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The importance of Spoken Forms
Radio programs often tell their listeners “let us know how to pronounce your name” because some names could
be pronounced in several ways and some are not pronounced “the way they are written” (due to silent letters,
for instance). This is true for more than just names. Acronyms are often pronounced letter by letter, but not
always: ASAP is pronounced "ay sap" by many people. These facts are addressed by an important Dragon
feature: the Spoken Form.
From the Display drop-down list of the Vocabulary Editor, choose “Words with spoken forms only.” Take a
moment to scroll through and look at existing spoken forms; you will get ideas for what kinds of entries warrant
them and how they can be written.
TIP Vocabulary entries may have more than one spoken form. You may add spoken forms to custom entries as
well as to existing entries, in order to be able to dictate them as comes naturally to you: for example, to enter
the symbol ©, you might like to say “circle see” instead of the existing spoken form “copyright sign.”
Note that entries containing symbols, digits, or unusual spacing are particularly likely to warrant a Spoken
Form. If the written form of a word contains any punctuation, consider providing a spoken form so that there is
no doubt as to how the item will be pronounced.
If you add e-mail addresses to the Vocabulary, giving them a Spoken Form can make them quicker to dictate:
for instance, “Amy and John at yahoo dot com” or even just “Amy and John at yahoo” for
AmyT&JohnB@yahoo.com.
Note: Spoken forms must not include punctuation, abbreviations, or symbols. Below are a few examples.
Written Form: The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Spoken Form: the man from uncle