Have you ever wondered how to pronounce a word? On Google Search, users can already search for the definition of words which also comes with an audio feature that will pronounce the word for you. However, how do you know that if you’re saying it right? In an update to Google Search, Google will help you learn the pronunciation of words you don’t know.
How Google will achieve this is pretty simple: it will ask you to speak the word back to it, where it will then be cross-referenced to how the word is meant to be pronounced and it will see how accurate you are. However, it is a bit more complex than that as Google will be using machine learning to help facilitate the process.
According to Google, “To do this, speech recognition technology processes spoken words by separating them into individual soundbites. Using machine learning, it then cross references your pronunciation with the pronunciation it expects. For example, if you’re practicing how to say “asterisk,” the speech recognition technology analyzes how you said the word and then, it recognizes that the last soundbite was pronounced “rict” instead of “uhsk.” Based on this, you will receive feedback on how you can improve next time.”
It sounds like a pretty fun and cool feature so do keep an eye out for the next time you’re searching for how to pronounce a particular word.