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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