How to Build a Pronunciation Guide App with AI Voice

Ever built a language‑learning tool and realized you need a reliable, natural‑sounding voice to help users master pronunciation? Voice AI is now so accessible that you can add a full‑featured pronunciation guide to a web or mobile app in a few days. In this post we’ll walk through a practical, end‑to‑end implementation that:

We’ll use ElevenLabs for the TTS engine because it delivers high‑quality, expressive speech, supports voice cloning, and offers a generous free tier that’s perfect for prototyping.

A good pronunciation guide needs:

Text‑to‑speech services provide all of this without the overhead of recording, editing, and maintaining a library of audio files.

ElevenLabs offers a clean REST API, excellent voice cloning, and a generous free tier that gives you enough credits to test a full prototype.

curl).

pip install elevenlabs

npm install elevenlabs

We’ll use Python + FastAPI to expose a /speak endpoint that takes text and returns a URL to the generated audio.

from fastapi import FastAPI, HTTPException
from elevenlabs import generate, set_api_key, voices
import os

app = FastAPI()
set_api_key(os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"))

@app.get("/speak")
def speak(text: str, voice_id: str = "Rachel"):
    try:
        audio = generate(
            text=text,
            voice=voice_id,
            model="eleven_monolingual_v1"
        )
        return {"audio_url": audio}
    except Exception as e:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=500, detail=str(e))

Run it with:

uvicorn main:app --reload

Tip: Keep the ELEVENLABS_API_KEY in a .env file or a secret manager.

If you want a narrator voice that matches your brand, ElevenLabs lets you upload a few minutes of speech and train a clone.

from elevenlabs import clone, set_api_key
import os

set_api_key(os.getenv("ELEVENLABS_API_KEY"))

clone(
    audio_url="https://yourcdn.com/voice_sample.wav",
    name="BrandNarrator"
)

You’ll receive a new voice_id you can pass to /speak. The process takes a few minutes, but the payoff is a unique, consistent voice.

Here’s a minimal React component that calls the backend and plays the audio.

import { useState } from "react";

export default function PronunciationPlayer() {
  const [text, setText] = useState("");
  const [audioUrl, setAudioUrl] = useState("");

  const fetchAudio = async () => {
    const res = await fetch(`/speak?text=${encodeURIComponent(text)}`);
    const data = await res.json();
    setAudioUrl(data.audio_url);
  };

  return (
    <div>
      <textarea
        value={text}
        onChange={e => setText(e.target.value)}
        placeholder="Enter word or phrase"
        rows={3}
        cols={40}
      />
      <br />
      <button onClick={fetchAudio}>Hear Pronunciation</button>
      {audioUrl && <audio controls src={audioUrl} />}
    </div>
  );
}

Pro Tip: Cache the audio URLs in IndexedDB or localStorage so the user can play them offline.

Languages often have multiple pronunciations (e.g., “route” in American vs. British English). You can expose a variant parameter and map it to different voice models or pronunciation dictionaries.

@app.get("/speak")
def speak(text: str, variant: str = "us"):
    voice_id = "Rachel" if variant == "us" else "BritishRachel"
    ...

ElevenLabs also allows you to tweak pitch, speed, and emphasis via the voice_settings payload.

Deploy the FastAPI backend to a serverless platform (Vercel Edge Functions, AWS Lambda, or Fly.io). Make sure your environment variables are set securely.

For the front end, host on Netlify or Vercel and point the API calls to your deployed endpoint.

Ready to give your language app a natural, expressive voice? Sign up for ElevenLabs today and start generating high‑quality audio in minutes. The free tier gives you $30 in credits—enough to build a full prototype and prove the concept before scaling.

Try ElevenLabs now: https://try.elevenlabs.io/kr07zfuqn1bp

Happy coding!