Interested in learning a language? Do you want to start practicing but prefer not to sound like an alien? In that case, you need to find examples of pronunciations. There are some services floating around the web, but your first stop should be Forvo, a portal developed by the Spanish company Forvo Media SL. There you'll find millions of pronunciations in more than 300 languages, and the list of available words keeps growing day by day. Forvo works like a wiki, so everyone can participate, and quality control is in the hands of the users, who also have a group of volunteer editors.

If there are two languages I find intimidating, they are German and Swedish. I'm still trying to understand how "Mariposa" becomes "Schmetterling", and I have no idea how to pronounce an "å". For example, online translation systems tell me that "språngbräda" is nothing more than a trampoline, but with the "å" sounding like an "o" and the "ä" also sounding different... well, the best thing is to listen to someone.

Google Translate has an option for that, but in most cases it's as if a robot is talking to us. The ideal would be a high-quality recording without noise. In other words, something we can repeat like parrots until it sticks in our heads.

How to learn word pronunciation

Forvo: How to pronounce words in over 300 languages
Forvo: How to pronounce words in over 300 languages
Forvo has an absurd number of languages among its pages. Here are some of them.

The portal par excellence for clearing up pronunciation doubts is Forvo, developed by the Spanish company Forvo Media SL. Forvo made its debut on the web in 2007, but has grown into a community with millions of pronunciations available in 299 languages. Access is completely free, and it has a very intuitive interface. Perhaps the easiest way to use Forvo is to search for the specific word you want to pronounce, but there is also a large number of categories that divide the content.

Forvo: How to pronounce words in over 300 languages
Forvo also has different types of guides for travelers.

Forvo has thousands of registered users, and involves hundreds of volunteer editors. Its format is similar to that of wikis (in fact, its creators call it "the Wikipedia of pronunciations"), so there are almost no restrictions when it comes to uploading your own pronunciations and expanding the database. Pronunciations are rated, and users can vote to determine their quality. Forvo has been recognized by Time magazine as one of the 50 best portals of 2013, and it is still as good as it was back then. You'll see that after using it, you'll completely agree.

Forvo: How to pronounce words in over 300 languages
Forvo: Pronunciation guide in 299 languages

Access Forvo:

https://old.neoteo.com/lyrics-training-aprende-idiomas-con-musica/