How do you add punctuation with Google Docs voice typing?

In Google Docs voice typing, you add punctuation by saying the name of the mark. Say "period" for a full stop, "comma" for a comma, and "question mark" for a question mark. Google's December 2020 help page lists six phrases in its punctuation section ¹, and it adds that punctuation might not be available in every language ². Test the phrases you need before a long session.

Say the mark's name to add punctuation

Google's 2020 help page gives these phrases for punctuation ¹:

These six are the phrases the 2020 page names. The page is a December 2020 copy, so check the live list before you plan a workflow that depends on a mark not shown here.

Quotation marks, colons and semicolons are not on Google's list

The 2020 list does not include quotation marks, colons or semicolons. That does not mean you cannot type them. It means Google does not list a spoken phrase for them. Two other systems do list them, which shows what a fuller list looks like. Apple's Mac command table maps "quote" and "end quote" to opening and closing quotation marks ³. Windows voice typing lists the ellipsis, the forward slash, the colon, the semicolon and the question mark among its English punctuation names ⁴. Those are other tools, so their commands do not carry over to Docs.

If you need a mark that Docs does not name, dictate the words, then type the mark with the keyboard. Editing with the keyboard is part of the workflow, not a failure of it.

New line and new paragraph are punctuation phrases

Google's 2020 list puts "New line" and "New paragraph" with the marks ¹. Use "new line" to start the next line and "new paragraph" to start a new paragraph. The page does not describe how the breaks display in a document, so check the result in your first test.

Automatic punctuation is not described for Docs

Some systems add punctuation without a spoken word. Windows voice typing has an Automatic punctuation setting that inserts punctuation based on what you say ⁵. Google's help page we could read describes spoken phrases only, and we found no statement that Docs adds marks on its own. Assume you must say the mark, and check the output.

Capitalization is an editing command, and it works only in English

Capital letters are a separate matter from punctuation. Google's 2020 page gives "All caps" for a word or phrase in capital letters, and "Capitalize" for a word that only needs its first letter capitalized ⁶. These are formatting commands. Google's current help page says voice commands are available only in English, and that the account language and document language must both be English ⁷. In another language, capitalize by hand.

What to do

1. Learn the six phrases above, and say each one in a test sentence.
2. Test "new line" and "new paragraph" to see how the breaks look in your document.
3. Dictate the words, then add any mark the list does not cover with the keyboard.
4. For a non-English document, expect to fix punctuation and capitals by hand.
5. Re-check the live help page, since the list shown here is from 2020.

The guide to Google Docs voice typing covers the other limits, and the glossary entry for spoken punctuation explains the general method. For the editing commands, read the question on Google Docs voice typing commands. If the marks do not appear at all, read why Google Docs voice typing is not working. For the menu, see where voice typing is in Google Docs.