Do you read a word somewhere and struggle with its pronunciations or you just realised that you've been pronouncing a particular word wrong all your life? Google has you covered with a new feature that turns Search into a great teacher.
We've turned to Google so many times for both simple and tough queries and rarely did the world's largest search engine has left us disappointed. Google Search played a teacher's role in our life after the digital transformation more often than we can remember. One of the most popular queries on Google Search has to be pronunciations and the web search giant has the perfect feature to make our lives easier.
From Shashi Tharoor's Floccinaucinihilipilification to Donald Trump's covfefe, Google Search gave definitions, meanings and pronunciations to improve our knowledge base and vocabulary with a simple web search. So as long as you're connected to the internet, the door to knowledge can never shut, and it is one of the perks of being digitally enabled.
Google is rolling out a new Search feature that will allow people to not just listen to the right pronunciations, but also pronounce it right by practising it with Google. There's a new addition in the search results when you look for pronunciations on Google that will allow you to practice the word till you get it right.
"Studies have shown that practicing how to say a word can be helpful for remembering it, especially when you're learning a new language. Previously, when you searched for things like "how to pronounce quokka," you could play audio and hear the word. With the new pronunciation feature, you'll be able to also practice saying "quokka" into your phone's microphone and receive feedback on what, if anything, can be adjusted in your pronunciation," Google explained in a blog post on Thursday.
Google is using speech recognition technology to separate words into soundbites. Then, with the help of machine learning, Google cross-references your pronunciation of a word with the actual pronunciation. If you get it right the first time, kudos! But if Google recognizes a mismatch, it will give feedback on how to improve and try again.
Google's new feature is rolling out in American English and a Spanish version is expected to follow soon.
Finally, Google is also adding images to Search results of word meanings, which help us remember better. Since adding images to all words is a lengthy process, Google is starting with nouns and later it will expand to other categories.
