How to use Google Search for English pronunciation practice

As a non-native speaker, I always come across words that I don’t know how to pronounce. In the past, I used a dictionary app on my phone. But I have just discovered the pronunciation practice feature in Google Search. I think it is more convenient to use. So I would like to share how to use it with you in this article.

Word definition

First, if you just want to see a definition of a word, you can put define in front of a word to see its definition. The picture below shows the search result of the word ‘affirm’.

Pronunciation

If you want to hear the pronunciation of the word, just click the speaker icon in front of the word. After clicking the icon, you will not only hear its pronunciation but see the icon “Learn to pronounce” to practice saying it.

After clicking the icon “Learn to pronounce”, you will see the speaker icon to hear the pronunciation of the word. You can switch between American and British at the right top of the box.

By the way, you can see this pronunciation result directly by put how to pronounce in front of the word. For example, if you type in the search bar “how to pronounce affirm”, you will see the same pronunciation result as above.

If you want to practice and get feedback on your pronunciation, click the Practice icon and speak. Google will match your pronunciation with the correct pronunciation and give you feedback. The picture below shows feedback on my pronunciation when I said the word correctly.

If your pronunciation does not match exactly, Google will tell you which sounds you mispronounced and how to improve. The picture below shows feedback on my pronunciation where I mispronounced the m sound at the end of the word.

I hope you find this article helpful. Feel free to share your experience using this feature in the comment section :)