How do you dictate punctuation in German?

Say the German name of each mark. On a Mac set to German, Fragezeichen gives the question mark, and Ausrufezeichen gives the exclamation mark, both from Apple's German command table ¹. The comma is Komma and the full stop is Punkt ². German quotations need the most care: Apple's table gives a low opening quotation mark („), while Microsoft's table maps the opening quotation phrase to guillemets (« ») ³.

The German commands are the German words for each mark

Dictation in German uses German phrases for the marks, and the English words do not work. Apple's German table for Mac pairs Fragezeichen with the question mark (?) and Ausrufezeichen with the exclamation mark (!) ¹. The same table gives Doppelpunkt for the colon, Komma for the comma and Punkt for the full stop ². Say these as you would write them, and check the result in a test sentence.

The German table gives the words and the marks only. It does not say how often each word is recognized in practice, so a clean command list is a starting point, not a guarantee. Dictate a test sentence with each mark before you rely on the command in a longer text.

German quotations open with a low mark, and the vendors disagree

German writing opens direct speech with a low mark and closes it with a high one. The 2024 official rules print direct speech with „ at the start and “ at the end, as in „Dass ich immer arbeiten muss!“, seufzte sie ⁴. Apple's German table matches that rule: Anführungszeichen unten gives the low opening mark („), and Anführungszeichen oben gives the high closing mark (“) ⁵.

Microsoft's German table does not match. Its phrase for the opening quotation mark maps to guillemets, « » ³. So a German writer who dictates in Word may get « where German style expects „. Apple's Mac table gives „ for its own phrase, Anführungszeichen unten. Whichever app you use, a German text should use one form throughout.

What to do for German quotations

1. Dictate the first quotation in the document, and read the opening mark before you go on.
2. If the tool gives « », type „ yourself for every opening quotation, or correct the marks at the end with search and replace.
3. Keep the closing mark consistent. Apple's table gives the high mark (“) for the closing quotation, so check that the closing mark matches the opening one.

German automatic punctuation covers specific Mac variants

Dictation on the Mac adds some punctuation as you speak in supported languages, and the switch for this is the Auto-punctuation setting in Keyboard settings ⁶. Apple's list for automatic punctuation includes German (Germany) and German (Switzerland) ⁷. Other German variants may not be on that list, so check the list for your exact variant before you assume the marks will appear automatically.

Automatic marks do not decide the quotation mark. A quotation is still a spoken command or a manual mark, so the rules in the section above apply whether or not the question mark is automatic.

Choose the German command list for your app, and test it

The German command table you use depends on the app. Apple's table is for Dictation on the Mac, and Microsoft's table is for Dictate in Word. The two tables differ on the quotation marks, so a German writer should pick one app for a document and test it there. The phrase set to German in your device's dictation settings is the one that matters, so confirm it before you dictate.

For the same kind of list in other languages, see our questions on Spanish dictation punctuation and French dictation punctuation. The full set of languages, with the typographic rule behind each, is in our guide to dictation punctuation commands in other languages. For the English commands, see our guide to dictation punctuation.

Apple's Mac list has separate entries for German (Austria) and German (Germany) ⁸, while Windows 11 voice typing lists German as one language with no regional variant ⁹. Our guide to speech to text in French, German and more covers which German variants each platform supports. If you dictate in Swiss German, check the variant list before you rely on any command.

The short answer: say Fragezeichen for the question mark and Komma for the comma on a Mac, use „ for quotations, and check the first quotation mark in each document, because Microsoft's table can give « » instead.