Soundalike Explained
How Does Soundalike Actually Work?
Our soundalike system reduces English names to fifteen distinct sounds.
| Code | Sound |
|---|---|
| * | all vowel sounds |
| 0 | thorn, thing, then, this, that |
| f | fail, vale, favor |
| h | hotel |
| j | judge |
| k | kick, goat, coat |
| l | lord, llama, lloyd |
| m | mother |
| n | nine |
| p | pat, bat |
| s | slip, zip, size, sausages |
| t | tire, dire |
| w | wire, wear, power |
| x | church, shoe, fish, ditch |
| * | ALL vowel sounds (a,e,i,o,u,y) |
So where are all these weird results coming from?
Remember, some letters have radically different pronunciations.
If you do a partial matching search, you might get some really strange search results - for example, a search for "aled rees" brings back Juliet Forester, Nicolette Morrison and Elliot Russo.
This is happening because.
- "aled" becomes "
*l*t" - "rees" becomes "
r*s" - "juliet" becomes "
j*l*t" - "forester" becomes "
f*r*st*"
The system then matches the soundalike codes, and finds the "l*t* in "j*l*t" and the "r*s" in "f*r*s*t*"
