About SayHowTo

SayHowTo is a free tool to hear how words, names and phrases are said. There are no accounts and no sign-up.

Where the audio comes from

The voices are AI-generated with ElevenLabs text-to-speech. Each word is generated once, saved, and played back to everyone after that. If our monthly voice budget runs out, the site falls back to your device’s built-in voice.

When you pick another language and type in a different one, the text is translated with Google Cloud Translation first, then spoken. Translations are machine-made and stored so the same request is answered instantly next time.

Where the respellings and IPA come from

• English respellings, syllables and IPA are derived from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary (Carnegie Mellon University).
• Names, foreign words and phrase guides are written by hand, with notes when there is more than one accepted way.
• Sight word lists are the public-domain Dolch (1948) and Fry lists.

What we store

We store the words people look up (so popular words can get their own page) and a hashed, anonymous version of your IP address to apply daily limits. If you create a “hear my name” link, we store the name and the spelling you gave so the link works. We don’t use cookies for tracking.

Accuracy

AI voices are very good but not perfect, especially with names and regional accents. If something sounds wrong, the respelling shown under the audio is the safest guide.