Reference Β· Flit 1.7.1
Every spoken command, in one place.
70 punctuation, symbol, pair and structure commands, plus 115 spoken emoji names. Every one is resolved by a fixed rule rather than by a model, so the same phrase produces the same character every time, on every Mac, forever. The glossary explains spoken punctuation as a category.
Where they apply
Spoken commands are always on in verbatim apps, meaning terminals and code editors, where a helpful autocorrect would break the thing you dictated. Everywhere else they are opt-in, and even then a command that is also an everyday word stays a word when the sentence uses it as one: "over a period of", "please star this" and "to quote him" are left alone, and "quote" opens a quotation only when you also say where it closes. Commands are English only: dictation itself runs in more than 1,600 languages, but a half-understood command is worse than none.
Punctuation
Say the name of a punctuation mark and you get the mark, attached to the previous word with no space before it, the way you would type it.
| Say | You get | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| period / full stop Glues to the word before it | . | Glues to the word before it |
| comma Glues to the word before it | , | Glues to the word before it |
| question mark Glues to the word before it | ? | Glues to the word before it |
| exclamation point / exclamation mark Glues to the word before it | ! | Glues to the word before it |
| colon Glues to the word before it | : | Glues to the word before it |
| semicolon Glues to the word before it | ; | Glues to the word before it |
| ellipsis / dot dot dot Glues to the word before it | β¦ | Glues to the word before it |
| percent / percent sign Glues to the word before it | % | Glues to the word before it |
| dash Binds rightward on purpose, so "dash dash force" becomes --force and command flags survive dictation. Glues to the word after it | - | Glues to the word after it |
| hyphen Joins both sides: "well hyphen known" becomes well-known. Glues to both sides | - | Glues to both sides |
| em dash Spaced like a word | β | Spaced like a word |
| underscore Glues to both sides | _ | Glues to both sides |
| apostrophe Glues to both sides | ' | Glues to both sides |
Symbols
Symbol names become symbols with the spacing each one actually needs, which is how a dictated email address or file path comes out usable rather than spread across three words.
| Say | You get | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| at sign "name at sign gmail dot com" becomes name@gmail.com. Glues to both sides | @ | Glues to both sides |
| dot Glues to both sides | . | Glues to both sides |
| slash / forward slash Glues to both sides | / | Glues to both sides |
| backslash Glues to both sides | \ | Glues to both sides |
| dollar sign Glues to the word after it | $ | Glues to the word after it |
| euro sign Glues to the word after it | β¬ | Glues to the word after it |
| pound sign Glues to the word after it | Β£ | Glues to the word after it |
| hash / hashtag / hash sign Glues to the word after it | # | Glues to the word after it |
| tilde "tilde slash projects" becomes ~/projects. Glues to the word after it | ~ | Glues to the word after it |
| ampersand Spaced like a word | & | Spaced like a word |
| asterisk / star Spaced like a word | * | Spaced like a word |
| plus sign Spaced like a word | + | Spaced like a word |
| equals sign Spaced like a word | = | Spaced like a word |
| greater than Spaced like a word | > | Spaced like a word |
| less than Spaced like a word | < | Spaced like a word |
| pipe Spaced like a word | | | Spaced like a word |
| caret Spaced like a word | ^ | Spaced like a word |
Pairs and quotes
Opening delimiters bind to what follows and closing ones to what precedes, so a dictated parenthetical or quotation needs no cleanup.
| Say | You get | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| open paren / open parenthesis Speech engines reliably hear "paren" as "parent", so "open parent" is accepted too. Glues to the word after it | ( | Glues to the word after it |
| close paren / close parenthesis Glues to the word before it | ) | Glues to the word before it |
| open bracket Glues to the word after it | [ | Glues to the word after it |
| close bracket Glues to the word before it | ] | Glues to the word before it |
| open brace Glues to the word after it | { | Glues to the word after it |
| close brace Glues to the word before it | } | Glues to the word before it |
| open angle bracket Glues to the word after it | < | Glues to the word after it |
| close angle bracket Glues to the word before it | > | Glues to the word before it |
| quote / open quote Glues to the word after it | " | Glues to the word after it |
| unquote / close quote / end quote Glues to the word before it | " | Glues to the word before it |
| open single quote Glues to the word after it | ' | Glues to the word after it |
| close single quote Glues to the word before it | ' | Glues to the word before it |
Structure and case
Commands that shape the text rather than insert a character: line breaks, tabs, and casing spans that run to the end of the sentence.
| Say | You get | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| new line / newline | A line break | |
| new paragraph | A blank line, then a new paragraph | |
| tab key | A tab character | |
| no space For the one place a rule would guess wrong. | Joins the words on either side | |
| all caps on β¦ all caps off | AN UPPERCASE SPAN | |
| camel case β¦ Any sentence mark ends the name, and an "uh" inside it is dropped. After a word like "the" or "in", "camel case" stays two words. | joinsTheRestOfTheSentence | |
| pascal case β¦ | JoinsTheRestOfTheSentence | |
| snake case β¦ "snake case user auth service" becomes user_auth_service. | joins_the_rest_of_the_sentence | |
| kebab case β¦ | joins-the-rest-of-the-sentence | |
| space Terminals and editors only, where it undoes a "no space". | A space |
Saying the word instead
Prefix any command with "literally" and Flit writes the words rather than obeying them, so you can dictate about punctuation without fighting the tool.
| Say | You get | Spacing |
|---|---|---|
| literally comma | the word "comma" | |
| literally new paragraph | the words "new paragraph" | |
| literally fire emoji | the words "fire emoji", not π₯ |
Correcting yourself
You do not need a command. Say the correction the way you would to a person and Flit keeps the second value: "the demo on Monday no wait Tuesday" keeps Tuesday.
Phrases it listens for
no wait Β· i mean Β· i meant Β· sorry Β· make that Β· make it Β· or rather Β· correction
What it will replace
- Clock times: "meet at 9:30 I mean 10:30" keeps 10:30
- Amounts and percentages: "the budget is $300, no wait, $400" keeps $400
- Plain numbers and ordinals
- Weekdays: "the demo on Monday no wait Tuesday" keeps Tuesday
- Months
The rule is deliberately narrow. A correction fires only when both sides are the same kind of thing, which is the case where the replacement is certain rather than guessed. Anything looser is left to the formatting model, which is where ambiguity belongs.
Spoken emoji
Say the name, then the word "emoji". The trigger word is required, so ordinary speech can never emojify by accident, and an unknown name is left exactly as you said it. All 115 names:
Faces & feelings
Hands & people
Symbols & objects
Questions people ask.
What voice commands does Flit support?
About 70 spoken punctuation, symbol, pair, and structure commands, plus 115 spoken emoji names. Every one is resolved by a fixed rule rather than by a language model, so the same phrase always produces the same character. The complete list is on this page.
How do I dictate punctuation on a Mac?
Say the name of the mark while you speak: "period", "comma", "question mark", "open paren". In Flit these are always on in terminals and code editors and opt-in elsewhere, and each mark attaches to the correct side, so "comma" joins the previous word with no space before it.
How do I say a symbol without Flit typing it?
Put the word "literally" in front of it. "Literally comma" writes the word comma, "literally fire emoji" writes the words rather than the emoji. It works for every command on this page.
Can I dictate an email address or a file path?
Yes, and the spacing is the reason it works. "name at sign gmail dot com" becomes name@gmail.com because "at sign" and "dot" bind to both sides, and "tilde slash projects" becomes ~/projects. A tool that inserts symbols without spacing rules gives you "name @ gmail . com".
How do I correct myself mid-sentence while dictating?
Just say it: "the demo on Monday no wait Tuesday" keeps Tuesday. Flit acts on a correction only when both sides are the same kind of value (two weekdays, two amounts, two clock times), because that is the case where the replacement is certain rather than guessed.
Will "period" or "quote" in a normal sentence turn into a symbol?
No. Outside terminals and code editors, a command that is also an everyday word stays a word when the sentence uses it as one: "over a period of", "please star this", "to quote him" and "a five star review" are left alone, and "quote" opens a quotation only when you also say where it closes. In terminals and editors every command is taken literally, because there the symbol is what you meant.
Do the commands work in other languages?
The spoken commands are English only. Dictation itself works in more than 1,600 languages, but a half-understood command is worse than none, so the command layer stays in the language its vocabulary was written for.
This reference is generated from the same rules the app ships, and is current for Flit 1.7.1.
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macOS 14 or later Β· Apple silicon