Frequently Asked Questions
I need help with:
SubscriptionRefundFree TrialPhonetic Transcription TranslatorPremium features: high-quality computer-generated audio and automatic translationGuest posts and link sharingI bought the subscription, but I still see the message that I reached my limit!
First of all, please make sure that you are logged in on our website. At the top of the page, you should see the links My Account and Log Out instead of Log In and Sign Up. You may want to refresh the page in your browser to verify that the session is active.
Second, click on the link My Account - in the section Subscription Status you should see the type of subscription that you bought and the word active in green.
If you don't see it, please make sure that your payment went through:
- If you paid with a credit card, use your online banking service and check whether there's a pending transaction from EasyPronunciation.com.
- If you paid with PayPal, please check your email - PayPal sends an automatic message each time you make a payment.
If you see the transaction on your side, but not in your account on EasyPronunciation.com, then probably the payment system has not yet notified our website about your payment. Very rarely it may take up to 60-120 minutes. If 120 minutes after your payment your subscription is still not activated, please contact us.
If the subscription status is active, but you still see the message that you have reached your limit, please try using another web browser. Obviously, you will need to log in again.
Additionally you can try deleting all the cookies for our website. To find the instruction how to do it, make a Google search for "delete cookies for one site + [name of your browser]". After you do this, restart the browser and log in again.
If the problem persists please contact us. In your message please indicate:
- that you see the transaction in your payment system (online banking, PayPal),
- which two web browsers you have used,
- which payment method you used (i.e. PayPal, credit card, etc.).
We will do our best to fix the problem as soon as possible.
The IPA phonetic translators don't work! What should I do?
First of all, please watch one of our video tutorials that show how to use the IPA phonetic translators:
- Cantonese Pronunciation Tool - Jyutping Translator
- Chinese Pinyin Translator and Pronunciation Tool
- English Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- French Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- German Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- Italian Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- Japanese Pronunciation Tool - Kanji to Romaji Translator
- Portuguese Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- Russian Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
- Spanish Pronunciation Generator — IPA Transcription Translator
If a tutorial doesn't exist for the IPA translator that you use, watch any tutorial - the basic principles are the same.
The tutorials were recorded a while ago. Now you need to click on Transcription display options and then select the option transcription above each word to get the same result.
Please also be aware that if you are not registered you can only convert 25 characters per hour. If you want to increase your limit we invite you to support our website and buy a subscription.
Another important thing to pay attention to is to use the right phonetic translator for the right language. It may seem obvious, but sometimes people try to convert French text using Spanish translator and sure enough the result is not right.
If you have an account on EasyPronunciation.com, each time you convert a text to transcription we log this information. In order to see the list of all the converters you used recently, do the following:
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then on Activity log.
- Click on Phonetic Transcription Translators.
We also highly recommend checking the spelling of your text before you submit it in the phonetic translator. It's especially important for languages that have letters with diacritics, such as ñ, à, ê, ç, etc.
If you type such letters yourself, make sure you use the correct keyboard layout. For example, type French text using French keyboard layout. There may be situations when two letters with diacritics may look similar (or even exactly the same!), but one will be considered as the correct spelling, and the other - not.
If you think that a particular word is not converted to phonetic transcription correctly, please do the following:
- find this word in a Wiktionary,
- still in Wiktionary navigate to the section with the right language - this is the way to double-check that you found the right word,
- copy-paste the word from Wiktionary to the phonetic converter on EasyPronunciation.com,
- compare the phonetic transcription obtained in such a way with what you get when you type the word yourself.
Here's the list of free websites where you can check the spelling of your text:
Please also check this section of our FAQ.Can I use your website on multiple devices, for example, my computer and my smartphone?
Absolutely! As long as your device has an active Internet connection, you can use our website on multiple devices.
Note that you are not allowed to share your login credentials with other people.
Can I use your website for commercial purposes?
Phonetic transcription
You can use the phonetic transcription obtained with EasyPronunciation.com in your commercial products:
- digital or printed books,
- videos,
- teaching materials,
- downloadable software for Windows, MacOS, or Linux, *
- mobile apps for iOS and Android. *
* If you create software or a mobile app, the functionality of your product should not reproduce the functionality of the phonetic translators on our website. In other words do not create competitive products. If you want your software or mobile app to convert text to phonetic transcription in real time, we have REST API service.
We would highly appreciate if you could mention EasyPronunciation.com in your products.
High-quality computer-generated audio
We use third-party companies to generate audio using their text-to-speech service. We are not lawyers, but it seems that the commercial use of such computer-generated audio is allowed.
Audio and video recordings of real people
We hired native speakers and professional voice-over artists to create audio and video recordings for our website. These recordings are protected by copyright. They are for your own personal use only. There are exceptions though.
Several types of commercial activity with such recordings are allowed in the teaching environment:
- You can use EasyPronunciation.com with your students during your live face-to-face or online classes. For example, you can open our online pronunciation trainer on your projector or share the screen of your computer during the online class. Then you can ask your students to repeat the words after the native speaker during the pauses. Note that you are not allowed to record such classes.
- You can create word lists and share them with your students. If you have an active premium subscription, your students will have access to audio and video recordings of real people and can practice their pronunciation by themselves. In this case the recordings are only for their own personal use.
If you want to include our audio recordings of real people in your commercial product, please see the following section of our FAQ:
Can I buy the audio recordings of words?
What is the advantage of the annual subscription?
Starting from November 14th 2023, buying annual subscriptions Basic or Premium has another advantage.
As long as you opt for the annual payment, the subscriptions Basic and Premium are automatically converted into a lifetime subscription of the lower level, if not renewed for the next year.
Basic | becomes lifetime subscription Starter when expired after 1 year |
Premium | becomes lifetime subscription Basic when expired after 1 year |
If you decide to take advantage of this offer and do not want to renew your annual subscription after the first year, please cancel it at least 7 days before its renewal date.
What happens during the monthly meetings with the website founder?
Monthly meetings are organized for the users with an active premium subscription.
The meeting is your chance to give me feedback. If something on the website doesn't work for you, just tell me! You can also request new features and discuss the suggestions coming from other participants.
The meetings are conducted online on the third Sunday of the month at 9AM (Pacific Time).
The language of the meetings is English.
If your premium subscription is active, the link to join the meeting will appear in your account 24 hours before the meeting.
What if you are unable to attend the meeting but still need a new feature?
In this case, please record a 2-5 minute video explaining what you want. Provide as many details as possible. Upload your video to a file-sharing service (YouTube, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) and send me the link. Your video will be played back to the participants.
If you can't record a video, you can also prepare a detailed message with your proposal.
Can I publish the link to my website on EasyPronunciation.com?
If you have an active premium subscription, you can publish the link to your website on EasyPronunciation.com. Your website can be a blog, a YouTube channel, a social media profile, etc.
EasyPronunciation.com is a high-authority site with more than 350,000 monthly visitors. Such a link will enhance your website's credibility and authority in the eyes of search engines.
To publish your link, follow these steps:
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then on Update my account.
- Enter the link to your website and the link text (both fields are required).
The do-follow link to your website will appear on the page Our sponsors and will stay there for as long as your premium subscription remains active.
The page Our sponsors has a built-in pagination with 10 links per page.
The links are sorted by the length of the billing cycle. If you buy an annual subscription, the chances of your link being on the first page are higher.
You don't need to backlink to our website.
For now, we don't have any categories. We may add them in the future.
Note that your website should comply with Google Publisher Policies. For example, if your website doesn't respect copyright laws, it will be rejected.
Do you accept guest posts?
If you have an active premium subscription, you can publish guest posts in our blog.
As you may have guessed, certain conditions apply. :)
The content of your posts should be somehow related to language learning or linguistics. We don't accept any unrelated content. No exceptions.
You can publish a maximum of one guest post per month.
If you don't want to subscribe, but still want to publish a guest post, it's okay too. The price of one guest post will be the current monthly price of premium subscription in your country. We will ask you to send the money via PayPal.
Your post should be at least 250 words long and provide some useful information to the reader.
It's okay to promote your services or products, but your post should be relatively interesting to read, even if the reader doesn't use your services or products.
Each post will be individually approved for publishing. If your post is not accepted, we will provide feedback on how it can be improved.
Your post can include do-follow links to other websites. See the section Can I publish the link to my website on EasyPronunciation.com? for additional requirements for links.
If you add links, make sure they will work for as long as possible. For example, if you post a link to a limited-time offer, your link may stop working in a couple of weeks. In such a case, please add a redirect to some other page of your website. All the broken links (including 404 pages) will be completely removed.
Once your post is approved, we can allow only minor edits.
After your first post is published, the subscription fees become non-refundable. In other words, once your post goes live, you no longer qualify for the money-back guarantee.
If you have a weekly plan, you can publish your first post only 3 weeks after the date you first subscribed.
We accept the posts only in the following languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish.
If you want to publish guest posts, please contact us before subscribing. We will need to see an example of your post to confirm that it meets all the requirements.
The guest posts are published in our blog. If we approved your guest post for publishing, please provide us a valid email address and a username of your choice. We will create an account for you and you will be able to publish your guest post yourself using standard WordPress editor.
How secure is my payment?
The security of your payment is very important to us.
We don't store your payment information on our website.
The data is sent over a secure HTTPS connection to our payment partner, where maximum protection of financial data is ensured.
What is your refund policy?
All subscriptions are covered by the money-back guarantee. The length of the guarantee period is indicated in the following table:
Weekly subscription | 7 days |
Monthly subscription | 30 days |
Annual subscription | 90 days |
We want to be the best, so if you request a refund, we kindly ask you to provide us with at least a short feedback on how we can improve.
How can I request a refund?
Please follow these steps to request a refund:
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then go to the section Billing History.
- If an order is eligible for a refund, you will see a button Request a refund near it. Click this button.
- Follow the instructions on the page.
How long does it take to receive a refund?
Payments made with a credit card
Depending on the bank's processing time, it can take up to 5-10 business days for the refund to appear on your card statement.
Sometimes a refund may be processed as a "reversal". If after ten business days you still don't see a refund, please look for the original charge on your bank statement. If you do not see the charge on your statement, it was reversed and the refund is complete.
If you still do not see a credit and still see the original charge after ten business days, please reach out to your bank for more information.
Occasionally you may see some strange transactions during the time when your bank processes the refund. Please disregard them. You really need to wait 5-10 business days to get your refund.
Payments made with PayPal
It may take up to 30 days for the refund amount to appear on your card statement.
I bought a subscription, but didn't receive any emails from you!
You didn't receive an activation code?
It may happen for several reasons:
- Our automatic message with activation code was blocked by spam filters. It doesn't depend on us. We would love to, but unfortunately we can't control all email servers on the planet Earth :).
- Occasionally, people make a typo in their email address.
- Your mailbox may be full and doesn't accept incoming messages. Please test your email before you contact us.
For security reasons you can't use an account with unconfirmed email.
If you haven't received an activation code, please contact us. We will be happy to activate your account manually and/or update your email address.
I want to copy the phonetic transcription to another program or print it!
All the phonetic translators on EasyPronunciation.com are 100% copy-paste friendly. If you want to copy the phonetic transcription to another program do the following:
On the page with the translator, click on Transcription display options. Select one of the options that are optimized for copy-pasting the results:
- transcription under each paragraph of text
- transcription under each line of text
- only transcription
After you submit your text, you may notice that words that can be pronounced differently depending on the context are color-coded:
- green (homographs)
- blue (pronunciation variants)
You can click on these words to choose the correct variant. Then you have two options:
- You can select and copy the text with your mouse. In this case the transcription will retain all the html-formatting. For example, the Chinese ping3 will still be ping3.
- Alternatively, you can click the button with the "copy" icon under the transcription to copy the results into the clipboard. In this case your transcription will be converted to plain-text format and you will lose the original html-formatting. For example, the Chinese ping3 will copied as ping3. For this reason, we suggest you choose the transcription type that doesn't require html-formatting.
Note that the button with the "copy" icon may be hidden. To make sure it is displayed, go to My Account ➔ Customize my experience and uncheck the option Hide the button Copy to clipboard.
If you work with spreadsheet software, such as LibreOffice Calc, you may want to have your words (or phrases) in one column and their phonetic transcription in another column. In this case on the page with the translator:
- for the setting Transcription display options choose the option only transcription,
- for the setting Each new line will start with choose the option line break,
- submit your text,
- use one of the two options above to copy-paste the transcription.
When you paste the phonetic transcription in your spreadsheet software, each transcription will go into a separate cell.
Sometimes you may need a PDF document with the phonetic transcription. Here's how you can do it:
Select the option to display "transcription above each word". After you submit the text, click the button "Print-friendly version". In your web browser do what you would normally do if you wanted to print the current page. Select destination "Save as PDF".
Note that in some languages, when you copy-paste the result into another program, the words may not wrap or may be broken in the middle. This may be due to your web browser or the program where you want to paste the result. In this case we suggest you try the following:
- use another browser and/or word processing software,
- try both ways to copy-paste the results described above,
- first copy-paste the results into a plain text editor, such as Sublime Text. Once you see that the text looks fine, select it in the plain text editor and copy-paste into your program.
Your system thinks I am robot. What should I do?
For security reasons we use an algorithm that detects bots on our website.
Occasionally the system may decide that you are a bot and block your access to some pages on our website. In this case you will see the instructions on how to remove this block manually.
To reduce the chance of being blocked, please:
- Do not use incognito mode in your browser.
- Do not clear your browser cookies.
- Do not use VPN.
Can I use keyboard shortcuts to navigate the website?
You can quickly access certain pages of the website using the following keyboard shortcuts:
+ h | Home |
+ l | Log In |
+ q | Log Out |
+ a | My Account |
+ n | My notebooks |
Shift + Enter | Search in my notes |
+ z | Show the uploaded text |
+ Tab | Create a note |
+ x | Send to pronunciation generator |
+ w | My word lists |
+ y | Cantonese pronunciation generator |
+ c | Chinese pronunciation generator |
+ e | English pronunciation generator |
+ f | French pronunciation generator |
+ g | German pronunciation generator |
+ i | Italian pronunciation generator |
+ j | Japanese pronunciation generator |
+ p | Portuguese pronunciation generator |
+ r | Russian pronunciation generator |
+ s | Spanish pronunciation generator |
Automatic login option (Keep me signed in) doesn't work. What should I do?
Sometimes in some browsers the automatic login option may not work as it should. When you revisit our website the next day, it looks like you need to log in again.
This happens because the browser wants to load the page as fast as it can and it doesn't want to wait for the session to start. The good news is that most of the time the session does start in the background during the page load. All you need to do to fix it is to reload the same page (press F5 in most browsers).
Do you have plans for a mobile app?
Unfortunately, no.
The algorithm of the phonetic converters is extremely complicated. Just to give you an idea, the complete version of the English converter has about 2,500 lines of code, and the French translator has more than 4,000 lines of code (not including the dictionaries).
The translators are written in PHP (programming language designed for web development). To create a computer program or an app, all these thousands of code lines would need to be rewritten using another language. Hiring somebody to do this work would cost a fortune.
So where does your money go when you support us?
- We manually compare our transcription with printed dictionaries making sure you will get an accurate phonetic transcription of your text - it's thousands and thousands of words.
- We record more words - we hire only voice-over professionals so you could listen to the words pronunciation in outstanding quality. We also carefully check the phonetic transcription of each and every recording.
- We refine the algorithm and add new features.
I am concerned about mobile data usage, what can you recommend?
If you are concerned about mobile data usage on your cell phone, please do the following:
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then on Customize my experience.
- Turn on the option Hide converters description.
If you upload a very long text for one of your notebooks, each time you open the uploaded text your Internet data is used. To reduce mobile data usage, please do the following when you upload the text:
- Turn off the option Edit the text before creating a note.
- Turn off the option Highlight words after creating a note.
If you still need one of these options on, please turn on the option Open a new tab when I click this button.
Can I buy the audio recordings of words?
Yes! If you want to create a digital product and integrate our audio recordings into it, you can buy nonexclusive, perpetual, world-wide, royalty-free rights to use them.
Learn how you can buy our audio recordings of words.
Phonetic transcription symbols are not displayed correctly in my browser!
First, make sure to use the latest version of your web browser. We highly recommend using Google Chrome or Safari. Unfortunately, we cannot offer support for other browsers.
Second, double-check that the text encoding of the page is set to Unicode (UTF-8).
Third, make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser. EasyPronunciation.com will not work without JavaScript.
Still not displaying correctly? On certain mobile devices and some operating systems some symbols may still not look very nice or not be displayed at all. Please try using another device or contact us to report these errors.
Please also check this section of our FAQ.I want to download the phonetic translator on my computer or mobile device!
In the near future we don't have plans to create a downloadable version of our phonetic translators.
The algorithm is incredibly long and complicated and that would require a huge investment of money.
We prefer to invest in proofreading and expanding the database with phonetic transcriptions and record more words by professional voice-over artists.
I bought a subscription and I need a receipt for my company/school/university!
Please log in on the website, then go to your account and click the link "Update my account".
In the field "Company" enter the name of your company or school and submit changes.
Go again to your account, scroll to the section "Billing History" and click on the printer icon.
How does a free trial work?
Free trial limitations
Maximum text length at a time | Total text length during your free trial | |
---|---|---|
Phonetic Transcription Translators * | 400 characters | 2,000 characters |
High-quality computer-generated audio | 400 characters | 5,000 characters |
Translation to your native language | 400 characters | 2,000 characters |
* After you reach your limit, you will still be able to convert 25 characters per hour in the phonetic translators.
When you sign up for a free trial, we don't ask any payment info. That means you will never be charged.
If you want to delete your account, please follow these steps:
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then on Delete my account.
Can I cancel my subscription anytime?
Absolutely! You can cancel it anytime, even the same day you bought it.
Your subscription will automatically renew until you choose to cancel it. When you cancel, we’ll stop billing you for the next billing cycle. You can keep using our website until the end of the billing period.
How can I cancel my subscription?
Recurring subscriptions (weekly, monthly, or annual)
Please follow the steps below to cancel your recurring subscription. Make sure you do that at least two days before the end of the billing cycle.
- Log in to the website.
- Click on My Account and then on Cancel my subscription.
- Follow the instructions on the page.
- Click on My Account again, and make sure that in the section Subscription Status you see Your subscription was canceled on YYYY-MM-DD. If you don't see this message, please contact us as soon as possible.
Note that if you paid by PayPal before October 2023 and canceled your recurring payments via the PayPal website, our system doesn't have access to this information. In this case, please disregard the message in your account about the date when your subscription will be renewed.
Lifetime access
Lifetime access is a one-time payment. In other words, you will never be charged again.
If your order is still eligible for a refund, please follow these steps to request a refund.
How can I change my subscription plan?
If you want to change your subscription plan, please check which situation below applies to you.
First-time orders
If your order is still eligible for a refund, please follow these steps to request a refund.
After receving a refund, you can subscribe to another plan.
Renewals
If it's been less than 7 days since your last order, please contact us. We will send you a refund for this order. Then you can subscribe to another plan.
Other situations
If your first-time order is not eligible for a refund or it's been more than 7 days since your renewal, follow these steps:
- Cancel your subscription at least 2 days before the end of the billing cycle.
- Wait until your subscription is expired.
- Buy a new subscription.
Note that in this last case we do not refund the unused portion of your subscription.
What updates can we expect in the future?
Ongoing projects
- Proofreading phonetic transcriptions for the following languages:
- American English
- British English
- Japanese
- Audio recordings for the following languages:
- British English
- French
Future projects
- Proofreading phonetic transcriptions for the following languages:
- German
- Italian
- Audio recordings for the following languages:
- German
- European Spanish
- Japanese
- Italian
How do the premium features work?
On June 15th 2020 we added two premium features on EasyPronunciation.com:
- high-quality computer-generated audio
- automatic translation of text into your native language
These two features are powered by Google and Amazon. Each time you generate an audio in phonetic converter or translate a text into your native language, we have to pay one of these companies.
For this reason there's a monthly limit of 200,000 characters for each feature. It's a lot even if you use them on a day to day basis. On the other hand if you start converting all your books into audio, you will probably run out of your limit pretty soon.
You can check the usage statistics in your account in the section "Activity Log".
The premium features are only available with the recurrent subscription Premium (monthly or yearly).
Please note one thing about computer-generated audio. Each time you submit a text, all your previous audio recordings are deleted. In case you need the audio, please make sure you save it before submitting a new text.
I don't need the premium features. What happens with my subscription, if I subscribed before June 15 2020?
Everything remains the same.
As long as your subscription remains active, you will retain access to all the features that you paid for when you first subscribed. That includes access to the phonetic transcription translators and our constantly growing database of audio/video recordings of words.
If you bought a lifetime access, you will never be charged again.
I do need the premium features. How can I upgrade if I bought the subscription before June 15 2020?
Upgrading from a recurrent subscriptions (monthly or yearly)
We increased the price of the subscription Premium to compensate for the cost of the premium features. Regardless of the type of subscription you have right now, you need to do the following:
- cancel your subscription,
- wait until the end of the billing cycle,
- subscribe to Premium.
If it's been less than 7 days since your last payment, please contact us - we can send you a refund for this last payment.
Upgrading from a lifetime access
You will see a discount for the recurrent subscription Premium. Please make sure you log in to see it. The discount will be higher during the first 2 weeks after the release of the premium features. We recommend you upgrade your subscription as soon as possible.
Note that even if you cancel your recurrent subscription Premium in the future, you still retain your lifetime access to the features that you paid for when you subscribed for the first time. That includes access to the phonetic transcription translators and our constantly growing database of audio/video recordings of words.