How do you correct a mistake with Windows voice typing?

Fix a mistake while it is the last thing you said. In Windows 11 voice typing, the commands act on the last dictated text or the current selection, so say "Delete that" to remove the wrong words, or "Select that" and then dictate the correct words over them. If fluid dictation changed a word you meant to keep, say "Undo that" or "Revert". For a word further back in the text, voice typing has no matching command, so use the keyboard or the mouse, or switch to Voice Access, which has "Correct that".

Delete or select the last dictated text, then dictate the fix

Microsoft says that if a word or phrase is selected, "speaking any of the "delete that" commands will remove it" ¹. The English (United States) command table lists "Delete that", "Erase that" and "Scratch that" for the last spoken word or phrase, and "Select that" to select it ².

There are two ways to fix a mistake you can see on screen:

1. Say "Delete that" to remove the words, then dictate the correct ones.
2. Say "Select that", then dictate the correct words over the selection.

Use the second when you want to keep the position of the sentence and only change the words in it. Use the first when the words should go altogether.

Undo that and revert bring back the original text

Fluid dictation can correct a word as you speak, and Microsoft says that to keep the original sentence or undo a correction you can "say "Revert" or "Undo that" or Ctrl+Z on your keyboard" ³. The English (United States) command table lists "Undo that" and "Revert" for undoing the previous change ⁴. Use these when the change you want to reverse is the last one you made.

Voice typing corrects only the last dictated text

Voice typing edits the last dictated text and the current selection, and the English (United States) command table has no "Correct that" entry. A wrong word from several sentences back therefore needs the keyboard or the mouse. Voice Access also has a correction command. "Correct that" corrects the selected text or the last dictated text ⁵, and "Delete previous word" deletes the previous word, or "Delete last word" does the same ⁶.

Microsoft recommends correcting one word at a time in Voice Access ⁷, so when a phrase is wrong, say "Correct that" on a single word rather than the whole sentence. The Backspace key also works in Voice Access. Microsoft says to "press the keyboard Backspace key to fix mistakes made during dictation" ⁸. Backspace removes one character at a time, so a whole wrong word is faster to delete with a voice command.

It depends on how far back the mistake is

Check which tool you are in before you choose a phrase, because the two tools answer different commands. The voice typing guide explains the setup for each.

What to do

1. Look at the text before you dictate the next sentence.
2. Say "Delete that" if the words are wrong, or "Select that" if you want to replace them.
3. Dictate the correct words.
4. If fluid dictation changed a word, say "Undo that" or "Revert".
5. For a word further back, use the keyboard, or switch to Voice Access and say "Correct that".

For the single-word case in more detail, read how do you correct a misheard word by voice?. To remove text rather than replace it, see how do you delete text by voice?. The guide to Windows voice typing commands and punctuation lists the full command set, and the guide to dictation mistakes covers the causes that lead to these fixes.