A transliteration interface that allows active personalization by a user is described. The personalized transliteration interface receives an input word in one language from a user and provides candidate words in a second language that are homophones of the input word. The interface is configured to receive a user annotation associated with a candidate word. The annotations may be stored in a memory. The personalized transliteration interface provides the annotations with the candidate words when the candidate words are provided thereafter. The personalized transliteration interface is also configured to receive a user reordering, which specifies where in a list of candidates the associated candidate word is to be displayed. The personalized transliteration interface is also configured to receive a user omit parameter, which causes the associated candidate word to be omitted from a list of candidate words.