Windows Speech Recognition
commands
Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 7
Select Product Version
Windows 10
Windows 10
Windows Speech Recognition lets you control your PC by voice alone,
without needing a keyboard or mouse. The following tables list
commands that you can use with Speech Recognition.
If a word or phrase is bolded, it's an example. Replace it with similar
words to get the result you want.
For info on how to set up Speech Recognition for the first time, see
Use speech recognition.
Notes
Any time you need to find out what commands to use, say "what can
I say?"
Speech Recognition is available only for the following languages:
English (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia),
French, German, Japanese, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese
Traditional), and Spanish.
Common Speech Recognition commands
To do this Say this
Open Start Start
Open Cortana
Note
Cortana is available only in
certain countries/regions, Press Windows C
and some Cortana features
might not be available
everywhere. If Cortana isn't
available or is turned off,
you can still use search.
Open Search Press Windows S
Right-click; Press Windows Z;
Perform an action in an app
press ctrl B
Select an item by its name File; Start; View
Click Recycle Bin; Click
Select an item or icon
Computer; Click file name
Double-click Recycle Bin; Double-
Double-click an item click Computer; Double-click file
name
Switch to Paint; Switch to
Switch to an open app WordPad; Switch to program
name; Switch application
Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll left;
Scroll in one direction
Scroll right
Insert a new paragraph or new New paragraph; New line
line in a document
Select a word in a document Select word
Select a word and start to correct
Correct word
it
Select and delete specific words Delete word
Show a list of applicable
What can I say?
commands
Update the list of speech
commands that are currently Refresh speech commands
available
Turn on listening mode Start listening
Turn off listening mode Stop listening
Move the Speech Recognition
Move speech recognition
microphone bar
Minimize the microphone bar Minimize speech recognition
Commands for dictation
To do this Say this
Insert a new line in the document New line
Insert a new paragraph in the
New paragraph
document
Insert a tab Tab
Insert the literal word (for Literal word
example, insert the word
"comma" instead of the
punctuation mark)
Insert the numeral form of a
number (for examples, insert 3 Numeral number
instead of the word three)
Put the cursor before a specific
Go to word
word
Put the cursor after a specific
Go after word
word
Don't insert a space before the
No space
next word
Go to the start of the current
Go to start of sentence
sentence
Go to the start of the current
Go to start of paragraph
paragraph
Go to the start of the current
Go to start of document
document
Go to the end of the current
Go to end of sentence
sentence
Go to the end of the current
Go to end of paragraph
paragraph
Go to the end of the current
Go to end of document
document
Select a word in the current Select word
document
Select a word range in the current Select word range; Select word
document through word
Select all text in the current
Select all
document
Select a number of words before Select previous 20 words; Select
the location of the cursor previous 10 words
Select a number of words after Select next 20 words; Select next
the location of the cursor 10 words
Select the last text you dictated Select that
Clear the selection on the screen Clear selection
Capitalize the first letter of a word Caps word
Capitalize all the letters of a word All caps word
Make all the letters in a word
No caps word
lowercase
Change the next number of Change next 10 words to
words to uppercase uppercase
Change the next number of Change next 10 words to
words to lowercase lowercase
Delete the previous sentence Delete previous sentence
Delete the next sentence Delete next sentence
Delete the previous paragraph Delete previous paragraph
Delete the next paragraph Delete next paragraph
Delete the selected or last
Delete that
dictated text
Commands for the keyboard
To do this Say this
Press keyboard key; press A;
Press a key or key combination press capital B; press Shift plus A;
press Ctrl plus A
Press certain keyboard keys Delete; Backspace; Enter; Page
without saying "press" first Up; Page Down; Home; End; Tab
Notes
You can also use the ICAONATO phonetic alphabet. For example, say
"press alpha" to press A or "press bravo" to press B.
Speech Recognition commands for the keyboard works only with
languages that use Latin alphabets.
Commands for punctuation marks and special characters
To Insert this Say this
, Comma
; Semicolon
. Period; Dot; Decimal point
: Colon
" Open double quote; Open quote
Close double quote; Close quote;
"
Close inverted commas
' Apostrophe
' Open single quote
' Close single quote
> Greater than sign
< Less than sign
/ Forward slash
\
Backslash
~ Tilde
@ At sign
Exclamation mark; Exclamation
!
point
? Question mark
# Number sign; Pound sign
$ Dollar sign
% Percent sign
^ Caret
( Open parenthesis; Open paren
) Close parenthesis; Close paren
_ Underscore
- Hyphen; Minus sign; Dash
- En dash
- Em dash
= Equal sign
+ Plus sign
{ Open brace; Open curly bracket
} Close brace; Close curly bracket
Open bracket; Open square
[
bracket
Close bracket; Close square
]
bracket
| Vertical bar
:-) Smiley face
:-( Frowny face
;-) Winky face
™ Trademark sign
¾ Three-quarter sign
¼ One-quarter sign
½ One-half sign
£ Pound sterling sign
& Ampersand; And sign
* Asterisk
// Double slash
` Back quote
< Open angle bracket
> Close angle bracket
± Plus or minus sign
« Open angle quote
» Close angle quote
× Multiplication sign
÷ Division sign
¢ Cent sign
¥ Yen sign
§ Section sign
© Copyright sign
Registered sign; Registered
®
trademark sign
° Degree sign
¶ Paragraph sign
... Ellipsis; Dot dot dot
ƒ Function sign
Commands for Windows and apps
To do this Say this
Select an item by its name File; Start; View
Click Recycle Bin; click Computer;
Select an item or icon
click file name
Double-click Computer; double-
Double-click an item click Recycle Bin; double-click
folder name
Right-click Computer; right-click
Right-click an item Recycle Bin; right-click folder
name
Minimize all windows to show Show desktop
your desktop
Show numbers (Numbers will
appear on the screen for every
Select something if you don't
item in the active window. Say an
know what it's called
item's corresponding number to
select it.)
Select a numbered item 19 OK; 5 OK
Double-click a numbered item Double-click 19; Double-click 5
Right-click a numbered item Right-click 19; Right-click 5
Open Paint; Open WordPad;
Open an app
Open app name
Switch to Paint; Switch to
Switch to an open app WordPad; Switch to app name;
Switch application
Close that; Close Paint; Close
Close an app
Documents
Minimize that; Minimize Paint;
Minimize
Minimize Documents
Maximize that; Maximize Paint;
Maximize
Maximize Documents
Restore that; Restore Paint;
Restore
Restore Documents
Cut Cut that; Cut
Copy Copy that; Copy
Paste Paste
Delete Delete that; Delete
Undo Undo that; Scratch that; Undo
Scroll up; Scroll down; Scroll right;
Scroll in one direction
Scroll left
Scroll down 2 pages; Scroll up 10
Scroll an exact distance in pages
pages
Scroll an exact distance in other
Scroll up 5; Scroll down 7
units
Go to field name; Go to Subject;
Go to a field in a form or app
Go to Address; Go to cc
Commands for using the mouse
To do this Say this
Show the mousegrid Mousegrid
Move the pointer to the center of
Number of the square; 1; 7; 9
a mousegrid square
Select a mousegrid square Click number of the square
Number of the square where the
Select an item to drag with the
item appears (followed by) mark;
mouse
3 mark; 7 mark; 9 mark
Number of the square where you
Select an area in the mousegrid
want to drag the item (followed
where you want to drag the item
by) click; 4 click; 5 click; 6 click
Last Updated: Jan 22, 2019
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