Punctuation

Speech to text can be used to create a verbatim transcript of the audio; however, punctuation is essential for coherent documentation. Two optional features are available for this need: Spoken and Automated Punctuation.

Feature availability:

/transcribe

/streams

/transcripts

The two parameters, spokenPunctuation and automatedPunctuation are mutually exclusive - when both are set to true, spokenPunctuation will override automatedPunctuation.

Punctuation configuration request parameters

Parameter	Description	Recommendation
`spokenPunctuation`	Enable users to control when punctuation is inserted in the document output, having punctuation symbols and line breaks added to the document instead of transcribed text, as defined below.	Use for dictation and transcription workflows (not available for `/streams`)
`automaticPunctuation`	STT model automatically inserts limited punctuation (e.g., period, comma, question mark) based on context and dictation cadence.	Use for conversational transcript workflows (on by default for `/streams`)

Spoken punctuation is intended for punctuation that the speaker explicitly wants inserted into the transcript. Hyphens within compound words are handled automatically by the speech recognition model and generally should not be dictated.

Spoken Punctuation Support

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”period”, “full stop”, “dot”
Comma	`,`	”comma”
New line	`\n`	”new line”, “next line”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”new paragraph”, “next paragraph”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”exclamation mark”, “exclamation point”
Question mark	`?`	”question mark”
Colon	`:`	”colon”
Semicolon	`;`	”semicolon”
Dash	`—`	”dash”
Hyphen	`-`	”hyphen”
Slash	`/`	”slash”, “forward slash”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”open quote”, “open quotation” “close quote”, “close quotation”
Parentheses	`( )`	”open parenthesis”, “open paren”, “open bracket(s)” “close parenthesis”, “closed paren”, “close bracket(s)”, “end bracket(s)“

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”punktum”, “punktom”, “og punktum”
Comma	`,`	”komma”
New line	`\n`	”ny linje”, “næste linje”, “og næste linje”, “og ny linje”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”nyt afsnit”, “ny afsnit”, “og nyt afsnit”, “og ny afsnit”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”udråbstegn”
Question mark	`?`	”spørgsmålstegn”
Colon	`:`	”kolon”
Semicolon	`;`	”semikolon”
Dash	`—`	”tankestreg”
Hyphen	`-`	”bindestreg”
Slash	`/`	”skråstreg”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”åbn anførselstegn”, “anførselstegn” “luk anførselstegn”, “anførselstegn slut”
Parentheses	`( )`	”parentes begynd”, “parentes”, “parentes start” “parentes slut”, “parentes stop”

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”punt”, “dot”, “puntje”, “eindpunt”
Comma	`,`	”komma”
New line	`\n`	”nieuwe regel”, “volgende regel”, “nieuwe lijn”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”nieuwe alinea”, “volgende alinea”, “nieuwe paragraaf”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”uitroepteken”
Question mark	`?`	”vraagteken”
Colon	`:`	”dubbele punt”
Semicolon	`;`	”puntkomma”
Dash	`—`	”gedachtestreep”
Hyphen	`-`	”koppelteken”, “streepje”, “minteken”
Slash	`/`	”schuine streep”, “slash”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”open aanhalingsteken”, “open quote”, “open citaat” “sluit aanhalingsteken”, “sluit quote”, “sluit citaat”
Parentheses	`( )`	”open haakje”, “open haak”, “open ronde haakje” “sluit haakje”, “sluit haak”, “sluit ronde haakje”

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”point”
Comma	`,`	”virgule”
New line	`\n`	”à la ligne”, “nouvelle ligne”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”nouveau paragraphe”, “paragraphe”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”point d’exclamation”
Question mark	`?`	”point d’interrogation”
Colon	`:`	”deux points”
Semicolon	`;`	”point virgule”
Dash	`—`	”tiret”
Hyphen	`-`	”trait d’union”, “petit tiret”, “petit trait”
Slash	`/`	”slash”, “barre oblique”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”ouvrir les guillemets”, “guillemets ouvrants”, “ouvrez les guillemets” “fermer les guillemets”, “guillemets fermants”, “fermez les guillemets”
Parentheses	`( )`	”ouvrir la parenthèse”, “parenthèse ouvrante”, “ouvrir les parenthèses”, ouvrez la parenthèse”, “ouvrez les parenthèses” “fermer la parenthèse”, “parenthèse fermante”, “fermer les parenthèses”

For primaryLanguage: "fr" or "fr-FR", normalized transcript output may include a non-breaking space (\u00A0) before :, ;, !, and ?. Swiss French ("fr-CH"), however, does not include a non-breaking space with punctuation. Preserve that spacing in your UI, and if these punctuation marks arrive as standalone transcript segments, apply the locale-specific insertion rule described in Transcript Text Handling.

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”Punkt”
Comma	`,`	”Komma”
New line	`\n`	”neue Zeile”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”neuer Absatz”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”Ausrufezeichen”
Question mark	`?`	”Fragezeichen”
Colon	`:`	”Doppelpunkt”
Semicolon	`;`	”Semikolon”, “Strichpunkt”
Dash	`—`	”Strich”, “Gedankenstrich”
Hyphen	`-`	”Bindestrich”
Slash	`/`	”Schrägstrich”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”Anführungszeichen öffnen” “Anführungszeichen schliessen”
Parentheses	`( )`	”Klammer auf” “Klammer zu”

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”pont”, “pontjel”
Comma	`,`	”vessző”
New line	`\n`	”új sor”, “következő sor”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”új bekezdés”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”felkiáltójel”
Question mark	`?`	”kérdőjel”
Colon	`:`	”kettőspont”
Semicolon	`;`	”pontosvessző”
Dash	`—`	”gondolatjel”
Hyphen	`-`	”kötőjel”, “mínusz jel”
Slash	`/`	”perjel”, “törtvonal”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”idézőjel”, “idézet nyitása” “idézőjel zár”, “idézet zárása”, “idézőjel bezár”
Parentheses	`( )`	”zárójel”, “zárójel nyit”, “nyitó zárójel” “zárójel zár”, “zárójel bezár”

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”punktum”, “prikk”, “full stopp”
Comma	`,`	”komma”
New line	`\n`	”ny linje”, “neste linje”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”nytt avsnitt”, “neste avsnitt”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”utropstegn”, “utrop”
Question mark	`?`	”spørsmålstegn”
Colon	`:`	”kolon”
Semicolon	`;`	”semikolon”
Dash	`—`	”strek”, “dash”
Hyphen	`-`	”bindestrek”
Slash	`/`	”skråstrek”, “slash”, “fremoverskråstrek”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”åpne anførselstegn”, “åpne sitat” “lukk anførselstegn”, “lukk sitat”
Parentheses	`( )`	”åpne parentes”, “åpne paren”, “åpne bracket”, “åpne parenteser” “lukk parentes”, “lukk paren”, “slutt parentes”, “lukk parenteser”, “slutt bracket”

Punctuation		Spoken forms supported
Period	`.`	”punkt”
Comma	`,`	”kommatecken”, “komma”
New line	`\n`	”ny rad”
New paragraph	`\n\n`	”nytt stycke”
Exclamation mark	`!`	”utropstecken”
Question mark	`?`	”frågetecken”
Colon	`:`	”kolon”
Semicolon	`;`	”semikolon”
Dash	`—`	”tankestreck”
Hyphen	`-`	”bindestreck”
Slash	`/`	”snedstreck”
Quotation marks	`" "`	”citattecken”, “öppna citattecken”, “citationstecken”, “citat”, “start citat” “slut citat”, “stäng citattecken”
Parentheses	`( )`	”start parentes”, “öppna parentes” “slutparentes”, “stäng parentes”

Utilize the tabs atop the table to see spoken punctuation phrases supported per language.Notes:

Some punctuation may be supported by more than one utterance. For example, either “open parentheses” and “open paren” can be spoken to return (. There are also some terms (e.g., “colon”) that will be disambiguated by the language model to determine if the symbol or the word should be inserted based on the context.
“Dash” returns the em-dash character ("—") and will include a space on either side, while “hyphen” returns the hyphen character ("-") without spaces between the words and symbol. Use the former for separating two thoughts and the latter for word concatenation. Replacements can be used to override this default behavior.

Don’t Smart Quote Me On That

Some applications provide support for “smart punctuation”: Transformation of plain ASCII characters to look nicer and be more readable in modern text editors. Such smart transformations, however, can cause issues with speech-to-text integrations. See a detailed guide here to learn how to insert and handle these characters appropriately, and prevent unexpected whitespace from being added into your text.

There are some terms (e.g., “colon”) that will be disambiguated by the language model to determine if the symbol or the word should be inserted based on the context.Please contact us to report errors, or for more information on this feature.

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Feature availability:

Punctuation configuration request parameters

Spoken Punctuation Support

Don’t Smart Quote Me On That

Feature availability:

​Punctuation configuration request parameters

​Spoken Punctuation Support

​Don’t Smart Quote Me On That

Punctuation configuration request parameters

Spoken Punctuation Support

Don’t Smart Quote Me On That