---
title: "How to pronounce naive | Murmur"
description: "Check naive pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet."
canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/naive"
---
[Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/naive

PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

# How to pronounce naive

Check naive pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet.

## The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists this North American English pronunciation for **naive**. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: **1** primary, **2** secondary, **0** unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

`N AY2 IY1 V`

**Syllable estimate**

2 vowel nuclei

**Primary stress**

2nd vowel position

**Secondary stress**

1st vowel position

[Check naive in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/naive).

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

## Use naive in context

Naive describes a lack of experience or an overly trusting view and can also appear in discussion of artistic style. Character narration should specify the assumption or behavior being judged. The tone can be sympathetic, critical, or self-reflective, and should follow the speaker's perspective rather than automatically sounding condescending.

1. It was naive to expect the entire journey to go exactly as planned.
2. The critic admired the painting's naive approach to perspective.

### A practice cue

Test naive in the exact sense used by your passage, and audition any accented spelling that appears in the source. Compare sympathetic and critical delivery, listening for whether the voice adds condescension beyond the speaker's actual judgment or artistic description.

## Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of naive. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the [CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A)](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/Papers/MastersThesis.pdf#page=115).

`N`sound in **knee**consonant`AY`sound in **hide**vowel`IY`sound in **eat**vowel`V`sound in **vee**consonant

TAKE IT TO YOUR NEXT RECORDING

## Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Copying and downloading happen in your browser. No script upload or audio generation is needed.

## Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from [CMU Pronouncing Dictionary](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict). The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

[CMUdict README](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/README) · [Included dictionary license](https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt)

Source version and checksum

Commit: `74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690`

Dictionary SHA-256: `81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22`

## Keep practising

[How to pronounce nefarious](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/nefarious)[How to pronounce nonchalant](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/nonchalant)[How to pronounce awry](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/awry)[How to pronounce banal](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/banal)

[Build a pronunciation test suite for local TTS](https://www.murmurtts.com/blog/pronunciation-test-suite-local-tts) · [Browse all word references](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)

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## Check the word in a real voiceover.

Murmur generates speech locally on Apple Silicon Macs. Try your audition sentences with your chosen model and voice, listen for pronunciation, and review the result before exporting. A dictionary sequence does not guarantee a model’s output.

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