Extensive List of Siri's Dictation Commands for iPhone 4S - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Extensive List of Siri's Dictation Commands for iPhone 4S

by

dictation
Many of the voice commands for Dragon Dictation also work in Siri's Dictation service on the iPhone 4S. The new speech-to-text service allows users to press a microphone on the keyboard in any application and then utilize Siri's speech recognition to enter text.

Jim Rhoades of Crush Apps has made an extensive list of commands that Siri's dictation service understands:

"new line" - move to the next line
"all caps" - make the next word all uppercase
"all caps on/off" - turn caps lock on or off
"smiley" or "smiley face" or "smile face" - :-)
"frowny" or "frowny face" or "frown face" - :-(

See Rhoades' post on the Crush Apps blog for the full list of Siri dictation commands.

Top Rated Comments

NightFox Avatar
NightFox
195 months ago
I'm sure Siri has got a dark sense of humour - On my own I can chat away for ages with it understanding everything I say with such accuracy it's incredible. However, as soon as I try to demo it to anyone like my wife or an Android owner, you can bet that all I'll get from it is "I'm sorry Neil, I don't understand 'spleen longboat curry'"
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
E
essrow
195 months ago
I guess I can see why so many people are excited about this. Personally, though, I don't see myself using the speech-to-text feature very often (if at all) because it drives me crazy that it fails to include punctuation. I'm way too OCD about periods and commas.

I'm the same exact way. But you can use the words "comma", "period", "question mark" etc. and it will listen!!!!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mrsir2009 Avatar
mrsir2009
195 months ago
If you say 'I'm being sarcastic' will it come up with: :rolleyes:
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
L
ladeer
195 months ago
This is amazing. I just tried:

I spoke "I just had my period"
Siri typed "I just had my period"

I spoke "I just had my period period"
Siri typed "I just had my period."

I spoke "I want to go period"
Siri typed "I want to go."

!!!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
I
inigel
195 months ago
I'm sure Siri has got a dark sense of humour - On my own I can chat away for ages with it understanding everything I say with such accuracy it's incredible. However, as soon as I try to demo it to anyone like my wife or an Android owner, you can bet that all I'll get from it is "I'm sorry Neil, I don't understand 'spleen longboat curry'"

I found that too, but then I realised that when demoing Siri, I would change the tone of my voice. When I am using it privately I use a more natural voice.

It is weird trying to force myself to talk to it naturally when other people are around!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
P
pensoftware
195 months ago
Nope. It returns it as "Why a P a".

In NaturallySpeaking, you can just say "Spell", pause a half a beat, then spell the word. When you pause again at the end of the word, it assumes you've left spelling mode.

A lot of Googling hasn't turned up any clues.
If it isn't implemented now, I'm sure Apple will release a Siri update that fixes both escaping commands as well as new features such as spelling a word.

EDIT: What would be a really cool feature is if it used changes in volume to signify automatic capitalization. Or if you yell into your phone with an angry tone then it would automatically capitalize the whole thing.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments

Popular Stories

iOS 27 Next to iPhone

Here's When iOS 27 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone [Update: It's Out]

Sunday September 13, 2026 3:00 am PDT by
Update 10:04 a.m.: iOS 27 is rolling out now, though it may take a bit for all users to see it, so keep checking! Apple is about to release iOS 27, which will finally deliver more advanced Siri AI capabilities as well as a variety of other refinements, improvements, and new features to iPhones. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and Apple announced at Wednesday's iPhone event...
Read Full Article • 151 comments
iOS 27 Icon iPhone

iOS 27 Available Now With These 8 New Features

Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27. During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14. iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update. Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
Read Full Article • 111 comments
Apple iCloud Plus expansion hero

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV, Apple Arcade, and Curated Apple Music Stations in Over 100 Countries

Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries. In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....
Read Full Article • 104 comments