How to Fix Siri Pronunciation on the iPhone and iPad

Siri, Apple’s digital assistant on the iPhone and iPad, is surprisingly good at pronunciation, which makes your verbal interactions with her (or him) all the more natural. But sometimes Siri just can’t figure out how to pronounce a particular name correctly, and that’s when you need to step in and offer some guidance.
Thankfully, it’s easy to correct Siri’s pronunciation, and she won’t even get offended when you do! Here’s how it works.
You can correct Siri’s pronunciation any time you hear her mispronounce a name. Just chime in immediately and say “you’re pronouncing [name] wrong.” Siri will then ask you to pronounce the name correctly and offer you some choices of her interpretation of the correct pronunciation. Listen to the options and pick the best one. If none of them sound right, tap Tell Siri Again and keep refining until you’re satisfied. From here on out, Siri should use the correct pronunciation.
You can also correct Siri’s pronunciation of your contacts at any time, without waiting for her to bring them up first. Just say “you’re pronouncing [name of contact] wrong.” Siri may ask you to clarify which contact you’re referring to if you have multiple contacts with similar names. Select the correct one and repeat the steps above to provide and verify the pronunciation.
Let’s walk through these steps in an example. I have a name (Tanous) that’s pronounced a bit differently than written. Siri says it like “tan-oh-us,” but it’s supposed to be pronounced like “tan-us.” To fix this, I just need to tell Siri “you’re pronouncing my name wrong.”

Siri will ask me to pronounce my first and last name, and pick one of the corrected options. She’ll then confirm the choice and use that pronunciation going forward.

This method can correct a lot of pronunciation issues, but Siri still may not be able to handle more complicated names. If you choose a pronunciation that you later realize isn’t quite right, you can repeat the steps described above to try again, and hopefully land on a pronunciation that is satisfactory.