How do you capitalize a word when dictating?

Capitalization is a formatting command, not a punctuation mark, so you give it the same way you give other voice commands: you say a phrase, and the software changes the text next to it. You say the phrase just before the word you want changed. The phrase depends on the platform. Apple's iPhone and Mac pages use "Cap" and "all caps", Microsoft Word uses "capitalize", and Windows voice typing uses "uppercase" for a single letter. This page covers each one. It belongs to our guide to dictation punctuation, which is part of our overview of dictation.

Each platform has its own capitalization phrase, and they do different things

The phrases do not all do the same job. Some capitalize one word, some capitalize a whole phrase in Title Case, and one capitalizes only a single letter. Use this table to find your platform, then read the section for it below. The facts behind each row are cited in those sections.

On iPhone, "Cap" capitalizes the next word

On iPhone, the command is short. "Cap" capitalizes the next word, and Apple's table lists it as the single-word option ¹. Say "Cap" right before the word you want capitalized, so the command sits next to the word it changes.

For a whole word in capitals, Apple lists "All caps", which makes the next word uppercase ². The same table pairs "caps on" with "caps off" to capitalize the first character of each word between them ¹. Use "Cap" for a name in a sentence, and reserve "caps on" for a heading.

On a Mac, "all caps" and "caps on" are different commands

On a Mac, "all caps" formats the next word in capitals, and "all caps on" does the same for the next phrase ³. This is the right command for an acronym or a short label that should stay in capitals.

"Caps on" is different. It formats the next phrase in Title Case, and "caps off" returns to the default lettering ⁴. Title Case capitalizes most words in a phrase, so it suits headings and not ordinary sentences. If you say "caps on" before a sentence, Title Case capitalizes the main words of it, so you would have to fix the small words, such as "a" and "of", by hand.

In Word, "capitalize" is followed by the word or phrase

Microsoft's Word dictation page lists "capitalize" followed by a word or phrase as a formatting command ⁵. The same list has a range form, "capitalize from" one point to another, and "capitalize last" followed by a number and a unit such as words or sentences ⁵. For a single word, the simplest use is "capitalize" and then the word. We did not run these commands in Word for this page, so check the result in your own document before you rely on them.

In Windows voice typing, "uppercase" works on letters only

In Windows voice typing, you dictate an uppercase letter by saying "uppercase" before the letter ⁶. The Windows page describes this for letters, and it does not list a command that capitalizes a whole word. So on Windows, the documented method is one letter at a time.

You can say "uppercase" before the first letter of a word and dictate the rest in lowercase. We did not test this method, so check that it produces the word you want before you use it for names or headings.

Some capitalization commands depend on your language

Not every command works in every language. Apple's iPhone table marks "No space", which removes the space between two words, as "not available for all languages" ⁷. That entry covers only that one command, so it does not tell you which of the capitalization phrases are limited in your language. Test each phrase you plan to use.

The Word and Windows lists we read are the English versions. Other languages can use different phrases, so the table above does not apply to them. Check the command list in the language you dictate in.

What to do when a capital is still wrong

Start by saying the command right before the word it changes, and then read the result before you dictate the next sentence. A missed capital is easier to catch at this point.

If the capital is wrong, fix it with the keyboard instead of saying a correction. A spoken correction can be misheard too, which costs time ⁸. Select the word, retype it with the right capitals, and carry on dictating.

For a name or an acronym that the software does not know, spelling it can be simpler than forcing a capital. Our answer on how to make dictation spell names correctly covers that case. For the wider set of formatting commands, see dictation commands. If you also need to start a new paragraph by voice, see how to start a new paragraph by voice, and for typing a question mark, see how to say a question mark when dictating.

Yap, which we make, is an on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. This page did not check its capitalization commands, so compare its own command list with the phrases above before you choose it. You can find the app on the download page.