While transcribing a visit, you may encounter words whose spelling you are unsure of. For most normal words, we simply use standard American spelling found in any American dictionary. For a list of conventional spellings of non-word communicative sounds and words not found in the dictionary, consult the list of standard spellings below. We attempt to address other spelling related questions in the FAQ.
Below is our offical list of standard spellings for a variety of sounds and non-dictionary words commonly found in parent-child speech.
A communicative sound is generally something that doesn’t quite have a defined phonological structure, but carries some meaning.
| Word | Example or note |
|---|---|
| ah | “open your mouth and say ah”, “ah, look!” (an exclamatory intake of air) |
| aha | “I have an idea!” |
| argh | frustration or “I’m a pirate” |
| aw | “so cute!” or “darn” |
| blah | boring |
| boop | falling down/getting hit noise |
| brr | “it’s cold in here” |
| doh | Homer Simpson |
| duh | “it’s obvious” |
| eek | “eek! a mouse!” |
| eh | indifference, “I don’t care”, confirmation, “right?” |
| er | pause in speech, similar to uh |
| ew | gross! |
| gee | golly gee whiz! |
| grr | angry |
| ha | laughter (not always necessary to transcribe) |
| hmm | wondering or thinking noise |
| hmmm | saying no (mouth closed) |
| hey | attention getter |
| hooray | “hip hip hooray!” |
| huh | “what did you say?” or “don’t you agree?” |
| huhuh | saying no (mouth open) |
| mmm | yummy noise |
| mmhm | saying yes (mouth closed) |
| mmmmmm | prosodic, non-verbal “I don’t know” |
| nah | saying no |
| oh | as in “oh my goodness!” or “oh boy!” |
| ooh | “ooh shiny!” |
| oops | “something’s wrong” use for woops, woop, oop, etc. |
| ouch | “it hurts!” |
| ouchie | “it hurts!” or another word for boo-boo |
| ow | “it hurts!” |
| owie | “it hurts!” or another word for boo-boo |
| psst | “it’s a secret” |
| shh | quiet noise |
| tada | “look, I did it!” |
| uh | filler sound |
| uhhuh | affirmative (open mouth) |
| uhoh | “oh no!” |
| uhuhuh | admonition; “don’t do that” |
| ugh | disgust, sometimes frustration, grunt of effort |
| um | filler sound |
| whee | on a roller coaster! |
| whew | “what a relief” |
| whoa | “hold your horses” or exclamation |
| whoo | cheer, “go Bears!” |
| yeehaw | like a cowboy |
List of sounds made when imitating animals.
| Word | Animal or Note |
|---|---|
| arf | dog |
| baa | sheep |
| bow+wow | dog |
| bzz | bee |
| cluck | chicken |
| cock+a+doodle+doo | rooster |
| grr | bear or any growl |
| hee+haw | donkey |
| meow | cat |
| moo | cow |
| neigh | horse |
| peep | chick |
| quack | duck |
| raar | lion or DINOSAUR! |
| ruff+ruff | dog |
| woof | dog |
List of forms commonly used when addressing parents and grandparents.
| Word | Note |
|---|---|
| Auntie | |
| Dad | |
| Dada | |
| Daddy | |
| Ma | |
| Mom | |
| Mama | |
| Mommy | |
| Nana |
Be sure to capitalize familial terms!
All familial terms can be used as proper or common nouns, and must be capitalized accordingly. If one of these terms is being used as a proper noun, transcribe it with an initial capital letter. One way to tell if it is being used as a proper noun is to see if it could be standing in place of the person’s actual name. If it is being used as a common noun, transcribe it in all lower-case. Common nouns usually have a possessive or an article in front of it (e.g. “your daddy”, “the mommy”, “an auntie of mine”).
Widely used fixed phrases, which we consider single lexical units.
| Word | Example or note |
|---|---|
| ho+ho+ho | Santa |
| how+about | |
| hows+about | “Well, hows+about that!” |
| how+come | |
| kind+of | see note in Section 6.5.1 |
| of+course | |
| sort+of | see note in Section 6.5.1 |
| thank+you | |
| what+about | |
| where+abouts | |
| yabba+dabba+doo | Fred Flintstone |
Titles of books, movies, games, etc. See Section 6.5 and Section 6.6 for an explanation of how to form compounds with underscores and + signs.
| Title | Note |
|---|---|
| Bob_The_Builder | |
| Candy+Land | |
| Curious+George_And_The_Puppies | |
| Dora_The_Explorer | |
| Hide_And_Go_Seek | |
| Jackass_Three+D | |
| Magnum+P+I | |
| Monty+Python | |
| Monty+Python_And_The_Holy_Grail | |
| Sesame+Street | |
| South+Park | |
| South+Park_Bigger_Longer_And_Uncut | |
| The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf | |
| The_Cat_In_The_Hat | |
| The_Giving_Tree | |
| The_Man_With_The_Yellow_Hat | |
| The+Matrix | |
| Tic+Tac+Toe | |
| Toy+Story | |
| Toy+Story_Two |
Other common non-dictionary words that don’t fit into any of the above categories.
| Word | Example or note |
|---|---|
| alright | |
| binkie | |
| birdie | |
| boo | |
| boo+boo | |
| booger | |
| bye+bye | |
| cheesy | |
| chickie | |
| choo+choo | |
| choo | |
| coochie+coochie+coo | |
| ding+dong | |
| doggie | |
| duckie | |
| feetie | |
| fishie | |
| froggie | |
| gesundheit | |
| giddy+up | |
| goody | |
| goof+ball | |
| holy+moley | |
| hon | |
| horsie | |
| icky | |
| kiddo | |
| kitty+cat | |
| lookie | |
| m@ln a@ln r@ln y@l | Spelling out a proper name |
| nope | |
| night+night | |
| oclock | |
| ok | Do not capitalize |
| peekaboo | |
| pee+pee | |
| poo+poo | |
| poo+poos | |
| poopy | |
| rock+a+bye | |
| sippy | |
| smiley | |
| sweetie | |
| teeny+tiny | |
| tickley | |
| touchy | |
| weirdo | |
| yeah | |
| yay | |
| yuck | |
| yucky | |
| yum | |
| yummy | |
| yep | |
| yo | |
| yup |
When the child sounds out the letter instead of saying its name, use these standard spellings. In general, consonants are sounded out using the consonant followed by uh. Some consonants, such as S and R, are sounded out by double letters. Vowels are either in the form “ah” with a vowel plus h, or “ash” with two vowels plus h. Example: “B says buh, R says rr”. “Can you make the sound that S makes?” “ss.”
If they sound out the letter to “sound exactly as the name of the letter, such as vowel long sounds, type the name of the letter again. For example E makes the E sound, and I makes the I sound when they are long vowels” vs. “E makes the eh sound and I makes the ih sound when they are short vowels.”
| Letter | Pronunciation spelling | Variant |
|---|---|---|
| A | aah | |
| B | buh | |
| C | suh | kuh |
| D | duh | |
| E | eh | |
| F | fuh | |
| G | guh | juh |
| H | huh | |
| I | ih | |
| J | juh | |
| K | kuh | |
| L | luh | |
| M | mm | |
| N | nn | |
| O | ah | ooh |
| P | puh | |
| Q | quh | |
| R | rr | |
| S | ss | |
| T | tuh | |
| U | uh | ooh |
| V | vuh | |
| W | wuh | |
| X | zuh | kss |
| Y | yuh | |
| Z | zuh |