How to use the English to IPA Converter
Enter English in the English text input, choose an Accent and a View, then inspect the IPA transcription output. American (General American) and British (RP-style) use separate dictionary entries. Unrecognized words appear in the output and in the warnings panel.
Convert English text to IPA
- Type or paste English text into the English text input.
- Select Upload to load a
.txtortext/plainfile. - Choose American (General American) or British (RP-style) under Accent.
- Choose Transcription only or Word-aligned (word above IPA) under View.
- Review the IPA transcription output and warnings, then select Copy or Download .txt.
Compare American and British IPA transcription
The Accent choice selects the dictionary entry for each recognized word. The entries can differ in vowel symbols and in the treatment of an r after a vowel.
Input: Hello, world!
American: həˈloʊ, wɜrld!
British: həˈləʊ, wɜːld!Transcription only reproduces spaces, punctuation, and line breaks in their input positions. The dictionary supplies each recognized word's IPA entry. A word outside the dictionary remains marked as unrecognized.
What Word-aligned (word above IPA) changes
Word-aligned (word above IPA) puts each source line above its IPA line. Each word and trailing punctuation forms a chunk; spacing is normalized so the chunks can be padded into columns. Each original line is separated by a blank line.
Hello, world!
həˈloʊ, wɜrld!Use Transcription only for the input's original spacing and line breaks. Use the aligned view to inspect each word beside its IPA.
What the English to IPA Converter does with unknown words
The pronunciation data is a curated list of common words. Words absent from it are not assigned a pronunciation. In Transcription only, the output wraps the original word in square brackets. Word-aligned (word above IPA) uses ? in the IPA row. The warnings panel lists each unrecognized word once and adds a repeat count when it appears more than once.
The converter treats runs of A-Z letters and apostrophes as words. Newlines, other whitespace, and punctuation are separate tokens. This keeps punctuation and spacing in the output even when a word is unrecognized.
Where English to IPA transcription comes up
- A language learner can paste a sentence, compare American (General American) with British (RP-style), and keep the transcription beside study notes.
- A teacher can upload a plain-text word list, choose Word-aligned (word above IPA), and copy the result into a pronunciation handout.
- A writer can check a line of dialogue, then download the IPA transcription as a plain-text file for editing.
When another text converter fits better
Use the English to IPA Converter for speech-sound notation. The Text Conversion Tools for Braille, Ciphers, Code & More category also covers other representations. Choose Braille Converter when the result needs Unicode Braille or ASCII Braille. Choose Text Code Converter when you need decimal, hexadecimal, binary, or octal character codes. Choose Transliteration Tool when you need to move between its supported Russian Cyrillic, Greek, and Latin writing systems.
Entered text and locally read files are processed by browser-side JavaScript. The converter code includes no fetch, XMLHttpRequest, sendBeacon, or form post that sends this content to a server.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert English text to IPA?
Type or paste English text into the English text input, choose an Accent and a View, then read the IPA transcription output. You can also select Upload for a plain-text file.
Can I get British IPA transcription?
Choose British (RP-style) under Accent. The output uses the British entry for each word found in the dictionary.
What does Word-aligned (word above IPA) do?
Word-aligned (word above IPA) places each source line above its IPA row and pads word chunks into columns. It normalizes spacing and separates source lines with a blank line.
How does the converter handle unknown English words?
Unknown words appear in square brackets in Transcription only. Word-aligned (word above IPA) uses ?, and the warnings panel lists the words with repeat counts.
Does the English to IPA Converter send my text to a server?
The converter code processes entered text and locally read files in browser-side JavaScript. It contains no request that sends that content to a server.