Frequently Asked Questions
I need help with:
SubscriptionRefundFree TrialPhonetic Transcription TranslatorPremium features: high-quality computer-generated audio and automatic translationI 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 on the website.
- Click on My Account and then go to the section 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.
How secure is my payment?
We take your privacy seriously. We have two partners to process payments: Stripe and PayPal. Note that PayPal is not available in some countries.
We don't store your payment information on our website. The data is sent directly to our payment partner, where maximum protection and security 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:
Monthly subscription | 7 days |
Annual subscription | 3 months |
Lifetime access | 3 months |
Yes, you read this right! We are so confident that you will love the service, that we offer 3-month money-back guarantee for our annual and lifetime access plans!
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 on 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.
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.
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.
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 * | 500 characters | 2,000 characters |
High-quality computer-generated audio | 500 characters | 2,000 characters |
Translation into your native language | 500 characters | 2,000 characters |
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 on 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?
Recurrent subscriptions (monthly or yearly)
Please follow the steps below to cancel your recurrent subscription. Make sure you do that at least two days before the end of the billing cycle.
- Log in on 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 and canceled your recurrent 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.
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.
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.