Can I add custom pronunciations to "Speech"? When given a well-known abbreviation or acronym, Mac's built-in Text-to-Speech engine automatically speaks the correct word or pronunciation, instead of the individual letters.

For example:


  vs
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "versus")
  
  
  Dec.
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "December")
  
  
  5 cm
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "5 centimeters")
  
  
  Dr.
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "Doctor")
  
  
  Dept.
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "department")
  
  
  Rd
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "road")
  
  
  OPEC
  
  
  (Speech pronunciation: "oh-peck")
  


However, there are instances where Speech does not pronounce a lesser-known abbreviation correctly, and, instead, speaks the individual letters of the word.

For example:


  BTW
  
  IMO
  
  YMMV


Is it possible to change the Speech behavior, so that when it is given "BTW," for example, it reads "by the way"?
Yes all you need to do is Go to System Preferences/Accessibility/VoiceOver.  Then click the open voiceover utility button.  Once that utility opens, select speech on the left and open the pronunciation tab.  From there, you can add any abbreviations with substitutions.



I also added the substitutions here: