it correctly in future interactions.

So there you have it: with a little bit of patience and practice, you can teach Siri how to pronounce names correctly. Whether you're dealing with tricky international names or simply want to ensure that your messages are conveyed accurately, this simple trick is sure to come in handy.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you're like me and you like to use Siri to text friends which works really well in the Apple watch sometimes Siri can have trouble pronouncing names and you can't even get the text across not many people know that you can actually teach Siri how to correctly pronounce names so we'll show you how so here I have a contact that's pretty difficult to pronounce I've tried many times to get her to text her but it just won't work so let's teach Siri how to pronounce this correctly hey Siri she'll contact sa o RS e there you go she got it right yes here's the contact info for Saoirse Sinead so now we just tell it it pronounce it differently you pronounced it wrong did you mean Saoirse Sinead yes okay how do you pronounce the name Saoirse okay thank you which pronunciation should I use so now she gave us a bunch of options for pronunciation so just go through them all and choose the right one Saoirse there you go okay how do you pronounce the name Sinead okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Sinead Sinead Sinead so if she ever gets it wrong you could tell her again so click tell Siri again could you say it again Sinead okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Sinead Sinead Sinead Sinead there you go now you can correct it ium it's Syria Sinead from now on all right now let's get her to text her hey Siri text Saoirse what do you want to say there you go hey Saoirse your message to Syria Sinead says hey Saoirse ready to send it yes done so there you go we got Siri to correctly pronounce this name and now we can ask Siri detector with no issues so there's actually a text-based way we can teach Siri correct pronunciation just go into your contact hit edit and we can go down to ad field and go to pronunciation first name so now as you can see you can type in the correct way for Siri to pronounce a name Saoirse and we can also go down back to the field and add the pronunciation for the last name go up and type that in just like that now we have correct pronunciation in a text-based way so I don't know if you noticed it but see we actually pronounced my name wrong so let's fix that hey Siri Who am I you're asking me right here it's way off you pronounce that wrong okay how do you pronounce the name Vadim okay thank you which pronunciation should I use 1414 thought iam thought iam 13 yeah that's it okay how do you pronounce the name yuryev okay thank you which pronunciation should I use yo yet Yuri have you were you Yuri of urea that's ready to you could you say it again your yes okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Yuri am Here I am Yuri yen you were yeah that's pretty close you're you great I'll pronounce it for team uef from now on hey Siri Who am I you're a team that's what you told me anyway if this video helps Siri to correctly pronounce one of your friends names leave a comment below this has been vadim with Apple Insider and we'll see you in the next video if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video youif you're like me and you like to use Siri to text friends which works really well in the Apple watch sometimes Siri can have trouble pronouncing names and you can't even get the text across not many people know that you can actually teach Siri how to correctly pronounce names so we'll show you how so here I have a contact that's pretty difficult to pronounce I've tried many times to get her to text her but it just won't work so let's teach Siri how to pronounce this correctly hey Siri she'll contact sa o RS e there you go she got it right yes here's the contact info for Saoirse Sinead so now we just tell it it pronounce it differently you pronounced it wrong did you mean Saoirse Sinead yes okay how do you pronounce the name Saoirse okay thank you which pronunciation should I use so now she gave us a bunch of options for pronunciation so just go through them all and choose the right one Saoirse there you go okay how do you pronounce the name Sinead okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Sinead Sinead Sinead so if she ever gets it wrong you could tell her again so click tell Siri again could you say it again Sinead okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Sinead Sinead Sinead Sinead there you go now you can correct it ium it's Syria Sinead from now on all right now let's get her to text her hey Siri text Saoirse what do you want to say there you go hey Saoirse your message to Syria Sinead says hey Saoirse ready to send it yes done so there you go we got Siri to correctly pronounce this name and now we can ask Siri detector with no issues so there's actually a text-based way we can teach Siri correct pronunciation just go into your contact hit edit and we can go down to ad field and go to pronunciation first name so now as you can see you can type in the correct way for Siri to pronounce a name Saoirse and we can also go down back to the field and add the pronunciation for the last name go up and type that in just like that now we have correct pronunciation in a text-based way so I don't know if you noticed it but see we actually pronounced my name wrong so let's fix that hey Siri Who am I you're asking me right here it's way off you pronounce that wrong okay how do you pronounce the name Vadim okay thank you which pronunciation should I use 1414 thought iam thought iam 13 yeah that's it okay how do you pronounce the name yuryev okay thank you which pronunciation should I use yo yet Yuri have you were you Yuri of urea that's ready to you could you say it again your yes okay thank you which pronunciation should I use Yuri am Here I am Yuri yen you were yeah that's pretty close you're you great I'll pronounce it for team uef from now on hey Siri Who am I you're a team that's what you told me anyway if this video helps Siri to correctly pronounce one of your friends names leave a comment below this has been vadim with Apple Insider and we'll see you in the next video if you enjoyed this video like it and hit that subscribe button also check out a price guide which makes it extremely easy to find the best deals and Apple products updated daily be sure to follow us on social media and we'll see you in the next video you\n"