Teach Siri To Stop Saying Your Contact Names Like a Robot

OK, so Siri is not quite as sophisticated as, say, Scarlett Johansson’s robot character in Her. Sometimes, in fact, she has some trouble pronouncing your name, or your friend’s name.

That’s a problem, but Siri can learn new things! In fact, a little-known feature in iOS7 allows you to verbally educate Siri on how to say the names of your contacts. Here’s how you do it:

1. Get Siri on your screen by holding down the home button.

2. Give Siri the contact name that she’s saying incorrectly. For instance, Siri—in addition to non-robots—has trouble saying my friend Inci’s name (it’s pronounced in-gee, not in-see). So I’ll say  “That’s not how you pronounce the name Inci Atrek.”

3. Siri will automatically respond with “OK, how do you pronounce the name (Inci)?” You’ll just need to respond with the correct pronunciation. Be patient, she might need you to say it more than once.

4. Siri will then bring up a screen that offers several choices of how to pronounce your contact’s name. Play each option back and choose the best.

5. If you’re not satisfied with those options, you can select to “Tell Siri again.”

6. After you choose the correct pronunciation for the first name, Siri will offer pronunciation options for that person’s last name. Repeat steps 3 and 4. Siri will then confirm the new, correct pronunciation.

6. You just schooled Siri. Tell her “You’re welcome.”