Mac Dictation Commands
Complete Cheat Sheet (2026)
Apple Dictation requires you to speak commands for punctuation, formatting, and navigation. This is the complete list — every command that works with macOS Dictation. At the bottom, we'll show you an alternative that makes most of these commands unnecessary.
How to start dictating
- Enable Dictation in System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation.
- Click into any text field.
- Press fn twice (or your configured shortcut).
- Speak using the commands below for punctuation and formatting.
Punctuation commands
Say these words to insert punctuation marks.
| Say this | Inserts |
|---|---|
| “Period” | . |
| “Comma” | , |
| “Question mark” | ? |
| “Exclamation point” | ! |
| “Colon” | : |
| “Semicolon” | ; |
| “Ellipsis” | … |
| “Dash / em dash” | — |
| “Hyphen” | - |
| “Ampersand” | & |
| “Asterisk” | * |
| “At sign” | @ |
| “Hashtag / pound sign” | # |
| “Percent sign” | % |
| “Dollar sign” | $ |
| “Open parenthesis” | ( |
| “Close parenthesis” | ) |
| “Open bracket” | [ |
| “Close bracket” | ] |
| “Open quote” | “ |
| “Close quote” | ” |
| “Apostrophe” | ’ |
Formatting and control commands
These commands control line breaks, capitalization, spacing, and emoji.
| Say this | What it does |
|---|---|
| “New line” | Inserts a line break |
| “New paragraph” | Inserts a paragraph break |
| “Tab key” | Inserts a tab |
| “Cap / caps on” | Capitalizes the next word / starts caps |
| “Caps off” | Stops capitalizing |
| “All caps” | Types next word in ALL CAPS |
| “All caps off” | Stops all caps |
| “No space” | Next word has no leading space |
| “No space on” | Suppresses spaces (for URLs, emails) |
| “No space off” | Resumes normal spacing |
| “Smiley face emoji” | Inserts 😊 |
| “Heart emoji” | Inserts ❤️ |
| “Thumbs up emoji” | Inserts 👍 |
Tips for better dictation
- Speak at a natural pace. Rushing makes recognition worse.
- Pause briefly before punctuation commands so macOS doesn't interpret them as words.
- Use “no space on” for email addresses and URLs (e.g., “no space on john at example dot com no space off”).
- Say “new paragraph” (not “new line”) for proper paragraph breaks in documents.
- For emoji, say the emoji name + “emoji” (e.g., “fire emoji”).
The problem with commands
Here's the thing: saying “comma” and “period” and “new paragraph” every few words breaks the flow of thinking out loud. It turns natural speech into a programming exercise. Most people who try Mac dictation give up within a week because of this.
The alternative: Resonant
Resonant uses neural models to infer punctuation from the rhythm and cadence of your speech. You don't say any commands. You just talk, and the text comes out punctuated and formatted.
- No punctuation commands — periods, commas, question marks, and paragraph breaks are added from how you speak.
- No filler words — “um,” “uh,” and false starts removed.
- No session timeout — speak as long as you need.
- Fully offline — runs on your Mac, no cloud.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add a period when dictating on Mac?
Say “period” or “full stop” after your sentence. With Resonant, periods are added automatically.
How do I start a new paragraph with Mac dictation?
Say “new paragraph” for a paragraph break or “new line” for a line break.
Can I insert emoji with Mac dictation?
Yes. Say the emoji name followed by “emoji” — e.g., “heart emoji” or “thumbs up emoji.” Works on macOS Ventura and later.
Is there a way to dictate without saying punctuation?
Yes. Resonant infers punctuation from your speech rhythm. No commands needed.
Do dictation commands work in all Mac apps?
Most apps, yes. Some apps with custom text editors (Notion, code editors) may not support all formatting commands.
What Resonant offers beyond dictation
Resonant isn't just a faster way to type. It's a voice workspace with capabilities no other dictation tool provides.
MCP server for AI tools
Resonant exposes 11 MCP tools that let any AI agent — Claude, Codex, and more — query your entire voice workspace — meetings, dictations, memos, ambient context, and daily journal. Your AI assistant knows what you said this morning. Learn more
Meeting transcription with speaker labels
Dual-channel recording — your mic and system audio on separate channels. NVIDIA Sortformer diarization identifies who said what. No bot joins the call. No audio leaves your Mac. Learn more
Ambient context capture
Passively records which apps you use, window titles, URLs, and dwell time — all locally. This makes dictation context-aware and gives your AI tools a queryable work timeline. Learn more
Two on-device speech models
NVIDIA Parakeet TDT v3 (0.6B, 25 languages) and Qwen3 ASR (0.6B, 30+ languages), both compiled to CoreML and running on Apple Neural Engine. Under 4% WER on English benchmarks. Learn more
Cloud cleanup with hallucination detection
Optional AI post-processing fixes STT errors and adapts to context (email, message, code). Guardrails detect when the LLM rewrites your meaning instead of cleaning your grammar. Learn more
Start with private Mac dictation
Local speech recognition is free and runs on your Mac. Pro adds cloud cleanup, rewrites, summaries, and sharing when you want the full workflow.