Auto-punctuation

Turn it off if Dictation keeps ending sentences where you only paused to think, or if you prefer to say every mark yourself.

Turning it off does not remove punctuation from Dictation. It only stops the automatic marks. Every spoken command, from "comma" to "question mark", keeps working, so you decide where each one goes.

1. 01 Choose Apple menu → System Settings.
2. 02 Click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
3. 03 Go to the Dictation section.
4. 04 Turn off Auto-punctuation.
5. 05 Dictate a test sentence and say the marks by name, for example "see you at noon period".

Auto-punctuation is part of Dictation, so Dictation has to be on first. The switch sits with the other Dictation options: Languages, Microphone source, and Shortcut.

1. 01 Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar.
2. 02 Go to Dictation and turn it on. Click Enable if you are asked.
3. 03 Check that the language you speak is selected next to Languages.
4. 04 Turn on Auto-punctuation.
5. 05 Click in a text field, start Dictation, and speak a full sentence without naming any marks.

Because Auto-punctuation is on. Apple’s Dictation guide says that in supported languages, Dictation automatically inserts commas, periods, and question marks for you as you dictate. That is the full list of marks Apple names.

If you also say a mark out loud while the setting is on, check the result. Many people who learned to say "period" at the end of every sentence can stop doing so. If you do not want the automatic marks, turn the setting off and keep speaking them.

Auto-punctuation is not a separate service. It is part of Dictation, so the same privacy note applies: the text under the Dictation switch in Keyboard settings tells you whether your voice inputs and transcripts for general text dictation are processed on your device and not sent to Apple.

These are two ways to get the same characters. Auto-punctuation infers a mark from the shape of the sentence. Spoken punctuation types exactly the mark you name. Apple says its dictation commands are always available while you are dictating, so you can use both together.

A practical rule: leave Auto-punctuation on for messages, notes, and email, where a missed comma costs nothing. Name the mark whenever the exact character matters.

• Added automatically: commas, periods, and question marks.
• Spoken by name: exclamation mark, colon, semicolon, quote and end quote, parentheses, brackets, dash, and hyphen.
• Spoken by name: new line and new paragraph.
• Spoken by name: symbols such as at sign, ampersand, percent sign, and dollar sign.

Not all of them. Apple notes in Keyboard settings help that Auto-punctuation is not available in all languages, and it publishes the list on its macOS Feature Availability page under "Dictation: Auto-Punctuation".

For macOS 27 that list covers regional variants of the languages below. The list changes between macOS versions, so check the Feature Availability page for the exact language and region you dictate in.

• English, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India.
• French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch.
• Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan), and Cantonese.
• Japanese, Korean, and Thai.

If your dictated text comes out as one long unpunctuated line, check these things. Start with the setting itself, since it can be switched off without you noticing, then move on to the language.

• Open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation and confirm that Auto-punctuation is turned on.
• Confirm that the language you are dictating in is on Apple’s Auto-punctuation list. If you dictate in more than one language, check which one is selected next to the cursor.
• Check whether Voice Control is on. When it is, standard Dictation is not available and you are dictating through Voice Control instead.
• Speak in full sentences at a normal pace, and reduce background noise. Apple suggests a headset microphone in a noisy or echoing room.
• As a fallback, say the marks by name. Spoken commands work whether or not Auto-punctuation is on.