Pronunciation Guide
How the AI should say tricky names — your business, your receptionist, your team, your services. Phonetic spellings the voice engine reads at call time.
The Pronunciation Guide is where you override how the AI says specific words. If your business name has an unusual spelling, if a team member's name gets mangled, or if a service name has a silent letter — list it here with a phonetic version and the AI uses that on calls.
Where to find it
The Pronunciation Guide is the "Pronunciation" tab in the Receptionist config (/dashboard/receptionist). Open the Receptionist page and pick Pronunciation from the section list. It sits alongside Identity, Voice, Hours, and the other receptionist settings — voice behavior is grouped together there.
What's pre-listed and why
- Your business name — owners forget to check this and the AI mispronounces it on every call. Pre-listed so you see it on day one.
- Your receptionist name — same reason; if you named your AI "Aoife" instead of "Sarah", the voice engine has no chance without a phonetic spelling.
- Each team member from the Team roster — pre-listed because owners remember to add the person but never come back to check how the AI says their name.
Pre-listing is load-bearing — don't treat it as clutter
These pre-listed rows exist because owners forget. If you collapse the guide into a generic empty list, the most-mispronounced words on every call are the ones nobody thought to add. Leave the pre-listed entries in place; just fill in the phonetics.
How to write a phonetic spelling
- 1Read the word out loud as you want it to sound.
- 2Write it the way it would be spelled if you'd never seen the real version. "Aoife" → "EE-fa". "Worcester" → "WUSS-ter". "Camille" → "kah-MEEL".
- 3Use dashes between syllables and CAPS for the stressed syllable. The voice engine reads this back closer to your intent than IPA or other linguistics notation.
- 4Stuck on a spelling? Each row has a wand button — click it and your AI suggests a phonetic respelling for that word. You can edit the result or replace it with another suggestion.
- 5Test it with the Play button on the row — it samples the pronunciation in your AI's actual voice. If it sounds off, adjust the spelling; phonetic is iterative, not exact.
Play is disabled for some voices
A few OpenAI voices (Marin, Cedar, Ballad, Verse) run on live calls but can't be sampled by the in-dashboard preview. If your receptionist uses one of them, the Play button is disabled and the tab tells you so — your pronunciations still apply on real calls. To test them in the dashboard, switch to a previewable voice on the Voice tab.
When to add a custom entry
- Service names that aren't common English — "AyurMed", "Pranayama", "Lutron systems".
- Brand product names you reference often — "we use the iPhone 16 Pro" might need "eye-FONE" if it comes out wrong.
- Location names — neighborhoods or street names with non-obvious pronunciation.
- Acronyms that should be spoken as letters vs. as a word — "PPC" (spell it out) vs. "NASA" (one word).
Common questions
I added a phonetic spelling and the AI still says it wrong.
Two common causes: the spelling is still ambiguous (try emphasizing the stressed syllable with CAPS, or hit the wand button for a fresh suggestion), or the voice you're using has a quirk with that sound. Try a slightly different spelling, and if it still doesn't land, try swapping the voice on the Receptionist Voice tab — each voice has its own pronunciation tendencies.
Will the AI use the phonetic spelling in transcripts and texts too?
No. Spoken pronunciation and written display are separate. The AI says "EE-fa" but transcripts and SMS show "Aoife". Owners have shipped phonetic typos to customers in the past — we route spoken and written through different formatters specifically to prevent that.
A team member changed their preferred pronunciation.
Edit their row in the guide. Changes take effect on the next call — no waiting.
Why is my business name in here when I never added it?
It's pre-listed automatically because the business name is the single most-mispronounced word on every call. Same for your receptionist name and your team. We populate the row; you fill in the phonetic spelling when you have time.
Receptionist
The Pronunciation Guide is a tab here, alongside voice and identity settings.
Knowledge Base
For the facts your AI knows — separate from how it pronounces names.
Related articles
AI Receptionist
How your AI sounds and behaves on calls — name, voice, greeting, hours, team transfers, and the rules it follows.
Knowledge Base
Everything your AI knows about your business — services, hours, pricing, policies. A state model the AI consults, not a doc store. The more you fill in, the more your AI answers confidently.
Still stuck? Email support — we usually respond within a business day.