Reference · dictation
Every spoken command, in one place
55 phrases for punctuation, symbols, brackets, and layout — each resolved by a fixed rule rather than by a model, so a phrase always lands the same character, in every app, every time. Longer phrases win over their prefixes, and spacing is part of the rule: an at-sign binds to the word that follows, a comma to the word before.
Where they apply
Always on — including in verbatim apps like Terminal and code editors, where they matter most. Multi-word phrasings are matched word by word, so “open parenthesis” beats “open paren” and both beat anything they share a prefix with.
Punctuation
Sentence punctuation and the hyphen/dash family. Most glue to the word before them.
- period · full stop.
- comma,
- question mark?
- exclamation mark · exclamation point!
- colon:
- semicolon;
- ellipsis · dot dot dot…
- apostrophe'
- hyphen-
- dash—
- dot.
Layout
Structure commands — where the text breaks instead of what it says.
- new linenewline
- new paragraphblank line
- tabtab
Brackets and quotes
Pairs come in open/close halves; openings bind to the word that follows, closings to the word before.
- open paren · open parenthesis(
- close paren · close parenthesis · unparen)
- open bracket[
- close bracket]
- open brace{
- close brace}
- open angle bracket · less than sign · less than<
- close angle bracket · greater than sign · greater than>
- open quote · quote"
- close quote · unquote"
Symbols and money
The characters email addresses, prices, and file paths are made of.
- at sign@
- slash · forward slash/
- backslash\
- hash sign · pound sign#
- dollar sign$
- cent sign¢
- euro sign€
- pound sterling£
- percent sign%
- plus sign+
- minus sign-
- equals sign=
- asterisk*
- ampersand&
- underscore_
Technical
For terminals, code, and shell paths — always on, even in verbatim mode.
- vertical bar · pipe|
- caret^
- tilde~
- backtick · grave accent`
Rarer marks
Degrees, legal marks, and the ones you need twice a year.
- degree sign°
- plus minus±
- not sign¬
- micro signµ
- dagger†
- prime′
- copyright sign©
- registered sign®
- trademark sign™
- section sign§
- paragraph sign¶
- bullet•
Beyond symbols
Emoji by name
Say the name and the word “emoji” — “heart emoji” becomes ❤️ — backed by the full 3,944-name Unicode catalog. Unknown names are left as the words you said.
Exact snippets
Save a trigger phrase and its text once; from then on, saying exactly the trigger inserts the whole snippet verbatim — no cleanup ever touches it.
“Scratch that”
Drops back to the previous sentence boundary — the spoken undo. Esc cancels the whole session; ⌘Z in the target app undoes the paste.
Learned spellings
A from → to list applied after cleanup, so your product’s name and your colleagues’ surnames come out right without fighting the recognizer.
Fair questions
- Do the commands run through a language model?
- No. Every phrase maps to its symbol by a fixed rule, so “pipe” always produces |, in every app, every time. Cleanup that must judge — fillers, capitalization — is deterministic code too, and any LLM polish is a separate, off-by-default switch.
- Do commands work in the Terminal?
- Yes — that is what verbatim mode is for. In terminals and editors, cleanup pauses but spoken commands stay on, which is how “tilde slash projects” becomes ~/projects.
- What if I want to say the word “comma”, not insert one?
- Say “literally comma” — prefixing any command with “literally” writes the words themselves instead of the character.
- How do I undo an insert?
- ⌘Z in the target app, because insertion is a real paste. Esc cancels a session mid-sentence before anything is inserted.
Dictation that never leaves your Mac. $9.99, once.