My book is reading in a different language or with a strange accent and not English.

My book is reading in a different language or with a strange accent and not English.

When you use the Read Aloud feature of the Bookshelf App, it is reading in a different language or with a strange accent and not English.

Resolutions

Bookshelf uses the default voices on your computer or mobile device to read. Change the system default language to an English-US voice for the best reading experience. (Note: For books in another language, e.g., Portuguese, set your system voice to the language in which the book is written, these directions are for setting the book to read in English with a US accent)

FOR MAC OSX

1. Open your System Preferences > Accessibility > Voice (on the left-hand side).
2. Under System Voice, click on the current name.
3. If you do not see an English voice, select "Personalize." Start typing in English (this will need to be in the language of your system), and then pick one of the names.
4. Once it's downloaded, you'll want to change the System Voice to the one you just downloaded. When you go back to your book, it will read to you in English.

FOR WINDOWS 10

1. Go to Start > Settings > Time & Language > Region & Language.
2. Select Add a language and choose the language you want from the list*.
3. After installation of the language, restart the computer.
4. After reboot, go to Start > Settings; with the Windows Settings in view, select Time & Language, then choose Speech (on the left pane).
5. Click Voice: drop-down and select a voice. The voices do not state what language they are in; therefore, you’ll want to click on the Preview voice box to sample the voice. (eg. Microsoft Davidis English, Microsoft Claude is French, Microsoft Raul is Spanish).

*Not all languages support text to speech. Please look for the “Text-to-speech” next to the language pack selection before downloading the language pack.

FOR iOS

1. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Speech.
2. If this is not set to English, tap Add New Language. Select the language and dialect you want.
3. Tap Voice, then tap the voice you'd like to use.
4. Choose either Default or Enhanced Quality. When you go back to your book, it will read to you in English.

FOR ANDROID

1. Open your device Apps > Settings > Language and input > Text to Speech options.
2. One option will be selected: either the device's text-to-speech engine or the Google text to speech Engine. Select the gear next to the one that has the checkmark > change Language to English (United States). This may require a download. 
3. Once it's downloaded, you'll want to change the System Voice to the one you just downloaded. When you go back to your book, it will read to you in English.

FOR BOOKSHELF ONLINE

Bookshelf uses the default voices on your computer for Read Aloud. Not all web browsers will support the available voices within an Operating System. You will notice that different voices are offered depending on the browser you use.

Microsoft Edge is the Windows 10 built-in web browser and will take full advantage of all the available voices. Third-Party web-browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera are not guaranteed to support all Windows 10 Operating System languages.

If you are using a web browser and Bookshelf is reading in a different language or with a foreign accent, you can resolve this by doing the following:

1. Switch to another browser, such as Microsoft Edge.
2. In your current browser, switch to another voice, such as Microsoft Zira, by clicking on the Read Aloud Settings and Change Voice. When you go back to your book, it will read to you in English.

Still, having issues?

Please reach out to our 24/7 Support team by using one of the methods here.