What's your go to "how to pronounce" words in English site?

[Tiny]

Do you have a site you trust for pronouncations of words in English? 

Right now I'm trying to hear the Greek Goddess name Atropos spoken in English.     

I have this problem a lot.  I read words or names I have never heard spoken and I'm not really good at figuring out how to say them from the phonetic stuff in the Dictionary.     This works fine and dandy until I try to use the word or name or whatever in conversation with other people.... and then I just feel stupid because I use whatever I had "decided" was the way to say it in my head and it's usually wrong.     And if I've been saying it wrong in my head for years - it's even harder to learn the right way to say it.       
 
Any help would be appreciated. 

[Empire the P.A.]

I use google. Hopefully its correct. 

[Tennesseer]

Feb 29, 2024 15:51:53 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Do you have a site you trust for pronouncations of words in English? 

Right now I'm trying to hear the Greek Goddess name Atropos spoken in English.     

I have this problem a lot.  I read words or names I have never heard spoken and I'm not really good at figuring out how to say them from the phonetic stuff in the Dictionary.     This works fine and dandy until I try to use the word or name or whatever in conversation with other people.... and then I just feel stupid because I use whatever I had "decided" was the way to say it in my head and it's usually wrong.     And if I've been saying it wrong in my head for years - it's even harder to learn the right way to say it.       
 
Any help would be appreciated. 

I use YouTube sometimes to hear the correct pronunciation of French words.

I just checked YouTube and there are multiple sites to help pronounce English words. Search YouTube with these words: "pronunciation of english words' and multiple videos will pop up.

[Tennesseer]

Feb 29, 2024 15:51:53 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Do you have a site you trust for pronouncations of words in English? 

Right now I'm trying to hear the Greek Goddess name Atropos spoken in English.     

I have this problem a lot.  I read words or names I have never heard spoken and I'm not really good at figuring out how to say them from the phonetic stuff in the Dictionary.     This works fine and dandy until I try to use the word or name or whatever in conversation with other people.... and then I just feel stupid because I use whatever I had "decided" was the way to say it in my head and it's usually wrong.     And if I've been saying it wrong in my head for years - it's even harder to learn the right way to say it.       
 
Any help would be appreciated. 

Here is the YouTube link for the correct pronunciation of Atropos:

[Spellbound454]

The Greek goddess Mnemosyne  No idea.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Most of the online dictionaries have audio of a word you want to look up.

[Tennesseer]

Feb 29, 2024 17:59:02 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

The Greek goddess Mnemosyne  No idea.

YouTube.

[Tiny]

Thanks!   I have used the youtube "how to pronounce" videos but they seem to be a little hit or miss.  A lot of them seem to be "homemade" which isn't a bad thing - but it leaves me a little skeptical sometimes on some words.     They are still useful.  


I did check the online dictionary (or two) and that seems to be my best bet and most trustworthy!   I didn't think of this as a source.   Thank you! 

And on a fun note: 

I subscribe to Wordsmith's "A word a day"  (wordsmith.org) where  Anu Garg's  "beautiful wife" does the pronunciations for words - but I couldn't find the Greek Goddesses' name.   

Here's a shout out to Anu Garg's  A Word A Day    wordsmith.org/     you can get a daily (m-f) A Word A Day email here:  wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html
(I think I'm going on 20 years of daily words.      

[azucena]

When I'm reading Biblical names with my girls, I've taught them just to pronounce them however seems reasonable and say them with confidence. If just reading books in their head, substituting Bob has become our funny advice.

ETA - my girls are pretty adept at using Alexa to get these sorta answers too. They'd say something like "Alexa, who's the Greek god of ____?"  Alexa may also be getting pretty good at 5th grade homework in our house 

[dannylion]

As long as you get the syllabic stress right, your pronunciation of most English words will at least be understood.  You might use a short vowel where a long vowel is preferred or pronounce a hard consonant as a soft consonant, but the word itself will be understood for what it is.  So, if your goal is simply to be understood, you can ignore most of the pronunciation symbols in the dictionary and just focus on which syllable(s) to stress if a dictionary is all you have to work with.  

If you think about how non-native speakers of English pronounce English words, if one is listening carefully and using context as a guide, most everything can be understood without a great deal of difficulty except the words where the syllabic stress is wrong.  We don't expect to hear that, so it's hard to make the mental adjustment to identify the word without considerable practice.