Say-as

The <say-as> tag enables you to control the pronunciation of text, ensuring accurate and natural-sounding responses. This tag is particularly useful when you want to correctly pronounce dates or other specialized text formats.

Attributes of the Say-as Tag

• Interpret-as – Specifies how the text should be interpreted:

  • characters: Pronounces each character individually (for example, "N-A-S-A").

  • cardinal: Pronounces text as a cardinal number, for example, "101" as "one hundred and one".

  • date: Pronounces text as a date, for example, "2023-10-18" as "October eighteenth, twenty twenty-three".

  • digits: Pronounces each digit individually, for example, "101" as "one zero one".

  • expletive: Indicates text contains profanity or offensive language.

  • fraction: Pronounces text as a fraction, for example, "3/4" as "three fourths".

  • letter: Pronounces text as a letter, for example, "a" as "ay".

  • ordinal: Pronounces text as an ordinal number, for example, "1st" as "first."

  • spell-out: Spells out the text, for example, "hello" as "h-e-l-l-o".

  • telephone: Indicates text is a telephone number, for example, "800-555-1234" as "eight hundred, five five five, one two three four".

  • time: Pronounces text as a time, for example, "10:00" as "ten o'clock".

  • unit: Pronounces text as a unit of measurement, for example, "10km" as "ten kilometers".

• Format (optinal): Specifies the text format, such as "mdy" for month-day-year, to aid in correct pronunciation. It is optional for some interpretations like digits but highly recommended for date.

Pronouncing Dates Correctly

It's essential to use the <say-as> tag for dates. For example, to pronounce "July 4th, 2024" in a natural-sounding American English accent, your SSML code should look like this:

<speak>
  Your appointment is on <say-as interpret-as="date" format="mdy">07-04-2024</say-as>.
</speak>

Considerations for Non-English Pronunciations

When dealing with languages that have different grammatical structures, such as German, it's critical to include prepositions within the <say-as> tag for proper pronunciation. Here's how you can do it:

• Incorrect: The bot will mispronounce the date because the preposition "am" is outside the <say-as> tag.

  xmlCopy code<speak>
    Dein Paket kommt am <say-as interpret-as="date">23-11-2023</say-as>.
  </speak>

• Correct: By including "am" inside the tag, the bot will correctly pronounce the date within the sentence.

  xmlCopy code<speak>
    Dein Paket kommt <say-as interpret-as="date">am 23-11-2023</say-as>.
  </speak>

This correct structure ensures that the synthesized speech flows naturally and is grammatically accurate in German.