English expressive voices

Speaking styles

Table 1 provides examples of each available style for the <express-as> element. To demonstrate the effect of the styles, the table provides two samples for each example. The first sample speaks the text with the default en-US_EmmaExpressive voice. The second sample speaks the same text with the same voice but with the indicated style. A request that uses the <express-as> element fails if the style is not one of the supported values or is omitted from the element.

Speaking styles
Style	Example input text	Audio sample
`cheerful`	`"Oh, that's good news. I am very happy for you!"`
	`"<express-as style='cheerful'>Oh, that's good news. I am very happy for you!</express-as>"`
`empathetic`	`"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how difficult that can be."`
	`"<express-as style='empathetic'>Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how difficult that can be.</express-as>"`
`neutral`	`"A five-alarm fire early this morning claimed the lives of more than a dozen residents."`
	`"<express-as style='neutral'>A five-alarm fire early this morning claimed the lives of more than a dozen residents.</express-as>"`
`uncertain`	`"That's strange. Hmm, I don't know if I've seen this before."`
	`"<express-as style='uncertain'>That's strange. Hmm, I don't know if I've seen this before.</express-as>"`

Emphasizing interjections

For English, we currently support the following interjections - aha, hmm, huh, oh, uh, uh-huh and um.

Table 2 lists the interjections that the service recognizes and provides examples of how they are pronounced in synthesized speech. The samples use the en-US_AllisonExpressive voice. The table shows the primary spelling of each interjection. The service recognizes alternative spellings for some of the interjections. For example, oh and ohh produce the same sound, as do hmm and hmmm. However, the service produces slightly different pronunciations for other alternative spellings, such as ooh and uhm,

Interjections that are emphasized
Interjection	Example sentence	Audio sample
`aha`	`"Aha. So that's the secret."`
`hmm`	`"Hmm. I'm not sure I understand."`
`huh`	`"Huh, I hadn't noticed that."`
`oh`	`"Oh, let me get that for you."`
`uh`	`"Uh, let me check."`
`uh-huh`	`"Uh-huh, that's right."`
`um`	`"That's, um, not quite right."`

Enabling or disabling interjections with SSML

For English, it is possible to enable/disable the following interjections using SSML - aha and oh.

Usage notes for interjections

Keep the following in mind when using interjections:

The <say-as> element with the interpret-as="interjection" attribute has no effect if the word to be modified is not one of the interjections aha or oh.
Including punctuation with the text that is to be modified can affect whether the interjection is enabled or disabled. Do not include any punctuation characters with the word inside of the <say-as> tag.
The word oh, when used colloquially to indicate the number zero, is never treated as an interjection. For example, the word is not emphasized as an interjection in the following sentence: The number is one oh three.
The neutral style does not emphasize interjections to the extent of the default expressive voice or the other styles.