English to IPA Converter

How to Use the English to IPA Converter

1. Paste or type English text. A word, a sentence, or a few paragraphs — up to 300 different words at a time.
2. Choose Convert to IPA. The pronunciation dictionary downloads once, on your first conversion; after that most words are transcribed straight away, and any word it lacks is looked up online.
3. Set the display. Stress marks can be switched off, and each line can be wrapped in slashes, the convention for phonemic transcription.
4. Check the word table. It lists every word with its IPA and the original CMU dictionary entry, and flags any word whose pronunciation had to be guessed.

What the Transcription Shows

Pronunciations come from the Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary, a free dictionary of more than 130,000 North American English words, which the converter loads into your browser; words it lacks are looked up through the Datamuse API. The dictionary writes sounds in ARPAbet, a set of 39 letter codes; the converter maps each code to its IPA symbol, writes unstressed vowels the way dictionaries do — the as ðə, letter as ˈlɛtɚ — and puts the stress mark at the start of the stressed syllable.

Notice what is marked and what is not. Research is stressed on its second syllable, so the mark sits before s — riˈsɝtʃ. Improves also has a lighter, secondary stress on its first syllable, which the dictionary records and the converter marks with ˌ. One-syllable words such as sleep carry no mark, as in most dictionaries. The transcription is broad, or phonemic: it records the sounds that distinguish words, writes r rather than the more exact ɹ, and leaves out details such as the flapped t many Americans use in water.

English IPA Chart

These are the 39 sounds of the CMU dictionary with the symbols the converter uses. The ARPAbet column is what the word table shows in its CMU column.

Limits to Keep in Mind

• It is a dictionary, not your accent. The converter gives the standard General American pronunciation of each word. It cannot hear you, and it does not give British, Australian, or Indian English pronunciations.
• One pronunciation per word. Words spelled alike but said differently get one form: record comes out as the verb, rəˈkɔrd, not the noun ˈrɛkɚd. Check heteronyms such as read, lead, and live by hand.
• Words in isolation. Each word is given in its dictionary form, so the weak forms of connected speech — to as tə, and as ən — do not appear.
• Unknown words are guessed. Names, new coinages, and misspellings that the dictionary lacks get a pronunciation guessed from the spelling, flagged in the word table.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the IPA?

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a set of symbols with one symbol for each speech sound, published by the International Phonetic Association since 1888. Dictionaries, language textbooks, and linguists use it because English spelling does not show pronunciation reliably — though, through, and tough end in the same letters and three different sounds.

Is this British or American pronunciation?

American. The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary records North American English, so the transcriptions are General American: the r in car is pronounced, dance has the vowel of cat, and schedule starts with sk. British dictionaries give different vowels for many words.

Why is the stress mark in the middle of a word?

The IPA puts a stress mark at the start of the stressed syllable, not before its vowel. In computer, kəmˈpjutɚ, the second syllable is stressed and begins with the p, so the mark comes after m. The converter splits words into syllables to place each mark correctly.

What is the difference between slashes and square brackets?

Slashes mark a phonemic transcription, which records only the sounds that tell words apart: /kæt/. Square brackets mark a phonetic one, which records exactly how something was said, such as an aspirated [kʰæt]. This converter produces phonemic transcriptions, so the option wraps lines in slashes.

Why does a word say "guessed from the spelling"?

The word is not in the dictionary — it may be a name, a recent coinage, a technical term, or a typo — so Datamuse predicted its pronunciation from the letters. These guesses are often right for regular spellings and often wrong for names; check them against a dictionary with audio.

Can it transcribe numbers and abbreviations?

Not reliably. Numbers are left as written, so spell them out: twenty twenty-five rather than 2025. Abbreviations are looked up as words, so write out an abbreviation the way it is spoken if you need its pronunciation.

Is my text sent anywhere?

Mostly not. The pronunciation dictionary is downloaded to your browser once, and every word it contains is transcribed there. A word it lacks — a name, a coinage, a typo — goes on its own to CitationEasy's server, which asks the Datamuse API at api.datamuse.com for a pronunciation, so Datamuse sees that word but not your IP address; your sentences are never sent whole. CitationEasy keeps no record of who looked up what, and Datamuse says it keeps a temporary log of queries and discards it at the end of the day.