Spoken Punctuation
WhisperTyping's transcription engine automatically adds punctuation like periods, commas, and question marks as you dictate. For more control, you can also speak punctuation commands explicitly — say the punctuation name while dictating, and it will be converted to the appropriate symbol.
Other languages: Dutch (Nederlands) | French (Français) | German (Deutsch)
Common Punctuation
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| “full stop” | . |
| “comma” | , |
| “question mark” | ? |
| “exclamation mark” or “exclamation point” | ! |
| “colon sign” | : |
| "semicolon" | ; |
| "apostrophe" | ' |
| "hyphen" or "dash" | - |
Quotes and Brackets
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| "open quote" or "opening quote" | " |
| "close quote" or "closing quote" | " |
| "open single quote" | ' |
| "close single quote" or "apostrophe" | ' |
| "open parenthesis" or "open bracket" | ( |
| "close parenthesis" or "close bracket" | ) |
| "open square bracket" | [ |
| "close square bracket" | ] |
| "open curly bracket" | { |
| "close curly bracket" | } |
Special Characters
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| "ampersand" | & |
| "asterisk" | * |
| "underscore" | _ |
| "at sign" | @ |
| "slash" or "forward slash" | / |
| "backslash" | \ |
| "ellipsis" | … |
| "equals sign" | = |
| "plus sign" | + |
| "minus sign" | - |
| "dollar sign" | $ |
| "euro sign" | € |
| "pound sign" | £ |
| "yen sign" | ¥ |
Formatting Commands
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| "new line" | Line break |
| "new paragraph" | Double line break |
Bullet Points
Create bullet point lists by saying these commands. Each command starts a new line with the appropriate bullet symbol.
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| "bullet point" or "bullet" | • (new line with bullet) |
| "dash point" | - (new line with dash) |
| "asterisk point" | * (new line with asterisk) |
Example: "Here are three items. Bullet point. First item. Bullet point. Second item. Bullet point. Third item."
Result:
Here are three items.
• First item
• Second item
• Third item
Numbered Lists
Create numbered lists by saying these commands. You can specify the number explicitly, or let WhisperTyping auto-increment for you.
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| "number point one" or "numbered point 1" | 1. (new line with number) |
| "number point two" or "numbered point 2" | 2. (new line with number) |
| "number point" (without a number) | Auto-increments from last number |
Auto-numbering example: "Here are my steps. Number point. First step. Number point. Second step. Number point. Third step."
Result:
Here are my steps.
1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step
Mixed numbering: If you say "number point three" followed by "number point", the auto-numbering continues from 3, giving you 4, 5, 6, etc.
Tip: The transcription engine may automatically add punctuation in many cases. If you find spoken punctuation is conflicting with auto-punctuation, you can adjust the punctuation settings in Settings → Transcription.
Capitalization Commands
Take control of capitalization with voice commands. Useful for acronyms Whisper doesn’t recognise (NASA, HTML, FBI), proper nouns it misspells, and emphasis where you want a word or phrase in CAPITALS or lowercase that the engine wouldn’t produce on its own.
Currently available in English dictation only. Dutch, French, German, and Spanish support is planned.
Prefix commands — one word at a time
Say the command followed immediately by the word you want to transform:
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| “all caps nasa” | NASA |
| “cap london” | London |
| “no caps Monday” | monday |
Example: “I work at all caps nasa every day.”
Result: I work at NASA every day.
Toggle commands — whole phrases
Wrap a phrase between on/off markers when you want multiple words transformed:
| Say | Result |
|---|---|
| “all caps on the website was down all caps off” | THE WEBSITE WAS DOWN |
| “caps on john smith caps off” (title case) | John Smith |
| “no caps on Monday Tuesday no caps off” | monday tuesday |
Example: “Please contact caps on jane doe caps off for details.”
Result: Please contact Jane Doe for details.
Tips:
- Commas that the speech engine adds around the command are absorbed automatically — you don’t need to say things in a robotic way.
- The command words “cap”, “all caps”, and “no caps” are context-aware: “baseball cap”, “the cap on spending”, “I prefer all caps headlines”, and similar natural-English usages stay literal.
- Toggles must be completed within a single dictation. Pause-and-resume between “all caps on” and “all caps off” won’t work because each recording is processed independently.
Start with a lowercase letter
The transcription engine normally capitalizes the first word of every dictation. If your cursor is already in the middle of a sentence and you want to keep writing without forcing a capital, begin your dictation with the word “lowercase” as the very first word. The word is stripped from the output, and the next word stays lowercase.
Example: Cursor is sitting after “I went to the store and”. Say “lowercase bought some bread” and you get “bought some bread” (lowercase “b”) appended, instead of “Bought some bread”.
This only works when “lowercase” is the very first word you say in that dictation. Saying it later in the sentence (e.g. “Show lowercase letters”) has no effect.
Need more punctuation options?
Let us know what spoken commands you'd like to see.