Languages, voice & pronunciation

Bonnie speaks a wide range of languages and switches automatically to the caller's language. You set the languages, the voice, and how Bonnie pronounces tricky words on the Personality tab of your assistant.

Set your languages

1. In the dashboard, go to Assistants and click your assistant.
2. Open the Personality tab.
3. At Main language, pick your primary language.
4. At Extra languages, add more languages. Drag them to set the order Bonnie offers callers a language choice via the keypad.
5. Click Save.

Supported languages include Dutch, English (US, GB, AU), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Hungarian, Greek, Bulgarian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, and more.

How language switching works

• Bonnie detects the caller's language automatically and switches to it.
• At the start of a call, the caller can also choose a language with the keypad.
• Your greeting can be multilingual (for example Dutch first, then English).
• WhatsApp messages go out in the language of the call.

A greeting that adapts to the caller

Your greeting can be dynamic (it adapts to the caller's language, often based on the country code of the incoming number) or personalized (a fixed greeting you write). If you mostly get local callers, a single-language greeting is fine. If you get international calls, a dynamic or multilingual greeting starts callers off in the right language. Tell us which you want, or ask Sophie, the chat in the corner.

Add or remove a language

To add a language, open the Personality tab, add it under Extra languages, and save. To remove one, take it off that list and save. The order you drag them in sets the order Bonnie offers them on the keypad.

Bonnie answers in the wrong language

A few causes, and the fix for each:

• Wrong from the start of the call: Bonnie cannot switch language reliably halfway through a call. The caller should hang up and call again, and pick the language on the keypad if you offer that. Adding a keypad language choice at the start is the most reliable fix.
• Switches back to the default mid-call: usually the prompt's language instruction is not strong enough. Strengthen it so Bonnie keeps the caller's language. See Writing good instructions.
• Drifts back to the default on WhatsApp after a tool response: same fix, make the language instruction in your prompt firmer.

Choose a voice

1. On the Personality tab, click the voice card.
2. A drawer opens with the available voices.
3. Click play to hear a sample.
4. Pick the voice that fits your brand and click Save.

Fix how Bonnie says a word (lexicon)

If Bonnie mispronounces a word, a dish, or your venue's name, add it to the pronunciation list:

1. On the Personality tab, click Pronunciation.
2. Add the word and how it should sound.
3. Click Save.

Replace versus Phonetic: pick the right one

There are two ways to enter a correction, and choosing the wrong one is the most common reason a fix does not work:

• Replace: Bonnie swaps the written word for a different spelling that reads correctly in the voice's language. Use this first for most cases. For example, write "steak" so it reads as "steik" for a Dutch voice, or write your venue name the way it sounds.
• Phonetic: a precise phonetic spelling, for harder cases where a simple respelling is not enough.

Start with Replace. If the word still sounds wrong, switch that entry to Phonetic. This is most useful for English loanwords in another language and for names.

Caller names

Bonnie does not need a lexicon entry for every caller's name. She handles names on the fly. The pronunciation list is for words she says often, your venue name, signature dishes, street names, not one-off caller names.

A caller pressed the wrong keypad option

If you offer a keypad language choice and a caller presses the wrong one, they can hang up and call again to start over. There is no mid-call undo. If callers press the wrong key often, consider reducing the number of options or changing the order.

Accent and voice per language

Each language has its own voices, and some have regional accents (for example US, GB or AU English). Pick the voice per language on the Personality tab so each language sounds natural. If you cannot find an accent you want, ask Sophie, the chat in the corner, and our team can help.