toPhonetics is an app that provides fully interactive transcriptions of English texts. It displays your input's phonemic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and allows you
• to listen to it read aloud visually, following the narration with a cursor,
• to quickly check the translation of individual words or selected fragments (requires iOS 18+),
• to export and share the transcription results in various formats including PDF (via the Print option),
• to export the audio of the text read using your chosen voice and speech rate.
And much more:
- See phonetic transcription of the whole text, not just the dictionary forms of separate words.
- Choose between British and American* pronunciation. When British dialect is selected the [r] sound at the end of the word is only voiced if followed by a vowel, which follows British phonetic convention.
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols used.
- The structure of the text and sentences in it (line breaks, punctuation marks, etc.) is preserved in phonetic transcription output making it easier to read.
- You can output the text and its phonetic transcription along each other line-by-line to make back-reference to the original text easier.
- An option to vary pronunciation depending on whether words are in stressed or weak position in the sentence, as in connected speech. Weak forms are italicized in the output.
- Words in CAPS are interpreted as acronyms if the word is not found in the database. Acronym transcriptions will be shown with hyphens between letters.
- In addition to commonly used vocabulary the database contains a very substantial amount of place names (including names of countries, their capitals, US states, UK counties), nationalities and popular names.
- Where a word has a number of possible pronunciations (highlighted in blue in the output) you can select the one that agrees with the context by tapping on it.
- Print out the output results, share via email or copy to pasteboard.
- Let the built-in speech synthesiser read your text out loud. Control the playback and follow IPA transcription of the current word with a highlight. Speech audio can be exported as a file.
- Custom URL scheme to open toPhonetics from 3rd-party apps.
Gestures (IPA transcription screen):
1. Single tap
- Tap a word to set the cursor to it and speak it (you can mute/un-mute it with the button at your bottom-right).
- Tap in a blank space to stop speech and hide the cursor.
2. Double-tap
- Double-tap a word to open it in the built-in dictionary; if the word has multiple pronunciations you'll see the list of them first.
- Double-tap in a blank space to reset the font to the size set in iOS preferences.
3. Pinch in or out to make the text smaller or larger.
4. Start to slide horizontally to select a part of your text. The Speak button respects current selection.
*) American transcriptions are based on the open Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary.
I was hoping when I purchased the app, instead of using the free web version, that it would get rid of ads and provide narrow transcriptions. However, there’s only broad transcriptions available. They also use the trill “r” (/r/) in place of the rhotic “r” (/ɹ/) and there’s no alveolar flap (/ɾ/). I do appreciate this app for what it does offer though, and it was very helpful in the beginning of my journey. Hopefully the devs have narrow transcriptions in the works! 🤞
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS APP!!!
thaothaihome
Hiii!! To quickly introduce myself, I’m a Speech-Language Pathologist Assistant with almost a decade of work experience in this field of effective communications. HOWEVER, immediately after I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I was hired to work as a home-health therapist assistant for 7+ years, but needed a drastic change. So, now I work as a school-based SLP-Assistant contractor. Now that I’ve become more aware of how seriously unintelligible I sound as a specialist, whenever I cannot accurately pronounce advanced words from English literature books, and/or medical terminology books. Let’s get the point that I was in dire need of this type of phonetic transcription app, in order to double and triple check different articulation goals. To the amazing app creators who might happen to read this review, THANK YOU SO EXTRAORDINARILY MUCH!! You’re about to be known as my top recommended apps!!!
This is so what I need.
Emil Lime
For poetry analysis, this is what I'm looking for. Will recommend it to others. Baffled by any 1 star reviews.
Great app!
shelleyellen17
The voice to text/IPA is fantastic on this app. So much better than apple iPhone speech to text. This app gets all of the text correct and the transcription is spot on! Only wish it transcribed the American 'r' inverted as it should be in IPA. Now if we could only use speech to text feature to instantly transcribe speech sound disorders!
Translations!
In addition to bringing up a dictionary for any word with a double-tap, now you can see a quick translation of a tapped word or selected fragment.
If you want translations in a language different from your device default language, you can select the target language in the Settings screen.
Version 3.0
The developer, Mu-sonic, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Mu-sonic Ltd
Size
13.2 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.6 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.6 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.6 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.6 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.