Response formatting and filtering

US English

• Different spoken forms of dates are accepted, including dates just as numbers or names of months and use of the and of (the twenty fifth of july twenty twelve). The dates are formatted as m/d/yyyy.
• Times are identified by keywords or suffix, for example, timezones (for example, est, eastern), am, pm, hours, o'clock, minutes past hour.
• Phone numbers must be either 911 or a number that contains 10 digits and/or starts with the number [+]1.
• Currency symbols are substituted for strings in appropriate contextsfor, for example, dollar, cent, euro, yen. cent is optional after dollar, for example, twelve dollars twenty five and twelve dollars twenty five cents formatted as $12.25.
• Internet email addresses with common format (for example, [alphanumeric+symbols]+ at [alphanumeric dot]+ domainname ) are smart formatted.
• Web URLs, both short and long form are formatted. It includes protocol (http/s), subdomain (www), ports (443,80) and paths (/help/abc).
• Most large integers are formatted as numeric sequences. When large numbers (million, billions) are spoken with a single group integers, quantity word million/billion is not converted for readability, for example, fifty nine million -> 59 million but when the number is more complex, it is formatted as numeric digits, for example, fifty nine million and one -> 59000001.
• Numbers less than 10 are not converted to digit to avoid odd formatting, for example, You are one of them -> You are 1 of them. But in other context like expressing currency, they are converted appropriately, for example, Give me one dollar -> Give me $1.
• Most of the punctuation symbols are added for special keywords that occur in appropriate places. When you use smart formatting, the service substitutes spoken or dictated punctuation symbols for the keyword strings.
  • comma (,), period (.), question mark (?), exclamation point (!), semicolon (;), hyphen (-).

Brazilian-Portuguese

• For dates, do and de in the transcript is used as separators for day, month and year. primeiro is considered as 1st of the month. The dates are formatted as DD/MM/YYYY.
• Times are identified by keywords and prefix, for example, às ao, à, da tarde (p.m.), da madrugada (a.m.), meia noite, meio dia. Prefixes às ao, à are optional.
• Landline numbers must have 10 digits (2 digits country code and 8 digits number), mobile numbers are 9 digits with first digit as 9 with optional country code. Area codes are optional. Numbers are formatted as +NN (NN) NNNN-NNNN and +NN (NN) 9NNNN-NNNN .
• Brazilian real currency symbol is R$. Other Currency symbols are substituted for strings in appropriate contexts, for example, dollar, cent, euro, yen. centavos is optional after reais for example, setenta e cinco dólares e sessenta e três and setenta e cinco dólares e sessenta e três centavos formatted as R$75,63
• Internet email addresses with common format (for example, [alphanumeric+symbols]+ arroba [alphanumeric ponto]+ domainname ) are smart formatted.
• Web URLs, both short and long form, are formatted. It includes protocol (http/s), subdomain (www), ports (443,80) and paths (/help/abc).
• Most large integer are formatted as numeric sequences. When large numbers (milhões, bilhões, etc) are spoken with a single group integers, quantity word milhões/bilhões is not converted for readability for example, doze milhões -> 12 milhões but when the number is more complex, it's formatted as numeric digits for example, doze milhões e um -> 12000001.
• Numbers less than 10 are not formatted to digits to avoid odd conversions, for example, vivo em uma casa --> vivo em 1 casa.
• Most of the punctuation symbols are added for special keywords that occur in appropriate places. When you use smart formatting, the service substitutes spoken/dictated punctuation symbols for the keyword strings.
  • vírgula (,), ponto (.), ponto de interrogação (?), ponto de exclamação (!), ponto e vírgula (;), hífen (-).

French

• In dates, the ordinalpremier is considered 1st of the month. The dates are formatted as DD/MM/YYYY.
• Times are identified by keywords and prefix, for example, heures, de l'après-midi or du soir, du matin, midi. Times are formatted as 24H clock : HH h MM
• Telephone numbers must have 9 or 10 digits (5 pairs of two digits). In cases where only one digit of the first pairing is admitted, assumes that the 0 was skipped. Numbers are formatted as NN NN NN NN NN.
• When the de or d' preposition is used to express currency, the currency symbol is not used to format. This usually occurs with large round numbers, for example, un milliard d'euro formatted as 1 milliard d'euro.
• Internet email addresses with common format ( for example, [alphanumeric+symbols]+ arobase [alphanumeric point]+ domainname ) are smart formatted. @ can be represented by any of these: arobase, chez, at, à.
• Cardinals less than nine are not converted (in order to avoid j'ai un pomme -> j'ai 1 pomme and any other odd conversions.
• For ordinals, 'siècles' are rendered in roman numerals when given an ordinal adjective. e dix-neuvième siècle -> XIXᵉ siècle.
• Formatting of Fractions is supported. For example,un onzième -> 1/11.
• Most of the punctuation symbols are added for special keywords that occur in appropriate places. When you use smart formatting, the service substitutes spoken/dictated punctuation symbols for the keyword strings.
  • virgule (,), point (.), point d'interrogation (?), point d'exclamation (!), point-virgule (;), trait d'union (-).

German

• Date formatting has support for both numeric and name for months (for example, zweiter is same as februar). The dates are formatted as DD.MM.YYYY.
• Times are identified by keywords, for example, nach uhr, vor, minuten. Time is formatted as 24-hr clock : HH:MM:SS.
• Telephone numbers should have 3-4 digit area code starting with 0 followed by 8-digit number. Country code (+49) is optional. Area code should not start with 0 if country code is used. Numbers are formatted as +49 [N]NN NNNNNNNN or 0[N]NN NNNNNNNN .
• Most Currency symbols are substituted for strings in appropriate contexts, for example, dollar, cent, euro, yen.
• Internet email addresses with common format ( for example, [alphanumeric+symbols]+ ät [alphanumeric punkt]+ domainname ) are formatted.
• Web URLs, both short and long form, are formatted. It includes protocol (http/s), subdomain (www), ports (443,80) and paths (/help/abc)
• Cardinals less than nine are not converted in order to avoid odd or ambiguous conversions.
• Ordinals and fractions formatting are supported.
• Most of the punctuation symbols are added for special keywords that occur in appropriate places. When you use smart formatting, the service substitutes spoken/dictated punctuation symbols for the keyword strings.
  • komma (,), punkt (.), fragezeichen (?), ausrufezeichen (!), semikolon (;), bindestrich (-).

US English and Spanish

• Times are identified by keywords such as AM, PM, or EST.

• Military times are converted if they are identified by the keyword hours (US English) or horas (Spanish).

• Phone numbers must be either 911 or a number that contains 10 or 11 digits and starts with the number 1.

• Currency symbols are substituted for the following strings in appropriate contexts:

  • For US English, dollar, cent, and euro.
  • For Spanish, dolar, peso, peseta, libras esterlinas, libra, and euro.

• Internet email addresses are converted in some cases. Specifically, the service converts email addresses if the input audio uses the phrasing email address ... {address}. The following examples show a correct conversion of spoken phrases:

  • My email address is j dot d o e at i b m dot com becomes My email address is j.doe@ibm.com.
  • Mi correo electronico es j punto d o e arroba i b m punto com becomes Mi correo electronico es j.doe@ibm.com.

• Internet web addresses are converted in their short forms. Fully qualified web addresses are not converted. The following examples show complete conversions:

  • I saw the story on yahoo dot com becomes I saw the story on yahoo.com.
  • Vi la historia en yahoo punto com becomes Vi la historia en yahoo.com.

  The following examples show incomplete conversions:

  • I saw the story on w w w dot yahoo dot com becomes I saw the story on w w w .yahoo.com.
  • Vi la historia en w w w punto yahoo punto com becomes Vi la historia en w w w .yahoo.com.

• Conversion of large numbers and currency values can be challenging. The service converts digits and many numbers well. But larger and more complex numbers and currency values work best with more precise phrasing. For example, the service correctly converts the following transcripts because of their precise wording:

  • sixty nine thousand five hundred sixty dollars and twenty five cents becomes $69560.25,
  • sixty nine thousand five hundred sixty dollars point twenty five becomes $69560.25.

  But the service cannot correctly convert the following transcripts due to their looser phrasing:

  • sixty nine thousand five sixty dollars and twenty five cents becomes 60 9000 $560.25.
  • sixty nine thousand five sixty dollars point twenty five becomes 60 9000 $560.25.

  To correctly convert a greater possible variety of complex numbers, you need to experiment with the results of smart formatting and customize your own post-processing utilities.

• For US English, certain punctuation symbols are added for special keywords that occur in appropriate places. When you use smart formatting, the service substitutes punctuation symbols for the following keyword strings based on where it finds them in a transcript:

  • Comma (,)
  • Period (.)
  • Question mark (?)
  • Exclamation point (!)

  The service converts these keyword strings to symbols only in appropriate positions of a transcript. In the following example, the speaker says the word period at the end of the sentence:

  • the warranty period is short period becomes the warranty period is short.

  The service correctly differentiates between the noun that appears earlier in the sentence and the concluding punctuation.

Japanese

• Phone numbers must be 10 or 11 digits and begin with valid prefixes for telephone numbers in Japan. For example, valid prefixes include 03 and 090.

• English words are converted to ASCII (hankaku) characters. For example, ＩＢＭ is converted to IBM.

• Ambiguous terms might not be converted if sufficient context is unavailable. For example, it is unclear whether 一時 and 十分 refer to times.

• Punctuation is handled in the same way with or without smart formatting. For example, based on probability calculations, one of カンマ or , is selected.

• Strings that describe yen values are not replaced with the yen currency symbol.

• Internet email and web addresses in any form are not converted.

• The Japanese narrowband model (ja-JP_NarrowbandModel) includes some multigram word units for digits and decimal fractions. The service returns these multigram units regardless of whether you enable smart formatting. The following examples show the units that the service returns. The numbers in parentheses show the equivalent Arabic numeric expression for each unit.

  • Digits: 〇一 (01), ..., 〇九 (09), 一〇 (10), ..., 九〇 (90)
  • Decimal fractions: 〇・ (0.), 一・ (1.), ..., 十・ (10.)

  The smart formatting feature understands and returns the multigram units that the model generates. If you apply your own post-processing to transcription results, you need to handle these units appropriately.

Japanese

Japanese redaction has the following differences:

• In addition to masking strings of three or more consecutive digits, redaction also masks street addresses and numbers, regardless of whether they contain fewer than three digits.

• Similarly, redaction also masks date information in Japanese-style birth dates. In Japanese, date information is usually presented in Common Era format but sometimes follows Japanese style, particularly for birth dates. In this case, the year and month are masked even though they contain just one or two digits.

  For example, a Japanese-style birth date without redaction is 平成 30年 2月. With redaction, the date becomes 平成 XX年 X月.

Korean

Korean redaction has the following differences:

• The smart formatting feature is not supported. The service still performs numeric redaction for Korean, but it performs no other smart formatting.

• Isolated digit characters are reduced, but possible digit characters that are included as part of Korean phrases are not. For example, the character 이in the following phrase is not replaced by an X because it is adjacent to the following character:

  이입니다

  If the 이 character were separated from the following character by a space, it would be replaced by an X, as described in Numeric redaction results.