iPhone Dictation Commands: Punctuation, Emoji, Editing

iPhone dictation understands four kinds of spoken commands: the names of punctuation marks, formatting words such as Cap and New paragraph, emoji names in some languages, and a short list of editing words. Apple publishes them on one page, and this guide copies its tables as they appear in the iOS 27 version. Two rules matter most. You speak punctuation by its name ¹, and the editing commands work in U.S. English on iPhone 12 and later, except iPhone SE ².

Speaking is also the faster way to draft. In a controlled study on an iPhone, English speech reached 153 words per minute, against 52 words per minute on the built-in keyboard, nearly three times faster ^{3 4}. That gap is why the commands are worth learning, and the chart below shows it.

The study used short phrases, and its authors say upper-bound recognition performance has greatly improved compared with earlier systems ⁵, so treat the gap as a floor rather than a promise for long documents. For the broader comparison, see dictation compared with typing.

Turn on Dictation once, then say commands in any text field

Commands only work when Dictation is on. To turn it on, follow these steps on the iOS 27 page:

1. Open the Settings app, tap General, then tap Keyboard.
2. Turn on Enable Dictation, then tap Enable Dictation if a prompt appears ⁶.

You do not have to stop typing to use commands. On iPhone, the keyboard stays open during Dictation, so you can switch between touch and voice to enter text ⁷. In many languages, Dictation is processed on the phone, and Apple says no internet connection is required ⁸.

Say the name of a mark, and iPhone types the mark

To add punctuation, say the mark's name, such as "exclamation point," and iPhone types the symbol ¹. Apple's command table lists these punctuation commands, including the period, comma, question mark and parentheses ⁹:

Automatic punctuation handles three marks. In supported languages, iPhone inserts commas, periods and question marks as you speak, with no command needed ¹⁰. To turn that off, go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard, and turn off Auto-Punctuation ¹¹. Apple's page does not say what happens if you also say "comma" while automatic punctuation is on, so test it in your language before you decide which to use.

For a fuller walk-through, see the question on how to dictate punctuation on iPhone and the guide to dictation punctuation. The glossary entries for automatic punctuation and spoken punctuation explain the two halves of this feature in one paragraph each.

Formatting commands control capitals, line breaks and spacing

Formatting commands change how the next word or phrase looks. Cap capitalizes the next word ¹², and All caps makes the next word uppercase ¹³. Apple's table of formatting commands, from its iOS 27 page, is below.

One of these commands depends on the language: Apple says No space is not available for all languages ¹⁴. For line breaks, saying "new line" or "new paragraph" adds the break during Dictation ¹⁵.

The same words do not always mean the same thing on a Mac. On iPhone, caps on … caps off capitalizes the first character of each enclosed word ¹². On a Mac, Apple describes caps on as formatting the following phrase in Title Case, and caps off as returning to the default lettering ¹⁶. If a command works on your Mac and not on your iPhone, the difference may be in the command itself.

Capitals that come out wrong may depend on the dictation model

If iPhone keeps getting capitals wrong without a command, the model that does the transcribing may be the cause. With Apple Intelligence in iOS 27, dictation uses an on-device model to improve spelling, punctuation and capitalization ¹⁷. That upgrade is narrower than the whole iPhone line, as the table shows.

The upgrade covers nine English variants in Apple's feature table, including English (Australia), English (Canada) and English (India) ²⁰. Apple's table is the place to check which language you use, because a single language entry does not mean every device qualifies.

The upgrade may also be off on your phone. In the first iOS 27 developer beta, MacRumors reported that the upgraded dictation for iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air was not turned on by default ²¹. In the June 2026 beta, Birchtree described the switch as "Advanced Dictation Preview," found by going to Settings, General, Keyboard and scrolling to the bottom ²². Apple's released iOS 27 page describes the feature without naming a switch, so look under Keyboard settings on your phone and use the label you see.

Emoji work by voice in some languages

Apple says that in some languages you can insert emoji with your voice while dictating ²³. The page gives 20 example emoji commands ²⁴. Apple does not say the list is complete.

Six of the commands from Apple's table, as written on the page:

• "Smiley emoji"
• "Heart eyes emoji"
• "Purple heart emoji"
• "Puppy emoji"
• "Music emoji"
• "Rainbow emoji"

Apple's pages show each emoji as an image rather than text, so this guide does not list what each command inserts. Apple's own instructions use a different wording in one place. The dictation page says to say the name of an emoji, "such as heart emoji or smiley face emoji" ²⁵, while the command table uses "Smiley emoji". Both forms are on Apple's pages, so if one does not work, try the other.

Whether emoji work depends on the language you dictate in. Apple's feature table lists Dictate Emoji for a long list of languages, including English (Australia), English (Canada) and English (India) ²⁶. The question on how to add emoji with iPhone dictation covers setup.

On a Mac, Dictation inserts an emoji when you say its name followed by the word emoji, such as "heart emoji" ²⁷.

Editing by voice on iPhone is limited to a few commands

Editing by voice on iPhone is limited to a few commands. Apple's table of editing commands runs from Change … to … to Redo, under the heading "Change, insert, and delete text".

Apple's instructions on the Dictate text page make the pattern clear: say "select" or "delete" followed by the phrase you want to change ²⁸. Undo and redo take no phrase: say "undo" or "redo" if you change your mind or want to repeat a command ²⁹.

These commands have two limits. The first is language: Apple's feature table lists Voice-Based Editing for English (United States) only ³⁰. The second is hardware: the editing commands need iPhone 12 or later, except iPhone SE ².

For the question of removing the last word, see how to delete the last word with iPhone dictation. Apple's pages describe "delete" followed by a phrase, and do not describe a bare "delete". Microsoft's dictation in Word does take a bare "delete" that removes the last word or punctuation mark before the cursor ³¹, but that is a different product. On iPhone, the keyboard's delete key removes text as well.

Dictation also has a timer that affects editing sessions. On iPhone, Dictation stops automatically after 30 seconds without speech ³², so a long pause between an edit and the next sentence can end the session.

On a Mac running macOS 27, turning on Voice Control replaces standard Dictation ³³. In Voice Control you can act on a numbered text item by saying a command such as Delete followed by its number ³⁴. Apple's iPhone Voice Control page did not load in our check, so this guide does not describe iPhone Voice Control commands. See the glossary entry for voice control and the guide to Live Transcribe and Voice Control.

iPhone has no spoken command for numbers, and fewer symbols than a Mac

Numbers and symbols are one area where iPhone and Mac differ. The iPhone command table has a dollar sign among its symbols, plus the parentheses listed above ⁹. Apple's iPhone table has no command for numbers, and no math or currency symbols beyond the dollar sign. On a Mac, numeral formats the next phrase as a number, and roman numeral formats it as a Roman numeral ³⁵. The Mac also lets you dictate symbols for math and currency ³⁶.

Apple's iPhone pages do not say how the phone chooses between digits and words when you speak a number. We found no Apple documentation on that rule, so if numbers come out as words when you want digits, test a sentence and check the result instead of relying on a command.

Spelled-out letters fix names, but a wrong name is a recognition problem

When the phone writes a name wrong, Apple's answer is to spell it out. You can spell a word by saying its letters, such as "S-T-E-P-H-E-N" for a name ³⁷. For a correction, Apple's example is "Change tea to T-E-E" ³⁸. That is the fix for one word in one message. Apple's pages do not say whether the phone keeps the spelling for later.

Two other Apple statements matter here, and both are about typing rather than dictation. Auto-Correction uses the keyboard dictionary to spellcheck words as you type ³⁹. Apple's dictation pages do not say whether dictated names are checked against that dictionary, so do not count on it to learn your names. The on-device model in iOS 27 is aimed at spelling, punctuation and capitalization, and it is limited to the devices in the table above ¹⁷.

If a name keeps coming out wrong, the step-by-step answer is in why iPhone dictation spells your name wrong. For a longer method, see how to make dictation spell names correctly.

Apple's iOS 27 page names the supported iPhones that iOS 18 left general

The change is in the availability sentence. The iOS 18 page says the commands are "available in U.S. English on supported models" ⁴⁰. The iOS 27 page limits its editing commands to U.S. English on iPhone 12 and later, except iPhone SE ². The upgraded dictation model is a separate feature, described above.

So if a command from an older list does not work, the list itself is probably not the cause. Check the language, the device and whether automatic punctuation is on.

A one-page cheat sheet covers the commands you use every day

Each row below is sourced in the sections above. Start with these, then add commands as you need them.

If you use dictation every day, you may also want to read the overview of dictation on phones and tablets, the guides on iPhone dictation, iPhone dictation not working and dictation languages on iPhone and Android, and the guide to dictation commands, which covers how commands work across platforms.