# How can i apply minimum-should-match to a phonetic match query?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-apply-minimum-should-match-to-a-phonetic-match-query/189963>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [July 11, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-apply-minimum-should-match-to-a-phonetic-match-query/189963 "2019-07-11T09:57:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mkoehler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@mkoehler](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mkoehler)\
**Post date:** [July 11, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-apply-minimum-should-match-to-a-phonetic-match-query/189963/1 "2019-07-11T09:57:56Z")

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we have a field in our index that is analyzed with the Beider-Morse phonetic filter and when we query this field we sometimes get some very strange matches.

For example, if you search for "Heine" you will find "Chatten" as a phonetic match. I believe there isn't a serious argument to be made that those two are phonetically similar, no matter what language you consider.

The reason this is considered a match seems to lie in the phonetic synonyms that the original terms are transformed into. Both "Heine" and "Chatten" are transformed into around a dozen phonetic synonyms and there is only one overlap, one synonym that is assigned to both (the synonym "xan"). So, 1 out of 12 is not a really good match.

I don't have the expertise to determine if the transformation into the synonyms makes sense or not. Thats why my first instinct was to "solve" this problem by introducing a minimum-should-match clause, with the intention that it should not be enough for a single synonym to match. i planned to play around with some values to get a feel what would be a good compromise.

But i didn't get that far, because minimum-should-match doesn't seem to work with a phonetic match query.

this is what my query looks like. there are usually a lot more subqueries for other fields that i removed for the sake of clarity/simplicity, thats why there is a nested bool-query that seems obsolete in this simplified example, just so you know:

```
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "filter": [
        {
          "term": {
            "company": {
              "value": "0"
            }
          }
        },
        {
          "term": {
            "accountNo": {
              "value": "80529335"
            }
          }
        }
      ],
      "should": [
        {
          "bool": {
            "should": [
              {
                "match": {
                  "address.street": {
                    "query": "Heinestr.",
                    "minimum_should_match": "3<75%"
                  }
                }
              }
            ],
            "minimum_should_match": "1"
          }
        }
      ],
      "minimum_should_match": "100%"
    }
  }
}

```

i tried every conceivable value for "minimum\_should\_match": "3\<75%", but it doesn't seem to have any impact on the result at all as far as i can tell.

my expectation would have been that when setting this to a value \>1 the match of a single synonym would no longer be enough to get a match.

any ideas how i could achieve this?

thanks in advance!

regards  
Mario K.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkoehler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6f9a4e/32.png) [@mkoehler](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/mkoehler)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 9:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-apply-minimum-should-match-to-a-phonetic-match-query/189963/2 "2019-07-16T09:11:11Z")

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So, in the meantime in learned something.

It seems that the minimum\_should\_match does not apply to the number of phonetic synonyms that represent the original term, but to the number of original search terms instead.

so, for example, if I search for "Quick Brown Fox" with a minimum\_should\_match="3\<75%", then that means that "Quick", "Brown" and "Fox" all need to have phonetic matches in an indexed document for it to become a hit ("3\<75%" means because there are 3 or less terms, all of them have to match).

previously my understanding was that - similar to an NGram/Trigram analyzer - that the three words "Quick", "Brown" and "Fox" would be transformed into their individual phonetic synonyms during index-time (likely resulting in a list of 20-30 synonyms), and out of those 20-30 synonyms 75% (because there are more than 3) need to match to get a hit.

Now that i realized this, i understand why the minimum\_should\_match didn't work the way i wanted it to.

BUT, i'm still looking for a way to influence the behaviour that the match of a single phonetic synonym is enough for a match (see above where i explain why "Heine" vs. "Chatten" is a phonetic match without this).

I had an idea, and was thinking that each matched synonym will contribute to the total score, so maybe i could use min\_score somehow to define a cutoff score when not enough synonyms were matched. But i didn't find a way to restrict min\_score to the phonetic subquery.

So, I would appreciate additional ideas.

best regards  
Mario

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 9:11am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-can-i-apply-minimum-should-match-to-a-phonetic-match-query/189963/3 "2019-08-13T09:11:14Z")

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