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 bold, 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 only available 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 Press Windows C

Note
Cortana is only available
in certain
countries/regions, 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-click an item Double-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

Correct word
Select a word and start to
correct 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
New line
document

Insert a new paragraph in the

New paragraph
document

Insert a tab Tab

Insert the literal word (for

example, insert the word
Literal word
"comma" instead of the
punctuation mark)

Insert the numeral form of a Numeral number

number (for examples, insert 3
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 Select word range; Select word

current 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

Caps word
word

Capitalize all the letters of a

All caps word
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 a key or key combination Press keyboard key; Press A;
Press capital B; Press Shift plus
A; Press Ctrl plus A
 Delete; Backspace; Enter; Page
Press certain keyboard keys
Up; Page Down; Home; End;
without saying "press" first
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

Select an item or icon
Computer; Click file name

Double-click Computer;
Double-click an item Double-click Recycle Bin;
Double-click folder name

Right-click Computer; Right-

Right-click an item click 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
know what it's called
an 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
 Minimize that; Minimize Paint;
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

Scroll in one direction
right; Scroll left

Scroll down 2 pages; Scroll up

Scroll an exact distance in pages
10 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

Number of the square; 1; 7; 9

 Move the pointer to the center
of a mousegrid square

Select a mousegrid square Click number of the square

Number of the square where

Select an item to drag with the
the item appears (followed by)
mouse
mark; 3 mark; 7 mark; 9 mark

Number of the square where

Select an area in the mousegrid
you want to drag the item
where you want to drag the
(followed by) click; 4 click; 5
item
click; 6 click

Last Updated: Sep 1, 2016

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