Fact · Dictation
7words in a turn
In large corpora of conversational telephone speech in English and Chinese, speaking rate rises rapidly as a speaker's turn grows from one word to seven words, then levels off for medium-length turns.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“We find that speaking rate as a function of "turn" length rises rapidly for turns from one to seven words”
Towards an integrated understanding of speaking rate in conversation, Jiahong Yuan et al., Interspeech 2006 (ISCA), 2006, Abstract.
Open the original (DOI 10.21437/Interspeech.2006-2)- What it measures
- The study measured how fast people speak as their turns get longer, using recorded phone conversations. A turn is a stretch of speech by one person before the other person talks.
- What it does not show
- The rate is measured in conversation between people, not in dictation. The abstract does not give a words-per-minute figure, so the result is a shape of change rather than a number to plan with.
Source
Cited on
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterTopic
- How to Dictate: Techniques for Clean, Usable TextGuide
- Speaking Speed: How Many Words per Minute People TalkGuide
- How do you calculate your speaking speed in words per minute?Question
- How do you dictate a letter?Question
- How many words per minute do people normally speak?Question