It keeps mishearing one word: how to fix it for good

Why one word keeps going wrong

Usually because it sounds very like a more common word. "Siam" and "Sam", "Kieran" and "Karen", "Teams" and "teens", "Nguyen" and "win". The engine is not mishearing you; it is choosing the more likely word because nothing told it otherwise.

The fix, step by step

1. Open History and find a dictation where the word came out wrong. Note exactly what it wrote instead.
2. Open Settings, go to the Dictionary, and add the right word with what it was heard as, in brackets: Siam (heard as Sam).
3. If it comes out wrong in different ways, add each one: Nguyen (heard as win, when, new in).
4. Dictate a sentence with the word in it to check.

Two or three entries like this fix almost every stubborn word.

Why the "heard as" part matters

A plain dictionary entry tells the engine what to listen for. The "heard as" part also tells the clean-up exactly which wrong word to replace. So even when the speech engine still writes "Sam", the clean-up knows that in your dictations "Sam" means "Siam" and corrects it.

Things that make any word harder to hear

• Background noise, especially other voices. See Does background noise matter?
• Saying the word on its own. A word inside a sentence is easier to get right than a single word, because the words around it help.
• Trailing off. The last word of a dictation is the easiest to lose if you let go of the key a fraction early. Finish the sentence, then let go.
• The wrong language. If the word is in another language, make sure that language is ticked in Settings.

When nothing works

If a word still comes out wrong after a few dictionary entries, open a ticket with the word, what it comes out as, and the language you were speaking. We look at those by hand, and stubborn words often show us something worth improving for everyone.

Still stuck? Open a ticket and a person replies.