How it works
This Pig Latin translator with audio moves the consonants at the front of each word to the back, adds ay, and reads the result aloud in your device's own voice. Below it are 60 worked words, sorted by rule.
Read the full guide
Type it, then hear it
Each word converts where it stands, capitals and punctuation kept: She does not know becomes Eshay oesday otnay owknay. Read aloud speaks the line and Stop ends it. Swap runs the rule backwards, picks the likeliest plain word and names the others in the note under the result.
One rule, and the corners it leaves
A word that starts with a consonant sound sends that sound to the end and adds ay. A word that starts with a vowel sound adds way. The usual rule says nothing about y, qu or silent letters, so this page works from spelling: y moves only when it comes first, q takes its u along, and a silent letter moves like any other.
Tips
- Say it fast. The game is to get a sentence past someone who does not know the trick.
- Ixnay and amscray escaped into everyday American English. They began as nix and scram.
- If a friend says appleyay where this page says appleway, neither is wrong. Agree on one ending first.
Questions and answers
Whose voice reads it out?
Your device's. The button hands the line to a speech voice already installed, which reads it by English spelling habits, like any word it has never met. No recording is involved, so the same line sounds different from one machine to the next.
Does Pig Latin have anything to do with Latin?
Nothing. The name is a deliberate joke: this is English with the front of each word moved, played mostly by young children. It is not new. A magazine of January 1895 mentions pig Latin by name, and a 1919 record was called Pig Latin Love.
Why does honest come out as onesthay?
This page reads letters, not sounds. The h in honest is silent, so a speaker going by ear would say honestway. A rule working from spelling moves the h. The last group in the table holds five such words, each with both answers.