Kwame Mensah
South African Accent Generator and Text to Speech Voices
Paste a script into this South African accent generator and press Play to listen.
Hear it in South African English
No account needed248 / 500
Voice
Edit the text, pick a voice and press Play. Listen as often as you like before you sign up. Spell Afrikaans and isiZulu words the local way, such as braai or sawubona, and preview them.
6 voices
South African English text to speech voices, male and female
Listen2It has 6 South African English voices, 2 male and 4 female. Press Use this voice to load one into the tool. Filter by gender. Of these, 3 are Emotional voices, and each supports the 7 emotion presets. Choose Calm, Happy or Serious, for example, and the voice reads that line in that mood.
Gender
Zanele Dlamini
Zuri Okafor
Leah
Luke
Showing 5 of 6 voices
Proof
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South African English uses British spelling: colour, centre, programme and tyre. Much of its vocabulary comes from Afrikaans and Bantu languages. A robot is a traffic light, a bakkie is a pickup, a braai is a barbecue, "just now" means some time soon, and "now now" means shortly. Use these when the audience is South African.
Place names come from English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa and other languages. Preview Gqeberha, the former Port Elizabeth, which starts with an isiXhosa click, and names such as Stellenbosch, Mbombela, Polokwane or Knysna, where the K is silent. Personal names like Thandiwe or Nkosinathi need a check too. If one comes out wrong, set its reading in the pronunciation dictionary.
Money is in rand and cents, so write amounts as words, such as "ninety-nine rand". South Africans say ja for yes, eish for dismay and howzit for hello. A touch of these makes a radio or social ad sound local. For a warm braai-day promo, test the Emotional voices with the Happy preset.
Three steps
How to convert South African English text to speech in three steps
Add your script
Type or paste South African English text, or import a .txt, .docx or .pdf file up to 500KB, or a web page by URL.
Pick a voice and shape the delivery
Play the samples, choose a voice, add pauses where the listener needs a breath, and set how any word is read with the pronunciation dictionary.
Generate and download
Export an MP3, a voice and music mix, or SRT captions.
What's free
Free plan
Everything you need to hear your script
- The Free plan costs $0.
- Every voice is included.
- Preview voices as often as you like.
- A free account gets 2,500 credits once, not every month. That is about 2,500 words of text to speech.
- Download your audio as an MP3.
- The Free plan is for personal and evaluation use. Paid plans add commercial rights.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Yes. You can play any voice on this page before you sign up. The full library has 1,411 voices across 160 languages and dialects.
Write or import your South African English script, choose a voice and press Generate. To download the MP3, create a free account: downloads work on the Free plan. You can also export a voice and music mix or SRT captions.
Yes. The Free plan costs $0 and includes every voice, with a one-time allowance of 2,500 credits, about 2,500 words. It is for personal and evaluation use.
Yes. South African English has 2 male and 4 female voices. Use the gender filter above the voice list and try a few with your own first line.
Yes, on a paid plan: paid plans include commercial rights, and the Free plan is for personal and evaluation use only. Starter costs $5 for the first month, then $19 a month.
Preview the line first. If a number, date or abbreviation comes out wrong, write it the way it should be spoken, or add it to the pronunciation dictionary, which is on every plan. One entry fixes that word across the whole project.
No. Afrikaans is a separate language that grew from Dutch. South African English is English with a local accent and many words borrowed from Afrikaans, isiZulu and isiXhosa. These voices read English; for a script in Afrikaans, use the Afrikaans page.
Use it for listeners in South Africa: retail and radio ads, banking and insurance explainers, safety briefings at mines, and tours in Cape Town or the Kruger. Many South Africans speak English as a second language, so plain sentences help.
The rest of the studio
More with Listen2It
Turn your South African English script into a voice over
Paste your script into the tool above, pick a voice and hear it before you sign up.
Try it with your script No account needed to listen 6 South African English voices