text to speech and record

FREE TEXT TO SPEECH AI ONLINE

Unlock unlimited file uploads, speeds up to 4.5x, 200+ voices, 50+ languages, AI summarization, voice cloning, our Chrome Extension/iOS/Android/Mac apps, and more. Try for free!

200+ lifelike voices.

Enjoy over 200 natural, lifelike text to speech AI voices across 60+ languages — TTS is great for Google Docs, news articles, emails, books, fan fiction, PDFs, any website, and more

LISTEN ANYWHERE

Chrome extension.

The fastest way to read any PDF, book, or doc and make it stick. Integrates with Google Drive, Dropbox, Canvas & more.

Let Speechify read to you while you commute, exercise, and run errands. Breeze through PDFs, books, articles, emails — anything.

Let Speechify read to you while you walk to work, go for a run, or do laundry. Get through PDFs, books, articles, docs & emails twice as fast.

Read up to 4.5x faster by listening with Speechify. Listen to Google Docs, emails, articles & more seamlessly on Chrome.

Use Speechify from your Dock to read PDFs, Word docs, emails & more. Listen and read at the same time to read faster and retain more.

Clone Your Voice

Create a custom voice of yourself or your loved ones and enjoy having them read anything to you

Read 4.5x Faster

Our users save up to 9hrs a week by using Speechify to speed read

Instant AI Summaries

We summarize every reading so you get the takeaways right away

Scan & Listen

Use the app to snap a pic of any page and have Speechify read to you

INTRODUCING OUR TEXT TO SPEECH API

We're sharing an API that delivers Speechify's most natural and beloved AI voices directly with developers

OUR LISTENERS LOVE US

Over 250k people have given speechify 5 stars.

Speechify is absolutely brilliant. Growing up with dyslexia this would have made a big difference. I’m so glad to have it today.

This is the only review I’ve ever written. I downloaded this app to help me read books about the stock market and finance while I do my day job. It brough me to the brink of tears at my desk. Love the app.

I absolutely love that this app has been invented. I read a ton of pdf documents as a lawyer and researcher and I will now be able to get through them faster and with much better comprehension than before!

I was skeptical at first, however with my serious issue to be unable to focus reading extensive documentation for work, this program made it a breeze. Well worth the premium dollars! Love it.

Speechify makes it easy to learn at 2x or even 3x the speed you read with your eyes.

I used to hate school because I'd spend hours just trying to read the assignments. Listening has been totally life changing. This app saved my education.

This made my job 10x easier. I read scripts, conversations, and other text files all day, and this made it a lot easier to retain and wayyyyy faster. Thanks y’all!

I have always been a slow reader. As a professional, I have a lot of material to read through between industry emails, new rules and regulations, and continuing education. Speechify helps me power through it.

If there’s one hill I’m going to die on, it’s that speed listening is the best way forward. Speechify is a game-changer for me.

Mighty be one of the GOAT apps This is probably top 5 of greatest apps ever, you can literally read alone an entire book in a day. Easily worth the cost of the app.

Excellent for comprehending medical textbooks more quickly and thoroughly!! This is awesome for keeping up with latest surgical techniques and technology.

best app evaaa I use it because my head be scrambling up words, so I scan pages off books and work, and boom!!!! It works so well I love it. ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

Amazing I have ADHD and I love to read but have piles of book that I have never touched. I downloaded this app and it has helped me read more and obtain information better for school! Love this app, I recommend it to everyone!

I am a resident and this app saves me a ton of time. I listen to PDF’s while walking to clinic, running, making coffee in the morning.

Miracle reader. Been looking for a program like this to proof read my work. Allows me to develop a personalized style of reading. Love it!

Amazing!!! A dream come true! This is simply the best tool as an data specialist and having to do reports my time is limited and this tool is a must have for companies or any individual who is trying to better their reading abilities and increase productivity .

Text to speech, sometimes called TTS , read aloud , or speech synthesis , is the term for using AI voices to turn any input text into speech. The input text can be from a PDF , email , Google doc , epub , website – anything. Speechify has built the most used text to speech applications in the world.

An AI voice refers to the synthesized or generated speech produced by artificial intelligence systems, enabling machines to communicate with human-like speech. Speechify has a large speech research team of PhDs who focus on providing the most cutting edge speech models to Speechify users through our applications.

Speechify has applications that are available on iOS, Android, Chrome, Mac, and Microsoft Edge. All of these applications are available through a single Speechify account. You can start reading an article on your computer using the Speechify Chrome Extension, bookmark it, and find it instantly available for you to listen on your iPhone or Android. Speechify is the most used tool in the world for text to speech listening. It enables millions of people create audiobooks out of anything the need to read.

Everyone. Students use text to speech to get through all of their school reading faster, whether its PDFs , Google Docs , or textbooks . Speechify also helps them to retain more of what they read so they do better on exams. Professionals use text to speech to get through reading for work. They save time by reading during commutes, errands, or working out. Leisure readers use Speechify for their favorite books and fan fiction. People with dyslexia and ADHD use Speechify to overcome any learning differences . Senior with low vision use Speechify to avoid straining their eyes.

Yes. Speechify has the most natural, human-sounding voices available on the market, and they’re getting better each month. Speechify’s text to speech has improved dramatically in the last two years alone with novel advancements from our research team. The voices are now indistinguishable from human voices. Speechify’s voices are also available in several different languages including Spanish text to speech , Portuguese text to speech , German text to speech , French text to speech , and over 50 others.

Voice cloning allows you to upload or record a few seconds of any speaker, with the speaker’s permission, and generate a clone of the voice. This allows you to listen to any email, PDF, or website in the new cloned voice . Speechify users love use voice cloning to listen to books in the voice of a parent, child, or partner. Voice cloning also allows you to clone your own voice, or a hired actor’s voice, so that you or your team can use it through our API or Studio products. Speechify has an AI dubbing product within Studio that allows anyone to clone a voice from a video or voiceover and then have that voice speak a new language.

Yes, we will be making our speech API available to developers later this year with extensive documentation and cookbooks to get started. This is the same API that currently powers all of our products, providing the highest quality AI speech on the market to tens of millions of users. You can sign up for our API waitlist .

Yes! If you would like to purchase text to speech plans in bulk, please contact our sales team for schools or teams . We work with large school districts and governments around the world to provide students with access to Speechify at scale. Speechify helps make education more accessible and improves student outcomes. We also work with companies to provide bulk access to our text to speech reading tools and our voice over studio platform focused on e-learning , voiceover creation, and dubbing .

Free Text to Speech

This audio file will be automatically deleted within 30 minutes, please download it in time. Click to share this audio online free for 30 days via short link. You have 100% audio file copyright and commercial rights, learn more.

If you can't download or play, simply click here to switch the download link:: Switch Download Link (Current Link: Download Link 001 )

• 0s (eliminate pauses)

TTSMaker is a free text-to-speech tool that provides speech synthesis services and supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., as well as various voice styles. You can use it to read text and e-books aloud, or download the audio files for commercial use (it's completely free). As an excellent free TTS tool, TTSMaker can easily convert text to speech online.

Loading Voice Data...

Conversion quota reminder

Use 🔥voice without counting towards your quota, available for unlimited use. Upgrade to TTSMaker Pro for more characters, advanced features, and enhanced customer support. Alternatively, wait for your weekly character quota to reset.

Captcha code

Converting text to speech, please wait: % ... Estimated time: 10 seconds

⏳ In queue, high demand, expecting 1-3 minutes.

More Settings

Current BGM: Please upload BGM first

Quick Tutorial

Enter the text that needs to be converted into speech, the free limit is 20000 characters per week, some voices support unlimited free use.

Select language and voice

Choose the language for the text and your preferred voice style, each language has multiple voice styles.

Convert text to speech

Click the "Convert to Speech" button to start converting the text to speech, which may take a few minutes, longer texts will take longer. To adjust the speaking rate and volume, you can click the "More Settings" button.

Listen and download

After the text is converted to speech, you can listen to it online or download the audio file.

Usage Scenarios

TTSMaker's text to speech can be used for the following main purposes.

Video dubbing

Youtube and TikTok voice generator

As an AI voice generator, TTSMaker can generate the voices of various characters, which are often used in video dubbing of Youtube and TikTok. For your convenience, TTSMaker provides a variety of TikTok style voices for free use.

Audiobook reading

Create and listen to audiobook content

TTSMaker can convert text into natural speech, and you can easily create and enjoy audiobooks, bringing stories to life through immersive narration.

Education & Training

Teaching and Learning Languages

TTSMaker can convert text to sound and read it aloud, can help you learn the pronunciation of words, and supports multiple languages, it has now become a useful tool for language learners.

Marketing & Advertising

Create voiceovers for video ads

TTSMaker generates persuasive voice-overs to help marketers and advertisers explain a product's features to others, with high-quality audio.

Fast speech synthesis

We use a powerful neural network inference model that enables text-to-speech conversion in a short time.

Free for commercial use

You will own 100% copyright of the synthesized audio file and may use it for any legal purpose, including commercial use.

More voices and features

We are constantly updating this text-to-speech tool to support more languages and voices, as well as some new features.

Email and API supports

We offer email support and text-to-speech API services. If you encounter any issues while using our services, please feel free to contact our support team via email or through our support page.

"I love TTSMaker, I love meaningful things, I love this TTS tool, I have complete creative freedom..."

For user privacy, all conversion history is valid for 30 minutes. Here's your current history.

No valid history records found in the last 30 minutes.

Share This Audio File Online for Free by URL.WORK x TTSMAKER

Quickly share your audio file with anyone anywhere using a link.

Share your audio file now, host on URL.WORK CLOUD for a public short link.

When the sharing validity period runs out, shared file will automatically be wiped, and links will turn invalid.

Create share short link successfully!

You can now copy the link and share it with anyone, anywhere.

Short link expiration: [[ backend_return_ttl_days ]] days.

Realistic Text-to-Speech AI converter

Create realistic Voiceovers online! Insert any text to generate speech and download audio mp3 or wav for any purpose. Speak a text with AI-powered voices.You can convert text to voice for free for reference only. For all features, purchase the paid plans

How to convert text into speech?

• Just type some text or import your written content
• Press "generate" button
• Download MP3 / WAV

Full list of benefits of neural voices

Multi-voice editor.

Dialogue with AI Voices . You can use several voices at once in one text.

Over 1000 Natural Sounding Voices

Crystal-clear voice over like a Human. Males, females, children's, elderly voices.

You spend little on re-dubbing the text. Limits are spent only for changed sentences in the text. Read more about our cost-effective Limit System . Enjoy full control over your spending with one-time payments for only what you use. Pay as you go : get flexible, cost-effective access to our neural network voiceover services without subscriptions.

If your Limit balance is sufficient, you can use a single query to convert a text of up to 2,000,000 characters into speech.

Commercial Use

You can use the generated audio for commercial purposes. Examples: YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, Podcasts, Video Ads, Advertising, E-book, Presentation and other.

Custom voice settings

Change Speed, Pitch, Stress, Pronunciation, Intonation , Emphasis , Pauses and more. SSML support .

SRT to audio

Subtitles to Audio : Convert your subtitle file into perfectly timed multilingual voiceovers with our advanced neural networks.

Downloadable TTS

You can download converted audio files in MP3, WAV, OGG for free.

Powerful support

We will help you with any questions about text-to-speech. Ask any questions, even the simplest ones. We are happy to help.

Compatible with editing programs

Works with any video creation software: Adobe Premier, After effects, Audition, DaVinci Resolve, Apple Motion, Camtasia, iMovie, Audacity, etc.

Cloud save your history

All your files and texts are automatically saved in your profile on our cloud server. Add tracks to your favorites in one click.

Use our text to voice converter to make videos with natural sounding speech!

Say goodbye to expensive traditional audio creation

Cheap price. Create a professional voiceover in real time for pennies. it is 100 times cheaper than a live speaker.

Traditional audio creation

• Expensive live speakers, high prices
• A long search for freelancers and studios
• Editing requires complex tools and knowledge
• The announcer in the studio voices a long time. It takes time to give him a task and accept it.

• Affordable tts generation starting at $0.08 per 1000 characters
• Website accessible in your browser right now
• Intuitive interface, suitable for beginners
• SpeechGen generates text from speech very quickly. A few clicks and the audio is ready.

Create AI-generated realistic voice-overs.

Ways to use. Cases.

See how other people are already using our realistic speech synthesis. There are hundreds of variations in applications. Here are some of them.

• Voice over for videos. Commercial, YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media. Add voice to any videos!
• E-learning material. Ex: learning foreign languages, listening to lectures, instructional videos.
• Advertising. Increase installations and sales! Create AI-generated realistic voice-overs for video ads, promo, and creatives.
• Public places. Synthesizing speech from text is needed for airports, bus stations, parks, supermarkets, stadiums, and other public areas.
• Podcasts. Turn text into podcasts to increase content reach. Publish your audio files on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast services.
• Mobile apps and desktop software. The synthesized ai voices make the app friendly.
• Essay reader. Read your essay out loud to write a better paper.
• Presentations. Use text-to-speech for impressive PowerPoint presentations and slideshow.
• Reading documents. Save your time reading documents aloud with a speech synthesizer.
• Book reader. Use our text-to-speech web app for ebook reading aloud with natural voices.
• Welcome audio messages for websites. It is a perfect way to re-engage with your audience. 
• Online article reader. Internet users translate texts of interesting articles into audio and listen to them to save time.
• Voicemail greeting generator. Record voice-over for telephone systems phone greetings.
• Online narrator to read fairy tales aloud to children.
• For fun. Use the robot voiceover to create memes, creativity, and gags.

Maximize your content’s potential with an audio-version. Increase audience engagement and drive business growth.

Who uses Text to Speech?

SpeechGen.io is a service with artificial intelligence used by about 1,000 people daily for different purposes. Here are examples.

Video makers create voiceovers for videos. They generate audio content without expensive studio production.

Newsmakers convert text to speech with computerized voices for news reporting and sports announcing.

Students and busy professionals to quickly explore content

Foreigners. Second-language students who want to improve their pronunciation or listen to the text comprehension

Software developers add synthesized speech to programs to improve the user experience.

Marketers. Easy-to-produce audio content for any startups

IVR voice recordings. Generate prompts for interactive voice response systems.

Educators. Foreign language teachers generate voice from the text for audio examples.

Booklovers use Speechgen as an out loud book reader. The TTS voiceover is downloadable. Listen on any device.

HR departments and e-learning professionals can make learning modules and employee training with ai text to speech online software.

Webmasters convert articles to audio with lifelike robotic voices. TTS audio increases the time on the webpage and the depth of views.

Animators use ai voices for dialogue and character speech.

Text to Speech enables brands, companies, and organizations to deliver enhanced end-user experience, while minimizing costs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Convert any text to super realistic human voices. See all tariff plans .

Enhance Your Content Accessibility

Boost your experience with our additional features. Easily convert PDFs, DOCx files, and video subtitles into natural-sounding audio.

📄🔊 PDF to Audio

Transform your PDF documents into audible content for easier consumption and enhanced accessibility.

📝🎧 DOCx to mp3

Easily convert Word documents into speech for listening on the go or for those who prefer audio format

🔊📰 WordPress plugin

Enhance your WordPress site with our plugin for article voiceovers, embedding an audio player directly on your site to boost user engagement and diversify your content.

Supported languages

• Amharic (Ethiopia)
• Arabic (Algeria)
• Arabic (Egypt)
• Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
• Bengali (India)
• Catalan (Spain)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (GB)
• English (Hong Kong)
• English (India)
• English (Philippines)
• German (Austria)
• Hindi India
• Spanish (Argentina)
• Spanish (Mexico)
• Spanish (United States)
• Tamil (India)
• All languages: +76

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more: Privacy Policy

• PRO Courses Guides New Tech Help Pro Expert Videos About wikiHow Pro Upgrade Sign In
• EDIT Edit this Article
• EXPLORE Tech Help Pro About Us Random Article Quizzes Request a New Article Community Dashboard This Or That Game Happiness Hub Popular Categories Arts and Entertainment Artwork Books Movies Computers and Electronics Computers Phone Skills Technology Hacks Health Men's Health Mental Health Women's Health Relationships Dating Love Relationship Issues Hobbies and Crafts Crafts Drawing Games Education & Communication Communication Skills Personal Development Studying Personal Care and Style Fashion Hair Care Personal Hygiene Youth Personal Care School Stuff Dating All Categories Arts and Entertainment Finance and Business Home and Garden Relationship Quizzes Cars & Other Vehicles Food and Entertaining Personal Care and Style Sports and Fitness Computers and Electronics Health Pets and Animals Travel Education & Communication Hobbies and Crafts Philosophy and Religion Work World Family Life Holidays and Traditions Relationships Youth
• Browse Articles
• Learn Something New
• Quizzes Hot
• Happiness Hub
• This Or That Game
• Train Your Brain
• Explore More
• Support wikiHow
• About wikiHow
• Log in / Sign up
• Computers and Electronics
• Basic Computer Skills

How to Record Text to Speech on PC or Mac

Last Updated: February 12, 2023 Tested

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Travis Boylls . Travis Boylls is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Travis has experience writing technology-related articles, providing software customer service, and in graphic design. He specializes in Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux platforms. He studied graphic design at Pikes Peak Community College. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 77,953 times. Learn more...

This wikiHow teaches you how to record Text-to-Speech on a Windows or Mac computer. Text-to-speech software converts text to computerized spoken dialogue, but recording it can be a hassle. Luckily there are a variety of free online text-to-speech services that can turn your written text into an audio file which you can download directly! If you require greater Text to Speech (TTS) customization, you'll need to use a more professional TTS program. [1] X Research source

Using From Text To Speech Online

• You can copy text from any source or type the text directly into the text box.

• You can type or paste up to 50,000 characters in the text box.

• Changing the language will not translate your written text—this only changes the way the words are pronounced according to each language.

• On a Mac using Safari, click the download link while holding the Control key and select "Download Linked File."

Using Text To MP3 Online

• Make sure you select the language that matches your written text because changing the language will not translate the text, only change the pronunciation.

• Allow a few minutes for the file to generate.

• By default, downloads are stored in the "Downloads" folder on both Windows and Mac computers.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best-free-text-to-speech-software

About This Article

• Send fan mail to authors

Is this article up to date?

Featured Articles

Trending Articles

Watch Articles

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Keep up with the latest tech with wikiHow's free Tech Help Newsletter

Text to Speech

Generate speech from text. choose a voice to read your text aloud. you can use it to narrate your videos, create voice-overs, convert your documents into audio, and more..

Please sign up or login with your details

Generation Overview

AI Generator calls

AI Video Generator calls

AI Chat messages

Genius Mode messages

Genius Mode images

AD-free experience

Private images

• Includes 500 AI Image generations, 1750 AI Chat Messages, 30 AI Video generations, 60 Genius Mode Messages and 60 Genius Mode Images per month. If you go over any of these limits, you will be charged an extra $5 for that group.
• For example: if you go over 500 AI images, but stay within the limits for AI Chat and Genius Mode, you'll be charged $5 per additional 500 AI Image generations.
• Includes 100 AI Image generations and 300 AI Chat Messages. If you go over any of these limits, you will have to pay as you go.
• For example: if you go over 100 AI images, but stay within the limits for AI Chat, you'll have to reload on credits to generate more images. Choose from $5 - $1000. You'll only pay for what you use.

Out of credits

Refill your membership to continue using DeepAI

Share your generations with friends

Text to Speech

Speech to text, vocal remover, voice enhancer, audio cutter, audio joiner.

Text to speech mp3 in natural voices. Free for commercial.

Leaving the page

Are you sure to leave the page? After leaving, all content on the current page will be lost.

Text to Speech Converter

Convert text to speech in one click online; free

319 reviews

The best free online AI text reader

VEED’s text-to-speech converter can read the text you type online—straight from your browser. It’s the easiest text to speech recording tool to use! Just type or paste your text, select a voice that you want to use, and hear your text being read aloud by our AI! It’s super easy to use, and free. If you only need the audio, you can export your project as an MP3.

How to convert text to speech:

Upload your video or drag and drop your videos into the editor. You can also use AI text-to-video to generate content from text prompts.

Add text and convert to voice

Click Audio from the left menu and select Text to Speech. Type or paste your text into the text field and click Add to Project. You will see an audio file in the timeline.

When you’re happy with your text-to-speech video, click on Export. Download your video or audio to your device.

‘Text to Speech Converter’ Tutorial

Real-time online AI text reader

Let VEED’s AI text reader read your text aloud online—straight from your web browser. No bulky and expensive apps to download. All you have to do is type your text or paste a text you’ve copied into the text field, and add the audio file to your project. Generate voiceovers and download the audio file. Or convert text to talking avatars to add presenters to your video.

Choose from realistic voice profiles

VEED lets you choose from realistic voice profiles with options for male and female voices. You can preview the voice so you can hear how it sounds before adding it to your video. Guaranteed that your text will be read by a human voice. It’s fascinating! You can also choose from our stock media library to add sound effects and music to your video. Create amazing videos with royalty-free audio.

A free professional video editor

No need to look elsewhere to make your video look even more stunning. VEED not only lets you convert text to speech online, but also gives you a wide range of video editing tools. Create professional-looking videos in just a few clicks. Add animated text, images, subtitles, and drawings to your video. Also, use our voice dubber to translate your content.

How do I convert text to speech?

Upload your video to VEED or record one using our webcam recorder. Click Audio from the left menu and start typing or pasting your text. Select a voice, preview the speech, and add it to your video! It’s that simple. Text to speech is also available for generating AI avatars .

What is the best text to speech converter?

VEED is the best tool to convert your text to speech online. Our AI voice profiles sound like real humans, and not like robots. Plus, it’s super easy to use and free! Just type or paste your text and it will be converted into speech in minutes.

How can I convert text to voice online for free?

VEED’s text-to-speech converter is free to use. You can convert your text into a video or even an audio file, and you can do it straight from your browser. Additionally, you can use our AI voice cloner to convert text to speech in your own voice.

Is there a limit to how much text I can convert to speech?

Currently, you can add up to 1,000 characters to convert to speech per video project.

Discover more

• Afrikaans Text to Speech
• AI Voice Generator
• AI Voice Over
• Amharic Text to Speech
• Arabic Text to Speech
• Audiobook Maker
• Bangla Text to Speech
• Cantonese Text to Speech
• Chinese Text to Speech
• Convert Articles to Audio
• English Text to Speech
• French Text to Speech
• Georgian Text to Speech
• German Text to Speech
• Hebrew Text to Speech
• Hindi Text to Speech
• Icelandic Text to Speech
• Irish Text to Speech
• Italian Text to Speech
• IVR Recording
• Japanese Text to Speech
• Kazakh Text to Speech
• Korean Text to Speech
• Lao Text to Speech
• Malayalam Text to Speech
• Nepali Text to Speech
• Persian Text to Speech
• Realistic Text to Speech
• Russian Text to Speech
• Somali Text to Speech
• Spanish Text to Speech
• Speech in Swahili
• Tamil Text to Speech
• Text Reader
• Text to Audio
• Text to Podcast
• Text to Speech Albanian
• Text to Speech Armenian
• Text to Speech Bulgarian
• Text to Speech Catalan
• Text to Speech Croatian
• Text to Speech Czech
• Text to Speech Danish
• Text to Speech Dutch
• Text to Speech Estonian
• Text to Speech Finnish
• Text to Speech Greek
• Text to Speech Gujarati
• Text to Speech Human Voice
• Text to Speech Hungarian
• Text to Speech Indonesia
• Text to Speech Khmer
• Text to Speech Latvian
• Text to Speech Lithuanian
• Text to Speech Malay
• Text to Speech Marathi
• Text to Speech MP3
• Text to Speech Norwegian
• Text to Speech Polish
• Text to Speech Portuguese
• Text to Speech Romana
• Text to Speech Serbian
• Text to Speech Slovak
• Text to Speech Slovenian
• Text to Speech Swedish
• Text to Speech Tagalog
• Text to Speech Telugu
• Text to Speech Thai
• Text to Speech Turkish
• Text to Speech Ukrainian
• Text to Speech Uzbek
• Text to Speech Voice Changer
• Text to Speech with Emotion
• Text to Talk
• Text to Voice Generator
• Text to Voice Over
• Urdu Text to Speech
• Vietnamese Text to Speech
• Zulu Text to Speech

Loved by creators.

Loved by the Fortune 500

VEED has been game-changing. It's allowed us to create gorgeous content for social promotion and ad units with ease.

Max Alter Director of Audience Development, NBCUniversal

I love using VEED. The subtitles are the most accurate I've seen on the market. It's helped take my content to the next level.

Laura Haleydt Brand Marketing Manager, Carlsberg Importers

I used Loom to record, Rev for captions, Google for storing and Youtube to get a share link. I can now do this all in one spot with VEED.

Cedric Gustavo Ravache Enterprise Account Executive, Cloud Software Group

VEED is my one-stop video editing shop! It's cut my editing time by around 60% , freeing me to focus on my online career coaching business.

Nadeem L Entrepreneur and Owner, TheCareerCEO.com

When it comes to amazing videos, all you need is VEED

Convert text to speech

No credit card required

More than a text-to-speech converter

VEED is so much more than a text-to-speech converter. It’s an all-in-one professional AI video editing software that lets you create stunning videos in just minutes. You don’t need any video editing experience. Plus, you can make use of our video templates; create videos for your business or personal use. Create sales videos, movie trailers, birthday videos, and so much more. Try VEED today and create amazing videos from your browser in just a few clicks!

Free Text-To-Speech and Text-to-MP3 for US English

Easily convert your US English text into professional speech for free. Perfect for e-learning, presentations, YouTube videos and increasing the accessibility of your website. Our voices pronounce your texts in their own language using a specific accent. Plus, these texts can be downloaded as MP3. In some languages, multiple speakers are available.

Woah, that is quite some text...

Please give us a moment to process your request...

Input limit: 3,000 characters / Don't forget to turn on your speakers :-)

Hint: If you finish a sentence, leave a space after the dot before the next one starts for better pronunciation.

Here are some features to use while generating speech:

Add a break, emphasizing words, conversations.

Please note: Remove any diacritical signs from the speakers names when using this, Léa = Lea, Penélope = Penelope

Need more effects or customization? Please refer to the Amazon SSML Tags for Amazon Polly

Facts about the us english language:.

English was brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries. If you were to ask those who don't speak English whether or not it's a hard language to learn, you'd likely get more than a few who insist that it is among the hardest.

Though, it can be argued that English is easy since it has no gender, no word agreement, and no cases. Yet, it does have words such as through, threw, and thru, all sounds the same, but are spelled differently, and can't be used interchangeably.

English also has polish, and Polish. One is used to make furniture shine, while the other is a language. Or take resume and resume, one is used when you're filling out job applications, and the other is used when you want to tell someone to carry on with what they're doing.

As you can see above, the English language can be challenging, however, it's far from the most difficult language to learn. With a bit of study, and some practice, almost anyone can learn English. One of the best ways to learn the language is to find a friend who speaks English, and is willing to have conversations with you. This will help you immerse yourself in the language and pick up on the nuances, and speech patterns of English. With a bit of practice, you'll soon be speaking English like it's your native language.

Supported voice languages:

Current Limit: ~375 words or 3,000 characters / day | Powered by AWS Polly

Need to convert more text to speech? Register here for a 24 hour premium access.

© 2024 ttsMP3.com | AI Voices | FAQ | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | API Documentation

Text-to-Speech Voice Generator

Turn any text or script into natural-sounding speech with Descript's text-to-speech voice generator. Choose from dozens of lifelike AI voices or create your own voice clones in minutes. It’s perfect for podcast intros, voiceovers, faceless videos, and more.

How to turn text into realistic AI voice audio

Experience the magic of text-to-speech. Fix mistakes in your audio recordings without trudging back into the recording studio. Descript’s Overdub uses AI to create a natural-sounding synthetic version of your voice that you can use in any audio or video you’re creating.  

In a new Descript project, type out your script in the text editor or paste in the text you want to generate speech from. You can also use the  Ask AI  command in the Actions menu to write a script for you based on whatever criteria you want. 

Press ‘@’ to assign a speaker to your script. You can enter a new speaker name and then  Enable speech generation  to start the process of cloning your voice. Or  you can select  Browse stock AI speakers  to choose from a library of realistic stock voices, emotions, and styles.

The script will flash briefly to indicate your speech is being generated. Once that’s done, you can play back your newly generated voice audio, continue in an audio or video project, or export it by clicking  Publish .

Create natural-sounding speech with Descript

Turn text into sound with Descript by creating a high-quality text-to-speech model of your voice or selecting one from our ultra-realistic stock voices.

• Ultra-realistic: Descript’s Overdub is constantly being improved to sound more and more natural, with human inflections and contextual adjustments.
• State of the art: Descript’s Lyrebird AI represents the world’s most advanced speech-synthesis technology. It’s so real that androids often mistake it for their missing families.
• Privacy & security: Descript verifies that every Overdub Voice belongs to its owner. We do not allow cloning of voices that don’t belong to the account owner. We won’t share the data underlying your Overdub Voice with anyone outside Descript.
• Multiple voices: You can create multiple versions of your own voice to reflect different performance modes or emotional states, such as sad, excited, or Pittsburgh.
• Sharing: Descript allows you, and only you, to share your Overdub Voice with trusted collaborators or legally titled androids.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Can someone else use descript’s overdub tts to clone my voice.

No. When creating an Overdub Voice, Descript users must positively affirm their identity and give Descript their express consent to train and generate a synthesized version of their voice.

Voice-training data that does not include this Voice ID cannot be used to create an Overdub Voice. In other words, unless you specifically consent to Overdub Voice creation, Descript will not create your Overdub Voice.

We verify this consent by authenticating the audio file uploaded against our training script to ensure that the voice recorded belongs to the person submitting it.

Is Descript Text-to-Speech free?

Overdub text-to-speech is free on all Descript accounts. Pro accounts get an unlimited Overdub vocabulary.

Is there a difference between Overdub generated with the Pro subscription vs. a Creator or Free subscription?

Yes. While you can create a custom Voice on Overdub with any subscription,  Free and Creator plans are limited to a list of the 1,000 most common vocabulary words. Any words that are not on that list will be replaced with "jibber" or "jabber." To avoid this gibberish and gain access to the full vocabulary list, you can upgrade to the Pro subscription.

How can I improve the quality of my text-to-speech voice?

TTS voice quality relies on a number of factors, such as the quality of your microphone, background noise, and room surfaces. Check out our article on Overdub Voice Quality Tips for tips on how you can assure the best possible recording.

Download the app for free

More articles and resources.

5 ways to establish your podcast's brand

What Is Personal Branding? Sharing Your Skill Sets and Strengths

How to record an interview: 11 pro tips

Other tools from descript, voice cloning, video collage maker, advertising video maker, facebook video maker, youtube video summarizer, rotate video, marketing video maker.

Text to Speech

• 3 Create a new project Drag your file into the box above, or click Select file and import it from your computer or wherever it lives.

With Descript, you can generate and edit voice audio just by typing. Convert your text into speech, edit it, and export it in your preferred format—all in one place.

Descript's  text-to-speech (TTS)  capabilities use AI to generate incredibly realistic voices. Choose from a range of voice types—from corporate to conversational, masculine to feminine—to find the one that suits your project best.

Create and share your own AI voices for use in future projects, whether you want to take a breather and let AI handle that voiceover track, or fix or add to an existing recording without rerecording.

No, Descript does not allow others to clone your voice without your explicit consent. Your voice data is kept secure and confidential, and you can delete it at any time. We are committed to protecting our users' privacy and adhere to a strict  code of ethics .

You can use Descript to generate up to 5 minutes of text-to-speech audio totally free. Then you can upgrade to unlock 120 minutes of TTS generation per month, and a slew of other AI features, starting at $24/month.

Our free plan limits you to 5 minutes of text-to-speech audio generation, and 5 uses of Regenerate and Overdub to repair or change spoken audio. On our paid plans, you get monthly usage limits starting at $12/month for 30 text-to-speech minutes and 10 Regenerate and Overdub uses, among other perks.

You can improve the quality of your text-to-speech voice clone by recording in a quiet environment, speaking clearly and naturally as you read the sample script, using a high-quality microphone, and following Descript's recording guidelines in the prompt.

Speech to Text - Voice Typing & Transcription

Take notes with your voice for free, or automatically transcribe audio & video recordings. amazingly accurate, secure & blazing fast..

~ Proudly serving millions of users since 2015 ~

I need to >

Dictate Notes

Start taking notes, on our online voice-enabled notepad right away, for free. Learn more.

Transcribe Recordings

Automatically transcribe (& optionally translate) recordings, audio and video files, YouTubes and more, in no time. Learn more.

Speechnotes is a reliable and secure web-based speech-to-text tool that enables you to quickly and accurately transcribe & translate your audio and video recordings, as well as dictate your notes instead of typing, saving you time and effort. With features like voice commands for punctuation and formatting, automatic capitalization, and easy import/export options, Speechnotes provides an efficient and user-friendly dictation and transcription experience. Proudly serving millions of users since 2015, Speechnotes is the go-to tool for anyone who needs fast, accurate & private transcription. Our Portfolio of Complementary Speech-To-Text Tools Includes:

Voice typing - Chrome extension

Dictate instead of typing on any form & text-box across the web. Including on Gmail, and more.

Transcription API & webhooks

Speechnotes' API enables you to send us files via standard POST requests, and get the transcription results sent directly to your server.

Zapier integration

Combine the power of automatic transcriptions with Zapier's automatic processes. Serverless & codeless automation! Connect with your CRM, phone calls, Docs, email & more.

Android Speechnotes app

Speechnotes' notepad for Android, for notes taking on your mobile, battle tested with more than 5Million downloads. Rated 4.3+ ⭐

iOS TextHear app

TextHear for iOS, works great on iPhones, iPads & Macs. Designed specifically to help people with hearing impairment participate in conversations. Please note, this is a sister app - so it has its own pricing plan.

Audio & video converting tools

Tools developed for fast - batch conversions of audio files from one type to another and extracting audio only from videos for minimizing uploads.

Our Sister Apps for Text-To-Speech & Live Captioning

Complementary to Speechnotes

Reads out loud texts, files & web pages

Listen on the go to any written content, from custom texts to websites & e-books, for free.

Speechlogger

Live Captioning & Translation

Live captions & simultaneous translation for conferences, online meetings, webinars & more.

Need Human Transcription? We Can Offer a 10% Discount Coupon

We do not provide human transcription services ourselves, but, we partnered with a UK company that does. Learn more on human transcription and the 10% discount .

Dictation Notepad

Start taking notes with your voice for free

Speech to Text online notepad. Professional, accurate & free speech recognizing text editor. Distraction-free, fast, easy to use web app for dictation & typing.

Speechnotes is a powerful speech-enabled online notepad, designed to empower your ideas by implementing a clean & efficient design, so you can focus on your thoughts. We strive to provide the best online dictation tool by engaging cutting-edge speech-recognition technology for the most accurate results technology can achieve today, together with incorporating built-in tools (automatic or manual) to increase users' efficiency, productivity and comfort. Works entirely online in your Chrome browser. No download, no install and even no registration needed, so you can start working right away.

Speechnotes is especially designed to provide you a distraction-free environment. Every note, starts with a new clear white paper, so to stimulate your mind with a clean fresh start. All other elements but the text itself are out of sight by fading out, so you can concentrate on the most important part - your own creativity. In addition to that, speaking instead of typing, enables you to think and speak it out fluently, uninterrupted, which again encourages creative, clear thinking. Fonts and colors all over the app were designed to be sharp and have excellent legibility characteristics.

Example use cases

• Voice typing
• Writing notes, thoughts
• Medical forms - dictate
• Transcribers (listen and dictate)

Transcription Service

Start transcribing

Fast turnaround - results within minutes. Includes timestamps, auto punctuation and subtitles at unbeatable price. Protects your privacy: no human in the loop, and (unlike many other vendors) we do NOT keep your audio. Pay per use, no recurring payments. Upload your files or transcribe directly from Google Drive, YouTube or any other online source. Simple. No download or install. Just send us the file and get the results in minutes.

• Transcribe interviews
• Captions for Youtubes & movies
• Auto-transcribe phone calls or voice messages
• Students - transcribe lectures
• Podcasters - enlarge your audience by turning your podcasts into textual content
• Text-index entire audio archives

Key Advantages

Speechnotes is powered by the leading most accurate speech recognition AI engines by Google & Microsoft. We always check - and make sure we still use the best. Accuracy in English is very good and can easily reach 95% accuracy for good quality dictation or recording.

Lightweight & fast

Both Speechnotes dictation & transcription are lightweight-online no install, work out of the box anywhere you are. Dictation works in real time. Transcription will get you results in a matter of minutes.

Super Private & Secure!

Super private - no human handles, sees or listens to your recordings! In addition, we take great measures to protect your privacy. For example, for transcribing your recordings - we pay Google's speech to text engines extra - just so they do not keep your audio for their own research purposes.

Health advantages

Typing may result in different types of Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI). Voice typing is one of the main recommended ways to minimize these risks, as it enables you to sit back comfortably, freeing your arms, hands, shoulders and back altogether.

Saves you time

Need to transcribe a recording? If it's an hour long, transcribing it yourself will take you about 6! hours of work. If you send it to a transcriber - you will get it back in days! Upload it to Speechnotes - it will take you less than a minute, and you will get the results in about 20 minutes to your email.

Saves you money

Speechnotes dictation notepad is completely free - with ads - or a small fee to get it ad-free. Speechnotes transcription is only $0.1/minute, which is X10 times cheaper than a human transcriber! We offer the best deal on the market - whether it's the free dictation notepad ot the pay-as-you-go transcription service.

Dictation - Free

• Online dictation notepad
• Voice typing Chrome extension

Dictation - Premium

• Premium online dictation notepad
• Premium voice typing Chrome extension
• Support from the development team

Transcription

$0.1 /minute.

• Pay as you go - no subscription
• Audio & video recordings
• Speaker diarization in English
• Generate captions .srt files
• REST API, webhooks & Zapier integration

Compare plans

Privacy Policy

We at Speechnotes, Speechlogger, TextHear, Speechkeys value your privacy, and that's why we do not store anything you say or type or in fact any other data about you - unless it is solely needed for the purpose of your operation. We don't share it with 3rd parties, other than Google / Microsoft for the speech-to-text engine.

Privacy - how are the recordings and results handled?

- transcription service.

Our transcription service is probably the most private and secure transcription service available.

• HIPAA compliant.
• No human in the loop. No passing your recording between PCs, emails, employees, etc.
• Secure encrypted communications (https) with and between our servers.
• Recordings are automatically deleted from our servers as soon as the transcription is done.
• Our contract with Google / Microsoft (our speech engines providers) prohibits them from keeping any audio or results.
• Transcription results are securely kept on our secure database. Only you have access to them - only if you sign in (or provide your secret credentials through the API)
• You may choose to delete the transcription results - once you do - no copy remains on our servers.

- Dictation notepad & extension

For dictation, the recording & recognition - is delegated to and done by the browser (Chrome / Edge) or operating system (Android). So, we never even have access to the recorded audio, and Edge's / Chrome's / Android's (depending the one you use) privacy policy apply here.

The results of the dictation are saved locally on your machine - via the browser's / app's local storage. It never gets to our servers. So, as long as your device is private - your notes are private.

Payments method privacy

The whole payments process is delegated to PayPal / Stripe / Google Pay / Play Store / App Store and secured by these providers. We never receive any of your credit card information.

More generic notes regarding our site, cookies, analytics, ads, etc.

• We may use Google Analytics on our site - which is a generic tool to track usage statistics.
• We use cookies - which means we save data on your browser to send to our servers when needed. This is used for instance to sign you in, and then keep you signed in.
• For the dictation tool - we use your browser's local storage to store your notes, so you can access them later.
• Non premium dictation tool serves ads by Google. Users may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings . Alternatively, users can opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting https://youradchoices.com/
• In case you would like to upload files to Google Drive directly from Speechnotes - we'll ask for your permission to do so. We will use that permission for that purpose only - syncing your speech-notes to your Google Drive, per your request.

Best free text-to-speech software of 2024

Find the best free text-to-speech software for free text to voice conversion

• Best overall
• Best custom voice
• Best for beginners
• Best Microsoft extension
• Best website reader
• How we test

The best free text-to-speech software makes it simple and easy to improve accessibility and productivity in your workflows.

1. Best overall 2. Best custom voice 3. Best for beginners 4. Best Microsoft extension 5. Best website reader 6. FAQs 7. How we test

In the digital era, the need for effective communication tools has led to a surge in the popularity of text-to-speech (TTS) software, and finding the best free text-to-speech software is essential for a variety of users, regardless of budget constraints. 

Text-to-speech software skillfully converts written text into spoken words using advanced technology, though often without grasping the context of the content. The best text-to-speech software not only accomplishes this task but also offers a selection of natural-sounding voices, catering to different preferences and project needs.

This technology is invaluable for creating accessible content, enhancing workplace productivity, adding voice-overs to videos, or simply assisting in proofreading by vocalizing written work. While many of today’s best free word processors , such as Google Docs, include basic TTS features that are accurate and continually improving, they may not meet all needs.

Stand-alone, app-based TTS tools, which should not be confused with the best speech-to-text apps , often have limitations compared to more comprehensive, free text-to-speech software. For instance, some might not allow the downloading of audio files, a feature crucial for creating content for platforms like YouTube and social media.

In our quest to identify the best free text-to-speech software, we have meticulously tested various options, assessing them based on user experience, performance, and output quality. Our guide aims to help you find the right text-to-speech tool, whatever your specific needs might be.

The best free text-to-speech software of 2024 in full:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

The best free text-to-speech software overall

1. Natural Reader

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

Natural Reader offers one of the best free text-to-speech software experiences, thanks to an easy-going interface and stellar results. It even features online and desktop versions. 

You'll find plenty of user options and customizations. The first is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including eBook formats. There's also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it spoken to you.

The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text-to-speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There's also a browser extension to convert web content to speech more easily.

The TTS tool is available free, with three additional upgrades with more advanced features for power-users and professionals.

Read our full Natural Reader review .

• ^ Back to the top

The best free custom-voice text-to-speech software

2. Balabolka

There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka's top free text-to-speech software. You can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. 

In terms of output, you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create a custom voice.

In addition to reading words aloud, this free text-to-speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents, you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.

With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is the best free text-to-speech software around.

For more help using Balabolka, see out guide on how to convert text to speech using this free software.

The best free text-to-speech software for beginners

3. Panopreter Basic

Panopreter Basic is the best free text-to-speech software if you’re looking for something simple, streamlined, no-frills, and hassle-free. 

It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).

The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic's Settings menu and you'll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it's finished reading – a nice touch you won't find in other free text-to-speech software.

If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available. This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer , the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.

The best free text-to-speech extension of Microsoft Word

4. WordTalk

Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text-to-speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you're using.

The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you'll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons' functions very clear, but thankfully there's a help file on hand to help.

There's no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.

The best free text-to-speech software for websites

5. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader

Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.

Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. One of the best free text-to-speech software right now, this can also convert text files to WAV format.

Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations. Additional voices are available for an additional fee which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

The best free text-to-speech software: FAQs

What are the limitations of free tts software.

As you might expect, some free versions of TTS software do come with certain limitations. These include the amount of choices you get for the different amount of voices in some case. For instance, Zabaware gives you two for free, but you have to pay if you want more. 

However, the best free software on this list come with all the bells and whistles that will be more than enough for the average user.

What is SAPI?

SAPI stands for Speech Application Programming Interface. It was developed by Microsoft to generate synthetic speech to allow computer programs to read aloud text. First used in its own applications such as Office, it is also employed by third party TTS software such as those featured in this list. 

In the context of TTS software, there are more SAPI 4 voices to choose from, whereas SAPI 5 voices are generally of a higher quality. 

Should I output files to MP3 or WAV?

Many free TTS programs give you the option to download an audio file of the speech to save and transfer to different devices.

MP3 is the most common audio format, and compatible with pretty much any modern device capable of playing back audio. The WAV format is also highly compatible too.

The main difference between the two is quality. WAV files are uncompressed, meaning fidelity is preserved as best as possible, at the cost of being considerably larger in size than MP3 files, which do compress.

Ultimately, however, MP3 files with a bit rate of 256 kbps and above should more than suffice, and you'll struggle to tell the difference when it comes to speech audio between them and WAV files.

How to choose the best free text-to-speech software

When selecting the best free text-to-speech software is best for you depends on a range of factors (not to mention personal preference).

Despite how simple the concept of text-to-speech is, there are many different features and aspects to such apps to take into consideration. These include how many voice options and customizations are present, how and where they operate in your setup, what formats they are able to read aloud from and what formats the audio can be saved as.

With free versions, naturally you'll want to take into account how many advanced features you get without paying, and whether any sacrifices are made to performance or usability. 

Always try to keep in mind what is fair and reasonable for free services - and as we've shown with our number one choice, you can get plenty of features for free, so if other options seem bare in comparison, then you'll know you can do better.

How we test the best free text-to-speech software

Our testing process for the best free text-to-speech software is thorough, examining all of their respective features and trying to throw every conceivable syllable at them to see how they perform.

We also want to test the accessibility features of these tools to see how they work for every kind of user out there. We have highlighted, for instance, whether certain software offer dyslexic-friendly fonts, such as the number two on our list, Natural Reader.

We also bear in mind that these are free versions, so where possible we compare and contrast their feature sets with paid-for rivals.

Finally, we look at how well TTS tools meet the needs of their intended users - whether it's designed for personal use or professional deployment. 

Get in touch

• Want to find out about commercial or marketing opportunities? Click here
• Out of date info, errors, complaints or broken links? Give us a nudge
• Got a suggestion for a product or service provider? Message us directly
• You've reached the end of the page. Jump back up to the top ^

Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he's written a book, ' The Making of Tomb Raider '. His second book, ' 50 Years of Boss Fights ', came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2025. He also has a newsletter called ' Springboard '. He's usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that's about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.

• John Loeffler Components Editor
• Steve Clark B2B Editor - Creative & Hardware
• Lewis Maddison Reviews Writer

Sage is off 50% for three months if you grab it today

Xodo PDF editor review

I've driven the most expensive Volvo ever – and its clever Lidar tech could take EV safety to the next level

Most Popular

• 2 CBIZ says web page breach lead to customer data theft
• 3 The growing trend of AI-generated headshots, what recruiters think and what it means for job applicants
• 4 Ace Attorney Investigations Collection review: check and mate
• 5 Until Dawn remake developer Ballistic Moon lays off staff ahead of the game's October launch

Voice   Generator

This web app allows you to generate voice audio from text - no login needed, and it's completely free! It uses your browser's built-in voice synthesis technology, and so the voices will differ depending on the browser that you're using. You can download the audio as a file, but note that the downloaded voices may be different to your browser's voices because they are downloaded from an external text-to-speech server. If you don't like the externally-downloaded voice, you can use a recording app on your device to record the "system" or "internal" sound while you're playing the generated voice audio.

Want more voices? You can download the generated audio and then use voicechanger.io to add effects to the voice. For example, you can make the voice sound more robotic, or like a giant ogre, or an evil demon. You can even use it to reverse the generated audio, randomly distort the speed of the voice throughout the audio, add a scary ghost effect, or add an "anonymous hacker" effect to it.

Note: If the list of available text-to-speech voices is small, or all the voices sound the same, then you may need to install text-to-speech voices on your device. Many operating systems (including some versions of Android, for example) only come with one voice by default, and the others need to be downloaded in your device's settings. If you don't know how to install more voices, and you can't find a tutorial online, you can try downloading the audio with the download button instead. As mentioned above, the downloaded audio uses external voices which may be different to your device's local ones.

You're free to use the generated voices for any purpose - no attribution needed. You could use this website as a free voice over generator for narrating your videos in cases where don't want to use your real voice. You can also adjust the pitch of the voice to make it sound younger/older, and you can even adjust the rate/speed of the generated speech, so you can create a fast-talking high-pitched chipmunk voice if you want to.

Note: If you have offline-compatible voices installed on your device (check your system Text-To-Speech settings), then this web app works offline! Find the "add to homescreen" or "install" button in your browser to add a shortcut to this app in your home screen. And note that if you don't have an internet connection, or if for some reason the voice audio download isn't working for you, you can also use a recording app that records your devices "internal" or "system" sound.

Got some feedback? You can share it with me here .

If you like this project check out these: AI Chat , AI Anime Generator , AI Image Generator , and AI Story Generator .

• Online Voice Recorder

Record your voice using a microphone and allow you to download it.

* Press on the "Start recording" button to start the recording per microphone - permission by the user is required. To end the recording press on "Stop recording", you will be able to download the voice record at the time you stop recording.

• Export Audio

Free Text To Speech Reader

Instantly reads out loud text & pdf with natural sounding voices online - works out of the box. drop the text and click play..

Drag text or pdf files to the text-box, or directly type/paste in text. Select language and click Play. Remembers text and caret position between sessions. Works on Chrome and Safari, desktop and mobile. Enjoy listening :)

Best Text to Speech Online

• Online speech synthesizer, single click to read out loud any text
• Listen instead of reading
• Multiple languages and voices
• Reads PDF files too

TTSReader-X

• Chrome extension
• Listen to ANY website without leaving the page
• Adds a 'play' functionality to Chrome
• Clean page for readability and / or print

Try it Now for FREE

TTSReader / Android

• Podcast any written content
• Save data - works offline too

Get it on the Play store

Fun, Online, Free. Listen to great content

Drag, drop & play (or directly copy text & play). That’s it. No downloads. No logins. No passwords. No fuss. Simply fun to use and listen to great content. Great for listening in the background. Great for proof-reading. Great for kids and more. Learn more, including a YouTube we made, here .

Multilingual, Natural Voices

We facilitate high-quality natural-sounding voices from different sources. There are male & female voices, in different accents and different languages. Choose the voice you like, insert text, click play to generate the synthesized speech and enjoy listening.

Exit, Come Back & Play from Where You Stopped

TTSReader remembers the article and last position when paused, even if you close the browser. This way, you can come back to listening right where you previously left. Works on Chrome & Safari on mobile too. Ideal for listening to articles.

Better than Podcasts

In many aspects, synthesized speech has advantages over recorded podcasts. Here are some: First of all - you have unlimited - free - content. That includes high-quality articles and books, that are not available on podcasts. Second - it’s free. Third - it uses almost no data - so it’s available offline too, and you save money. If you like listening on the go, as while driving or walking - get our free Android Text Reader App .

Read PDF Files, Texts & Websites

TTSReader extracts the text from pdf files, and reads it out loud. Also useful for simply copying text from pdf to anywhere. In addition, it highlights the text currently being read - so you can follow with your eyes. If you specifically want to listen to websites - such as blogs, news, wiki - you should get our free extension for Chrome

Commercial-Ready

Use our apps for commercial purposes. Generated audio can be used for YouTubes, games, telephony and more. To export the generated speech into high-quality audio files, you can either use our Android app , or record them, as explained here . Read more for ttsreader’s commercial terms. Read more

We love to hear your feedback. Here’s what users said about us:

The new male voice is great. It is quite melodic and natural, much more so then other sites I have tried to use. This is a GREAT tool, well done thanks!

ttsreader.com

This product works amazingly well. I use it to edit my books, pasting in a chapter, having it read back to me while I edit the original. Cuts down my book edit time by over 50% !

Multiple voices from different nationalities. Easy to use interface. Paste text and it will speak. Can create mp3 files.

ttsreader for Android

Great app. Can handle long texts, something other apps can’t. Highly recommended!

What a great App! exactly what i needed, a reader to provide me content efficiently.

ttsreader-x for Chrome

Recent Posts

Read about our different products, get the news & tips from our developers.

Amazon's Kindle Fire - Can Now Read Websites

on June 6, 2017

Amazon’s Kindle Fire - Can Now Read Websites As TTSReader is Now Available on Amazon’s App Store Get it now for FREE Exciting news! Kindle lovers now got upgraded with some new great features. TTSReader on the Kindle can read out loud any text, pdf and website. It uses the latest algorithms to extract only the relevant text out of the usually-cluttered websites. Great for listening to Wiki articles for instance, blogs and more.

Continue reading

Android Gets the Best In Class Websites Reader

Android Gets Best In Class Websites Reader - With Latest Update to TTSReader Pro Start listening now for FREE Exciting news, as Android’s TTSReader Pro app, has been updated to use TTSReaderX’s algorithms to extract only the relevant text out of websites. This is super important for a text-to-speech website reader, as otherwise the reader would start reading out loud all the ads, menus, sharing buttons and more clutter.

Commercial Licensing & Terms

on May 10, 2017

When is a Commercial License Necessary Using ttsreader.com within your institution If you are a company, or organization, using ttsreader.com, please use our paypal donate link. If you are a personal user, or an educational institute - ttsreader.com is free, no need to even donate - you are welcome, of course :). Using the generated speech for commercial purposes Recording and using the audio generated by TTSReader in a commercial application (ie publishing)

Export Speech to Audio Files

How to Record Audio Played on PC (Speakers) for Free Need to record audio from TTSReader, YouTube or other? Here’s how in a few simple steps (includes screenshots). No need to record the speakers - you can record the audio from within the pc itself. It will be of higher audio quality - as it’s the original digital signal, clear and without ambient noise. Also, no need to purchase a software for that.

See All Posts

Want to see more?

Visit our company's page, to see more of our speech to text (dictation) and text to speech apps for desktops and mobile. For news and tips from our developers visit our blog.

More from WellSource

PRIVACY: We don't store any of your text, in fact, it doesn't even leave your computer. We do use cookies and your local storage to enhance your experience. Copyright (c) 2015 - 2017, WellSource Ltd. ; all rights reserved.    Template by Bootstrapious . Ported to Hugo by DevCows

English Deutsch español Français italiano 日本の 中國

Bring Text-To-Speech into ANY website. Add our new TTSReader Extension for free.

• About AssemblyAI

Build a Discord Voice Bot to Add ChatGPT to Your Voice Channel

Build a sophisticated Discord voice bot that leverages AssemblyAI for speech transcription, OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo AI model for intelligent processing, and ElevenLabs for speech synthesis.

Featured writer

Discord is an instant messaging and social media platform that's a favorite among online communities, streamers, and gamers. One of its most loved features is its voice channels, which allow members to connect over voice and video. Another benefit of Discord, especially for developers, is that it's customizable. You can easily create bots to add functionality or new features to the already great platform.

In this tutorial, you'll see how to create a bot that can integrate with Discord voice channels and interact with users. The bot will be capable of joining voice channels, recording a speaker's audio query, transcribing it to text, feeding it to an AI system to get an intelligent response, and then converting that response back to speech and playing it to the user.

Set up the bot

You'll build your Discord bot using Node.js and the following third-party services: AssemblyAI for speech-to-text, OpenAI for intelligent responses, and ElevenLabs for text-to-speech conversion. The following diagram illustrates how it will work:

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with JavaScript and Node.js. You should know how to set up a Node.js project, install dependencies, and write basic asynchronous code. Before you get started, make sure you have the following:

• Node.js installed (version 18 or higher)
• A Discord server that you have administrator rights on

Set up a Node.js project

Start by creating a project directory and initializing a Node.js project:

After setting up the project, run the following command to install the required dependencies:

This installs the following Node.js dependencies:

• dotenv to manage environment variables like API keys
• assemblyai , the client library for AssemblyAI
• elevenlabs-node , the client library for ElevenLabs
• openai , the client library for the OpenAI platform
• discord.js , libsodium-wrappers , ffmpeg-static , @discordjs/opus , and @discordjs/voice to allow integration with Discord and its voice channel functionality

Configure the environment for improved security

To enhance the bot's security, you'll use a .env file to store API keys for the different services you'll be using. To do this, create a file and name it .env . After that, add the following lines as placeholders that will hold your keys:

You'll populate these fields with actual API keys later in the tutorial.

To access these keys in any file, you can easily import them using require('dotenv').config() .

Set up Discord and create a basic Discord bot

You'll also need a Discord developer account . Follow the link to create an application and give it an appropriate name. Then, click Bot on the left-hand panel of the application dashboard, navigate to the TOKEN section, and click Reset Token . Save the token to the .env file you created earlier under DISCORD_TOKEN . You'll use this to authenticate with Discord when you log in with your bot.

After collecting your token, scroll down on the same page and enable the message content intent under Privileged Gateway Intents . This intent allows you to receive messages and read their contents.

Next, you need to add the bot to your server. Navigate to the OAuth2 tab, then choose the necessary permissions you want the bot to have. For this example, select bot under "Scopes" and Administrator under "Bot Permissions". After that, scroll to the bottom, copy the generated URL, and open it in your browser to add the bot to your server.

Now that you have the token and have added your bot to the server, you can start writing the actual code for the bot. First, create a file named index.js with the following lines to create the basic structure of a Discord bot:

The code above, creates a client, passing the intents for the clients. For example, GatewayIntentBits.GuildMessages tells Discord that you want to receive messages from the server. After that, you define the events you want to handle, such as Events.ClientReady , Events.MessageCreate , and Events.Error . Once the event handlers are defined, you can log in to the client, passing the token from earlier.

Develop the Discord voice bot functions

Now that you have a basic Discord bot set up, it's time to add voice interaction capabilities.

Here's how the bot will work:

• The user will have the option to invite the bot to join a voice channel by sending a message in the text channels.
• Once the bot joins, it will record the user and send the audio to a speech-to-text engine for transcription.
• After receiving this transcription, the text will be fed to OpenAI's ChatGPT API to provide an intelligent response.
• Finally, the response will be converted back to audio to be played back to the user in the voice channel.

Here are the key steps of the bot's process:

• Join a voice channel: The bot uses its Events.MessageCreate handler to listen for messages with the specified "join" command. When it receives the command, it joins the voice channel that the sender is connected to.
• Record audio: It captures audio from the voice channel using a receiver and writes the raw audio data to a PCM file.
• Transcribe audio: The recorded audio is sent to AssemblyAI for transcription.
• Generate an appropriate response: The transcribed text is used as input for OpenAI's ChatGPT API to generate a relevant response.
• Use text-to-speech conversion: The response from the AI is converted back to audio using ElevenLabs.
• Play a response in the voice channel: The bot then plays the generated audio file in the voice channel.

Join the voice channel

The first step in enabling your Discord bot to interact with voice channels involves listening for a specific command in text channels. This example uses !join as the invocation. Upon receiving this command, the bot will join the voice channel of the user who issued the command. This functionality is pivotal, as it sets the stage for the bot to listen, transcribe, and interact with users through voice.

To make your bot respond to the !join command and enter a voice channel, first replace the existing Events.MessageCreate event handler section in your index.js file with the following code:

When the bot receives a message, it checks if the content matches !join . If the command is detected, the bot verifies that the user is in a voice channel. If not, it sends a reply urging the user to join one. If the user is in a voice channel, the bot uses the joinVoiceChannel method to connect to the same channel. This method requires the channel ID, guild (server) ID, and voice adapter creator; these values can be extracted from the user message. The bot then sends a message to the text channel, confirming it has joined the voice channel. Lastly, the bot calls a listenAndRespond function that you'll implement in the next section and handles listening to the conversation and responding.

Record and transcribe the audio

As the bot needs to interact with users through voice channels, it must be able to capture voice input from Discord users. The bot needs to record audio streams from these channels, which can later be transcribed into text using AssemblyAI. Recording starts once the bot joins a voice channel, as described in the previous section. The bot will capture raw audio data, which Discord delivers in an Opus-encoded stream.

Here's how to create an audio stream that captures everything the speaker says:

This code snippet introduces a listenAndRespond function that's designed to be called once a relevant message (such as !join ) triggers the bot to join a voice channel. Upon joining, the bot uses a receiver to subscribe to audio streams from the voice channel. The bot receiver collects the user's audio stream while they are speaking, and EndBehaviorType.AfterSilence terminates the subscription once the user is silent.

Streaming Speech-to-Text with AssemblyAI

After successfully capturing the user's audio stream, the next step is transcribing this audio into text. AssemblyAI's real-time API enables you to transcribe audio as it's being spoken, delivering a more fluid and interactive experience.

To get started with AssemblyAI, you can visit its website and obtain an API key from the developer dashboard . This key will allow you to interact with the API. Once you have it, save it to the .env file you created earlier under ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY .

With the key configured, you can initialize an AssemblyAI client and create a real-time transcriber:

The code above sets up an AssemblyAI client with your API key and creates a transcriber object specifically for streaming speech-to-text. The sampleRate should match the sample rate of the audio stream from Discord, which is typically 48,000 Hz.

The transcriber object exposes different events to which you can respond. These include the following:

• open : This event triggers when the real-time session is successfully established with AssemblyAI.
• error : This event occurs if any errors arise during the transcription process.
• close : This event signals the end of the real-time session, which might happen due to various reasons, such as the user stopping speaking or an error occurring.
• transcript : This event provides streaming speech-to-text results as the audio is processed. The transcript object contains the transcribed text and information about whether it's a FinalTranscript (complete sentence or utterance) or a PartialTranscript (ongoing transcription).

The following code shows how to use these events to transcribe audio using AssemblyAI. Append it to the listenAndRespond function:

Note: It's important to understand that FinalTranscript signifies the completion of a sentence or utterance, not necessarily the end of the entire recording. You must keep appending the received text to build the full message until the session closes ( eg due to silence timeout).

Feed audio to AssemblyAI

To transcribe the user's speech in real time, you have to feed the audio stream from Discord to the AssemblyAI transcriber. Add the following code to the end of the listenAndRespond function:

The code above uses the prism-media library to decode the Opus audio stream into a format suitable for AssemblyAI. Then, for each decoded audio chunk received, it calls transcriber.sendAudio(chunk) to send it to AssemblyAI for streaming speech-to-text.

When the end event is emitted, it means the user has stopped speaking ( ie after one second of silence). When this occurs, the transcriber.close function is called, closing the real-time transcription. At this point, you can then use the transcribed text to generate and respond with an intelligent reply.

Process text with ChatGPT

After transcribing voice input into text with AssemblyAI, the next step is to generate an intelligent response. To do this, you'll use OpenAI's advanced AI models to understand user queries and craft appropriate replies.

Go ahead and create an OpenAI account if you don't already have one. After doing so, retrieve your API key and add it to your .env file under OPENAI_API_KEY .

Add the following code to integrate ChatGPT into your Discord bot:

The code above creates an OpenAI client that queries the gpt-3.5-turbo AI model using the openai.completions.create method. The response contains the LLM's response to the user's query.

Add voice with ElevenLabs

The final piece of the puzzle involves converting the text responses generated by ChatGPT back into speech. This is achieved through ElevenLabs's text-to-speech (TTS) technology. Start by obtaining an ElevenLabs API key , which you'll use to access the TTS service. Make sure to add it to your .env file under ELEVENLABS_API_KEY .

To convert ChatGPT's text responses into audible speech, use the following code:

In this snippet, the convertTextToSpeech function takes the text response from ChatGPT and sends it to ElevenLabs. ElevenLabs then returns an audio file named with the current timestamp to ensure uniqueness. This audio file is then ready to be played to the user on Discord, providing a seamless voice interaction experience.

Put It All Together

Now that you have all the building blocks of the bot, it's time to put them all together. Once you get the audio file from ElevenLabs, you just need to play it back to the user. This and the rest of the process—audio transcription, response process, and audio generation—are shown in the snippet below:

The additional code for playing audio works by creating an audio resource from the generated speech file. Then, an audio player is set up and instructed to play this resource. The bot's voice connection is subscribed to the audio player, ensuring the audio is played in the correct voice channel. Finally, the code waits for the audio playback to finish and then prepares the bot to listen for the next user query. This way, the user can keep asking questions in the voice channel.

You can run the code using node index.js . Below is the sample output you get when you run the script and interact with the Discord bot:

The complete code for this tutorial can be found here .

This tutorial explained how to build a sophisticated Discord voice bot that leverages AssemblyAI for speech transcription, OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo AI model for intelligent processing, and ElevenLabs for speech synthesis. This project not only highlights the capabilities of modern AI and voice technologies but also opens up a realm of possibilities for creating more interactive, accessible, and engaging applications.

To learn more about AI and voice technology, explore AssemblyAI , a pioneering speech AI company at the forefront of speech recognition. AssemblyAI provides user-friendly, rapid, and cost-effective speech AI models proficient in transcription, speaker detection, sentiment analysis, and a host of other functionalities.

Popular posts

What is speech recognition? A comprehensive guide

Announcement

Introducing the AssemblyAI C# .NET SDK

Developer Educator

🚀 Upgraded Automatic Language Detection + Latest Tutorials

ElevenLabs’ text-to-speech app Reader is now available globally

ElevenLabs , a startup developing AI-powered tools to create and edit synthetic voices, is making its Reader app available across the world with support for 32 languages.

The app, first released in June in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, lets users upload any text content — like articles, PDF documents or e-books — and listen to it in different languages and voices. Reader now supports languages including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Italian, Tamil and Swedish.

ElevenLabs, which became a  unicorn earlier this year after raising $80 million  from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, provides an API that companies can use for various use cases like dubbing or text-to-speech. The company powers voice interactions on the Rabbit r1 , as well as text-to-speech features on AI-powered search engine Perplexity and audio platforms Pocket FM and Kuku FM . The Reader app is its first consumer-facing product.

The startup said it has added hundreds of new voices from its library that are suited for different languages. Last month, the company licensed the voices of actors such as Judy Garland, James Dean, Burt Reynolds and Sir Laurence Olivier for the app.

ElevenLabs said the extended language support is powered by its Turbo v2.5 model, released last month , which purportedly reduces the latency of text-to-speech conversion and improves quality.

The Reader app’s closest rival is Speechify , which offers additional features like scanning documents for text, integrations with Gmail and Canvas, as well as letting users clone their own voice to read out text. Mozilla-owned Pocket and The New York Times’ Audm-based audio app also let users listen to content.

ElevenLabs said it would add more features to the app, such as offline support and the ability to share audio snippets.

More TechCrunch

Get the industry’s biggest tech news, techcrunch daily news.

Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage.

Startups Weekly

Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.

TechCrunch Fintech

The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Tuesday.

TechCrunch Mobility

TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight.

Osom is shutting down on Friday, as it had ‘no customers for a a mobile phone’

OSOM always had a difficult road, with plans to launch a privacy-focused handset.

Salesforce acquires data management firm Own for $1.9B in cash

Salesforce has acquired Own Company, a New Jersey-based provider of data management and protection solutions, for $1.9 billion in cash. Own is Salesforce’s biggest deal since buying Slack for $27.7…

US charges five Russian military hackers with targeting Ukraine’s government with destructive malware

The U.S. government indictment demonstrated deep knowledge of the Russian spies’ activities, including their real-world meetings at a cafe in Moscow.

Lyft restructures its micromobility business and Volkswagen brings ChatGPT to US vehicles 

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Short week,…

Microsoft gives deepfake porn victims a tool to scrub images from Bing search

The advancement of generative AI tools has created a new problem for the internet: the proliferation of synthetic nude images resembling real people. On Thursday, Microsoft took a major step…

Driverless car-sharing startup Vay steers toward B2B services

The new business-to-business division is a bet on what co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe thinks is the future of mobility.

Drip Capital, a fintech that provides working capital to SMBs, picks up $113M

Drip Capital has raised $113 million in a combination of $23 million in equity and $90 million in debt to provide credit to more small businesses in India and the…

Google’s AI-powered Ask Photos feature begins US rollout

Google said the feature could be used for more than just photo retrieval alone; users would also be able to ask questions to get helpful answers.

Endolith is using ‘Olympic-caliber’ copper microbes to address the copper shortage

The stealthily operating startup thinks it can narrow the gap by helping miners extract more copper from their mines.

All Hands AI raises $5M to build open source agents for developers

As with many open source startups, All Hands AI expects to monetize its service by offering paid, closed-source enterprise features.

Mintlify is building a next-gen platform for writing software docs

Mintlify offers a collection of documentation-authoring tools, including tools that can auto-generate docs from codebases.

German LLM maker Aleph Alpha pivots to AI support

Europe doesn’t have many large language model (LLM) makers but one of these rare AI beasts — Germany’s Aleph Alpha — appears to be preparing to rule itself out of…

Featured Article

The AI industry is obsessed with Chatbot Arena, but it might not be the best benchmark

LMSYS’ Chatbot Arena is perhaps the most popular AI benchmark today — and an industry obsession. But it’s far from a perfect measure.

Rivian’s chief software designer is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Every automaker is aiming to build and sell the so-called software-defined vehicle. Rivian may have actually done it, but getting there wasn’t easy. Just ask Rivian’s chief of software Wassym…

Google expands AI-powered virtual try-on tool to include dresses

Google announced Thursday that it expanded its generative AI-powered virtual try-on tool to support dresses, allowing users to virtually wear thousands of dresses from hundreds of brands, including Boden, Maje,…

Zamp targets growing demand for sales tax solutions

Until six years ago, many e-commerce and SaaS businesses could have avoided paying sales tax to states where they had customers, but no physical presence. But as online shopping grew,…

Announcing the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, which takes place from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco, is rapidly approaching. Today we’re thrilled to announce the 200 startups selected to participate in…

YouTube to limit teens’ exposure to videos about fitness and weight across global markets

YouTube is going to limit teens’ exposure to videos that promote and idealize a certain fitness level or physical appearance, the company announced on Thursday. The safeguard first rolled out…

YouTube is developing AI detection tools for music and faces, plus creator controls for AI training

Also of note, YouTube is in the early stages of coming up with a solution to address the use of its content to train AI models.

US, UK and EU sign on to the Council of Europe’s high-level AI safety treaty

We’re not very close to any specifics on how, exactly, AI regulations will be implemented and ensured, but today a swathe of countries including the U.S., the U.K. and the…

French clean tech startup Calyxia nets $35M to tackle microplastics pollution

With a fresh $35M in the bank, French cleantech startup Calyxia has profitability within sight. But it’s just getting started.

ZipRecruiter’s new tool will quickly match and schedule an intro call with potential candidates

Hiring platform ZipRecruiter is launching a new tool, called ZipIntro, to let employers schedule introductory calls with potential candidates at a set time. The tool will also help recruiters suggest…

DJI takes another crack at palm-sized drones, and this one is $199

This week at IFA in Berlin, DJI is once again going small with the new Neo. Like the Spark before it, the drone’s ability to land in the palm of…

Portex founder Brittany Ennix learned the importance of supply chains from Uber and Flexport

Brittany Ennix launched Portex, a company that allows SMBs to connect with freight partners and manage shipments and operations in one place.

Verizon bets on fiber’s staying power as it acquires Frontier for $20B

Verizon’s big interest in Frontier is its fiber business and the fact that it extends to places that Verizon does not currently cover as well.

Sedric monitors the communications of employees at financial institutions to ensure compliance

For financial institutions, complying with regulations is becoming a costlier proposition. According to a recent poll, 76% of financial services firms increased their compliance expenditure from 2022 to 2023, with…

Kinsome aims to bridge the generation gap with its new app for kids and grandparents

Over a year ago, former Session M exec Eben Pingree received the news that his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Two days later, his father-in-law was given the same diagnosis. …

Reonic raises €13 million to help small installers of green tech like heat pumps and solar panels

European regulators are pushing hard for greener energy. The REPowerEU plan calls for 10 million additional heat pumps to be added by 2027, and solar panels are also on the…

Boom’s macOS camera app lets you customize your video call appearance

As someone who talks to many people outside my time zone, I often spend at least a few minutes on a video call explaining my location, time and weather. That…

Those ‘Founder mode’ memes keep coming

If you spend time on X or Threads, where snarky memes rise and fall, you’ve probably seen posts referencing “founder mode” over the last few days, like this: https://www.threads.net/@carnage4life/post/C_eaQAxyIcV Or…

What is Reported Speech and how to use it? with Examples

Published by

Olivia Drake

Reported speech and indirect speech are two terms that refer to the same concept, which is the act of expressing what someone else has said.

On this page:

Reported speech is different from direct speech because it does not use the speaker’s exact words. Instead, the reporting verb is used to introduce the reported speech, and the tense and pronouns are changed to reflect the shift in perspective. There are two main types of reported speech: statements and questions.

1. Reported Statements: In reported statements, the reporting verb is usually “said.” The tense in the reported speech changes from the present simple to the past simple, and any pronouns referring to the speaker or listener are changed to reflect the shift in perspective. For example, “I am going to the store,” becomes “He said that he was going to the store.”

2. Reported Questions: In reported questions, the reporting verb is usually “asked.” The tense in the reported speech changes from the present simple to the past simple, and the word order changes from a question to a statement. For example, “What time is it?” becomes “She asked what time it was.”

It’s important to note that the tense shift in reported speech depends on the context and the time of the reported speech. Here are a few more examples:

• Direct speech: “I will call you later.”Reported speech: He said that he would call me later.
• Direct speech: “Did you finish your homework?”Reported speech: She asked if I had finished my homework.
• Direct speech: “I love pizza.”Reported speech: They said that they loved pizza.

When do we use reported speech?

Reported speech is used to report what someone else has said, thought, or written. It is often used in situations where you want to relate what someone else has said without quoting them directly.

Reported speech can be used in a variety of contexts, such as in news reports, academic writing, and everyday conversation. Some common situations where reported speech is used include:

News reports:  Journalists often use reported speech to quote what someone said in an interview or press conference.

Business and professional communication:  In professional settings, reported speech can be used to summarize what was discussed in a meeting or to report feedback from a customer.

Conversational English:  In everyday conversations, reported speech is used to relate what someone else said. For example, “She told me that she was running late.”

Narration:  In written narratives or storytelling, reported speech can be used to convey what a character said or thought.

How to make reported speech?

1. Change the pronouns and adverbs of time and place: In reported speech, you need to change the pronouns, adverbs of time and place to reflect the new speaker or point of view. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “I’m going to the store now,” she said. Reported speech: She said she was going to the store then.

In this example, the pronoun “I” is changed to “she” and the adverb “now” is changed to “then.”

2. Change the tense: In reported speech, you usually need to change the tense of the verb to reflect the change from direct to indirect speech. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “I will meet you at the park tomorrow,” he said. Reported speech: He said he would meet me at the park the next day.

In this example, the present tense “will” is changed to the past tense “would.”

3. Change reporting verbs: In reported speech, you can use different reporting verbs such as “say,” “tell,” “ask,” or “inquire” depending on the context of the speech. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “Did you finish your homework?” she asked. Reported speech: She asked if I had finished my homework.

In this example, the reporting verb “asked” is changed to “said” and “did” is changed to “had.”

Overall, when making reported speech, it’s important to pay attention to the verb tense and the changes in pronouns, adverbs, and reporting verbs to convey the original speaker’s message accurately.

How do I change the pronouns and adverbs in reported speech?

1. Changing Pronouns: In reported speech, the pronouns in the original statement must be changed to reflect the perspective of the new speaker. Generally, the first person pronouns (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours) are changed according to the subject of the reporting verb, while the second and third person pronouns (you, your, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs) are changed according to the object of the reporting verb. For example:

Direct speech: “I love chocolate.” Reported speech: She said she loved chocolate.

Direct speech: “You should study harder.” Reported speech: He advised me to study harder.

Direct speech: “She is reading a book.” Reported speech: They noticed that she was reading a book.

2. Changing Adverbs: In reported speech, the adverbs and adverbial phrases that indicate time or place may need to be changed to reflect the perspective of the new speaker. For example:

Direct speech: “I’m going to the cinema tonight.” Reported speech: She said she was going to the cinema that night.

Direct speech: “He is here.” Reported speech: She said he was there.

Note that the adverb “now” usually changes to “then” or is omitted altogether in reported speech, depending on the context.

It’s important to keep in mind that the changes made to pronouns and adverbs in reported speech depend on the context and the perspective of the new speaker. With practice, you can become more comfortable with making these changes in reported speech.

How do I change the tense in reported speech?

In reported speech, the tense of the reported verb usually changes to reflect the change from direct to indirect speech. Here are some guidelines on how to change the tense in reported speech:

Present simple in direct speech changes to past simple in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I like pizza.” Reported speech: She said she liked pizza.

Present continuous in direct speech changes to past continuous in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I am studying for my exam.” Reported speech: He said he was studying for his exam.

Present perfect in direct speech changes to past perfect in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I have finished my work.” Reported speech: She said she had finished her work.

Past simple in direct speech changes to past perfect in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I visited my grandparents last weekend.” Reported speech: She said she had visited her grandparents the previous weekend.

Will in direct speech changes to would in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I will help you with your project.” Reported speech: He said he would help me with my project.

Can in direct speech changes to could in reported speech. For example: Direct speech: “I can speak French.” Reported speech: She said she could speak French.

Remember that the tense changes in reported speech depend on the tense of the verb in the direct speech, and the tense you use in reported speech should match the time frame of the new speaker’s perspective. With practice, you can become more comfortable with changing the tense in reported speech.

Do I always need to use a reporting verb in reported speech?

No, you do not always need to use a reporting verb in reported speech. However, using a reporting verb can help to clarify who is speaking and add more context to the reported speech.

In some cases, the reported speech can be introduced by phrases such as “I heard that” or “It seems that” without using a reporting verb. For example:

Direct speech: “I’m going to the cinema tonight.” Reported speech with a reporting verb: She said she was going to the cinema tonight. Reported speech without a reporting verb: It seems that she’s going to the cinema tonight.

However, it’s important to note that using a reporting verb can help to make the reported speech more formal and accurate. When using reported speech in academic writing or journalism, it’s generally recommended to use a reporting verb to make the reporting more clear and credible.

Some common reporting verbs include say, tell, explain, ask, suggest, and advise. For example:

Direct speech: “I think we should invest in renewable energy.” Reported speech with a reporting verb: She suggested that they invest in renewable energy.

Overall, while using a reporting verb is not always required, it can be helpful to make the reported speech more clear and accurate

How to use reported speech to report questions and commands?

1. Reporting Questions: When reporting questions, you need to use an introductory phrase such as “asked” or “wondered” followed by the question word (if applicable), subject, and verb. You also need to change the word order to make it a statement. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “What time is the meeting?” Reported speech: She asked what time the meeting was.

Note that the question mark is not used in reported speech.

2. Reporting Commands: When reporting commands, you need to use an introductory phrase such as “ordered” or “told” followed by the person, to + infinitive, and any additional information. Here’s an example:

Direct speech: “Clean your room!” Reported speech: She ordered me to clean my room.

Note that the exclamation mark is not used in reported speech.

In both cases, the tense of the reported verb should be changed accordingly. For example, present simple changes to past simple, and future changes to conditional. Here are some examples:

Direct speech: “Will you go to the party with me?”Reported speech: She asked if I would go to the party with her. Direct speech: “Please bring me a glass of water.”Reported speech: She requested that I bring her a glass of water.

Remember that when using reported speech to report questions and commands, the introductory phrases and verb tenses are important to convey the intended meaning accurately.

How to make questions in reported speech?

To make questions in reported speech, you need to use an introductory phrase such as “asked” or “wondered” followed by the question word (if applicable), subject, and verb. You also need to change the word order to make it a statement. Here are the steps to make questions in reported speech:

Identify the reporting verb: The first step is to identify the reporting verb in the sentence. Common reporting verbs used to report questions include “asked,” “inquired,” “wondered,” and “wanted to know.”

Change the tense and pronouns: Next, you need to change the tense and pronouns in the sentence to reflect the shift from direct to reported speech. The tense of the verb is usually shifted back one tense (e.g. from present simple to past simple) in reported speech. The pronouns should also be changed as necessary to reflect the shift in perspective from the original speaker to the reporting speaker.

Use an appropriate question word: If the original question contained a question word (e.g. who, what, where, when, why, how), you should use the same question word in the reported question. If the original question did not contain a question word, you can use “if” or “whether” to introduce the reported question.

Change the word order: In reported speech, the word order of the question changes from the inverted form to a normal statement form. The subject usually comes before the verb, unless the original question started with a question word.

Here are some examples of reported questions:

Direct speech: “Did you finish your homework?”Reported speech: He wanted to know if I had finished my homework. Direct speech: “Where are you going?”Reported speech: She wondered where I was going.

Remember that when making questions in reported speech, the introductory phrases and verb tenses are important to convey the intended meaning accurately.

Here you can find more examples of direct and indirect questions

What is the difference between reported speech an indirect speech?

In reported or indirect speech, you are retelling or reporting what someone said using your own words. The tense of the reported speech is usually shifted back one tense from the tense used in the original statement. For example, if someone said, “I am going to the store,” in reported speech you would say, “He/she said that he/she was going to the store.”

The main difference between reported speech and indirect speech is that reported speech usually refers to spoken language, while indirect speech can refer to both spoken and written language. Additionally, indirect speech is a broader term that includes reported speech as well as other ways of expressing what someone else has said, such as paraphrasing or summarizing.

Examples of direct speech to reported

• Direct speech: “I am hungry,” she said. Reported speech: She said she was hungry.
• Direct speech: “Can you pass the salt, please?” he asked. Reported speech: He asked her to pass the salt.
• Direct speech: “I will meet you at the cinema,” he said. Reported speech: He said he would meet her at the cinema.
• Direct speech: “I have been working on this project for hours,” she said. Reported speech: She said she had been working on the project for hours.
• Direct speech: “What time does the train leave?” he asked. Reported speech: He asked what time the train left.
• Direct speech: “I love playing the piano,” she said. Reported speech: She said she loved playing the piano.
• Direct speech: “I am going to the grocery store,” he said. Reported speech: He said he was going to the grocery store.
• Direct speech: “Did you finish your homework?” the teacher asked. Reported speech: The teacher asked if he had finished his homework.
• Direct speech: “I want to go to the beach,” she said. Reported speech: She said she wanted to go to the beach.
• Direct speech: “Do you need help with that?” he asked. Reported speech: He asked if she needed help with that.
• Direct speech: “I can’t come to the party,” he said. Reported speech: He said he couldn’t come to the party.
• Direct speech: “Please don’t leave me,” she said. Reported speech: She begged him not to leave her.
• Direct speech: “I have never been to London before,” he said. Reported speech: He said he had never been to London before.
• Direct speech: “Where did you put my phone?” she asked. Reported speech: She asked where she had put her phone.
• Direct speech: “I’m sorry for being late,” he said. Reported speech: He apologized for being late.
• Direct speech: “I need some help with this math problem,” she said. Reported speech: She said she needed some help with the math problem.
• Direct speech: “I am going to study abroad next year,” he said. Reported speech: He said he was going to study abroad the following year.
• Direct speech: “Can you give me a ride to the airport?” she asked. Reported speech: She asked him to give her a ride to the airport.
• Direct speech: “I don’t know how to fix this,” he said. Reported speech: He said he didn’t know how to fix it.
• Direct speech: “I hate it when it rains,” she said. Reported speech: She said she hated it when it rained.

If you've read this far, you likely found value in our content. We measure the quality of our articles in various ways, and one significant metric is the number of shares. If you appreciated this piece, please spread the word.

Leave a reply cancel reply, i’m olivia.

Welcome to my virtual classroom! Join me on a journey of language and learning, where we explore the wonders of English together. Let’s discover the joy of words and education!

Let’s connect

• [email protected]

Join the fun!

Stay updated with our latest tutorials and ideas by joining our newsletter.

Type your email…

Recent posts

Modal verbs in conditional sentences with examples, questions in future perfect continuous tense with examples, questions in future perfect tense with examples, questions in future continuous tense with examples, questions in future indefinite (simple) tense with examples, questions in past perfect continuous tense with examples, discover more from fluent english grammar.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Vygotsky 1934

The Problem of Consciousness

Source : Collected Works of L. S. Vygotsky, Volume III, Part 1: Problems of the Theory and Methods of Psychology, Chapter 9: The Problem of Consciousness , pp 129-138; First Published : in The Psychology of Grammar , Moscow 1968; Not published during Vygotsky’s life. Based on material found in A. N. Leont'ev’s private archives.

Foreword by A A Leont'ev from “The Psychology of Grammar,” Moscow 1968.

The notes of Vygotsky’s talks are published on the basis of the manuscript copybooks preserved in the archives of A. N. Leont'ev. In these notebooks the main text is written on the right (odd) pages, while the insertions and additions which were particularly made by Zaporozhec are on the opposite left (even) pages. All notes (except for some that we ignored as they were obviously added later and only summarized what Vygotsky said in more modern wordings) were written with a pen.

Naturally, in our publication we first of all made use of the basic text. It is supplemented with the corresponding insertions from the even pages of the notebooks, which are given in angle brackets < > . We did not cut the material. Following the original, halfway through the notes we added the notes of Vygotsky’s speech on the occasion of Luria’s talk, which according to its theme corresponds to the specific part of the talk “The problem of consciousness.”

All highlightings in the manuscript made by A. N. Leont'ev have been preserved.

All parentheses and square brackets belong to the original. The passages in quotation marks are direct quotes from Vygotsky’s oral speech. In the published excerpt from the record of Vygotsky’s speech about the theses for the debates in 1933-1934, we have followed the same principles with the only difference being that between the angle brackets are given the insertions made with the same ink by A. N. Leont'ev himself.

Introduction

Toward the end of the twenties, a small group of young psychologists had gathered around Vygotsky and began to work under his guidance. Apart from the discussions of scientific problems that were systematically conducted at the meetings of the department and the laboratory where we carried out our investigations at the time and during private talks, Vygotsky now and then gathered his closest collaborators and students in meetings which we called internal conferences. Their purpose was to theoretically think through what had been accomplished, to discuss problems that had arisen in the discussions, to plan future work. Usually such internal conferences proceeded in the form of a free exchange of opinions about the issues that had been raised; in other cases we listened to and discussed full-blown talks especially prepared for the occasion. No minutes were taken in either the first or the second case. For that reason only some of Vygotsky’s presentations have been preserved in the personal notes of the participants in these conferences.

The notes of Vygotsky’s talk relate to the moment when the inner necessity arose to sum up the results of the investigations of the higher mental processes thus far carried out from the perspective of the theory of human consciousness, to present an analysis of its inner structure. This talk, which was written down by me in a very condensed thesis-like form, rested on an overview of many investigations carried out under the supervision of Vygotsky and with his participation. Therefore, its exposition by the author took tremendous time – with a pause of approximately two hours it lasted more than seven hours, and another day was devoted to its discussion.

As far as I remember, apart from Leont'ev and Luria in this internal conference Bozhovic, Zaporozhec, Levina, Morozova and Slavina also participated.

Some clarification is required about the notes of Vygotsky’s talk at the internal conference where the problem of the theses was discussed which had been prepared for a public debate about the works of Vygotsky and his school. Such a debate was expected in 1933 or 1934, but before Vygotsky’s death it did not take place. What was left was the unfinished and provisional work prepared for this debate. The published fragments of the notes concern only those questions which coincide with those raised in his talk about the problem of consciousness.

1. Introduction

Psychology has defined itself as the science of consciousness, but about consciousness psychology hardly knew anything.

The statement of the problem in the older psychology . Lipps, for example: “unconsciousness is the problem of psychology.” The problem of consciousness was stated outside, before psychology.

In descriptive psychology: in contrast to the subject of natural sciences, phenomenon and being coincide. That is why psychology is a speculative science. But since in the experience of consciousness only fragments of consciousness are given, the study of consciousness as a whole is impossible for the investigator.

We know a number of formal laws for consciousness: the uninterrupted nature of consciousness, the relative clarity of consciousness, the unity of consciousness, the identity of consciousness, the stream of consciousness.

The theory of consciousness in classic psychology. Two basic ideas about consciousness.

The first idea. Consciousness is regarded as something nonspatial in comparison to the mental functions, as some mental space (for example, Jaspers: consciousness as the stage on which a drama is being performed; in psychopathology we correspondingly also distinguish two basic cases: either the action is disturbed, or the stage itself). According to this idea, consciousness (as every other space) thus has no qualitative characteristics. That is why the science of consciousness is presented as the science of ideal relations (Husserl’s geometry, Dilthey’s “geometry of the spirit”).

The second idea. Consciousness is some intrinsic general quality of all psychological processes. This quality can therefore be discounted, not taken into account. In this idea as well, consciousness is presented as something which is nonqualitative, nonspatial, immutable, not developing.

“ Psychology’s sterility was caused by the fact that the problem of consciousness was not yet worked out.”

The most important problem . [Consciousness was now considered as a system of functions, now as a system of phenomena (Stumpf).]

< The problem of orientation points [in the history of psychology].

[Two basic viewpoints existed about the question of consciousness’ relation to the psychological functions]:

1. Functional systems. The prototype was faculty psychology. The idea of a mental organism possessing activities.

2. The psychology of emotional experience which studied the mirror image without studying the mirror (particularly obvious in association psychology, paradoxically Gestalt ). The second (the psychology of emotional experience) (a) was never and could not be consistent, (b) always transferred the laws of one function to all others, etc.

[Questions that arise in this connection]:

1. The relation between activity and emotional experience (the problem of meaning).

2. The relation between functions. Can one function explain all others? (the system problem).

3. The relation between function and phenomenon (the problem of intentionality) > .

How did psychology understand the relation between the different activities of consciousness? (This problem was of minor importance; for us it is of paramount importance). Psychology answered this question with three postulates:

1. All activities of consciousness work together.

2. The link between the activities of consciousness does not essentially change these activities, for they are not necessarily connected, but only because they belong to one personality (“they have one boss”; James in a letter to Stumpf).

3. This link is accepted as a postulate but not as a problem < the connection between the functions is immutable > .

2. Our Main Hypothesis Presented from Outside

Our problem . The connection between the activities of consciousness is not constant. It is essential for each different activity. We must make this connection the problem of our research.

A remark . Our position is a position opposite to Gestaltpsychologie . Gestaltpsychologie “made a postulate out of the problem” – assumed in advance that each activity is structural; [for us the opposite is characteristic: we make a problem out of the postulate ].

The connection between the activities – this is the central point in the study of each system.

A clarification . From the very beginning the problem of the connection must be opposed to the atomistic problem. Consciousness is primordially something unitary – this we postulate. Consciousness determines the fate of the system, just like the organism determines the fate of the functions. Each interfunctional change must be explained by a change of consciousness as a whole .

3. The Hypothesis “From Within” (From the Viewpoint of our Works)

(Introduction: the importance of the sign; its social meaning). In older works we ignored that the sign has meaning. < But there is “a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together” (Ecclesiastes). > We proceeded from the principle of the constancy of meaning, we discounted meaning. But the problem of meaning was already present in the older investigations. Whereas before our task was to demonstrate what “the knot” and logical memory have in common, now our task is to demonstrate the difference that exists between them.

From our works it follows that the sign changes the interfunctional relationships.

4. The Hypothesis “From Below’

The psychology of animals.

After Köhler began a new era in zoopsychology

Vagner’s conception: (1) development along pure and mixed lines; (2) ... (p. 38); (3) along pure lines – mutationist development; (4) along mixed lines – adaptive development; (5) ... (pp. 69-70).

Is the behavior of anthropoid apes human-like? Are Köhlers criteria for intelligence correct? The closed integral action in accordance with the structure of the field and the swallow ... The limited nature of the ape’s action is due to the fact that its actions are bound. For the ape things have no constant meaning. For the ape the stick does not become a tool, it does not have the meaning of a tool. The ape only “completes” the triangle, and that’s it. The same is true for Gibier’s dogs.

Conclusions that follow from this . Three levels. Conditional reflex activity is activity that elicits the instinct. The ape’s activity is instinctive as well, it is no more than an intellectual variation of the instinct, i.e., a new mechanism of the same activity. The ape’s intellect is the result of development along pure lines: the intellect has not yet restructured its consciousness.

(Köhler’s apologia in Selz. [1] In the new edition, Köhler remarks that Selz “is the only one who interpreted my experiments correctly” [pp. 675-677].)

In Koffka: “The deep similarity” of the ape’s behavior to human intellect; but a restriction as well: in the ape the action is elicited by the instinct and only the method used is rational. These actions are not voluntary. For will implies freedom from the situation (the sportsman stops competing when he sees that he has no chance of winning the competition).

Man wants the stick, the ape wants the fruit. < The ape does not want the tool. It does not prepare it for the future. For the ape it is a means to satisfy an instinctive wish. >

The tool . The tool requires abstraction from the situation. Tool use requires another type of stimulation and motivation. The tool is connected with meaning (of the object).

( Köhler ) (Köhler wrote his work in a polemic with Thorndike).

Conclusions

1. In the animal world the appearance of new functions is connected with a change of the brain (according to Edinger’s formula); this is not the case in man. < The parallelism between psychological and morphological development in the animal world, in any case when it proceeds along pure lines. >

2. In the animal world – development along pure lines. Adaptive development already proceeds according to the system principle < Man cannot be distinguished by a single feature (intellect, will), but in principle by his relation to reality. >

3. The intellect of Köhler’s apes is in the realm of the instinct. Two aspects that distinguish it: (a) the intellect does not restructure the system of behavior, (b) there is no tool, the tool has no meaning, no objective meaning either. The stimulation remains instinctive (“A tool requires abstraction.”).

Buytendijk : The animal does not detach itself from the situation, is not consciously aware of it.

The animal differs from man because its consciousness is organized in another way. “Man differs from the animal by his consciousness.”

James: In animals In man   isolate abstract   construct     recept concept   influent  

(Gestalt psychology) [Our difference from structural psychology: structural psychology is a naturalistic psychology, just like reflexology. Meaning and structure are often identified in this psychology.]

5. “Inside”

1. A Sign-Based [Semicheskyjl Analysis in the Strict Sense

Each word has meaning; what is the meaning of a word? – Meaning does not coincide with logical meaning (nonsense has meaning). What are the characteristics of our statement of the problem? – Speech has been considered as the clothing of thought (the Würzburg school) or a habit (behaviorism). When meaning was studied, it was studied either (a) from the associationist viewpoint, i.e., meaning was the reminder of the thing, or (b) from the viewpoint of what goes on inside us (phenomenologically) in the perception of word meanings (Watt [2] ).

[Speech is not essential for thinking – Würzburg; speech is equal to thinkingthe behaviorists.]

The constant claim in all authors: the meaning of all words is fixed, meaning does not develop.

The change of words has been examined:

in linguistics – as the development of the word; the common character is the abstract character, this is the linguistic meaning, not the psychological one;

in psychology (Paulhan); meaning remains frozen; it is the sense that changes. The sense of the word is equal to all the psychological processes elicited by the given word. Neither here do we see development or movement, for the principle of sense formation remains the same. Paulhan broadens the concept of “sense”;

in psychological linguistics and in psychology the change of meaning by the context was examined (metaphorical meaning, ironic meaning, etc.).

In all these theories (+ W. Stern ) the development of meaning is given as the starting point which terminates the process as well .

(Stern: the child discovers the nominative function. This remains the constant principle of the relation between sign and meaning. Development in Stern is reduced to the broadening of vocabulary, to the development of grammar and syntax, to the broadening or tightening of meaning. But the principle remains the same .)

“At the basis of the analysis was always the claim that meaning is constant, i.e., that the relation of the thought to the word remains constant .”

“ Meaning is the path from the thought to the word .” < Meaning is not the sum of all the psychological operations which stand behind the word. Meaning is something more specific-it is the internal structure of the sign operation. It is what is lying between the thought and the word. Meaning is not equal to the word, not equal to the thought. This disparity is revealed by the fact that their lines of development do not coincide. >

2. From External Speech to Inner Speech

a. External Speech

What does it mean to discover meaning?

In speech we may distinguish the semiotic [semicheskyj] and the phasic sides; they are connected by a relation of unity but not identity. The word is not simply the substitute for the thing. For example, Ingenieros’ experiments with “meanings which are present.”

The proof . The first word is phasically a word but semiotically [semicheskyj] it is a sentence.

Development proceeds: phasically from the isolated word to the sentence, to the subordinate clause, semiotically [semicheskyj] from the sentence to the name . i.e. , “ the development of the semiotic [semicheskyj] side of speech does not go in parallel with (does not coincide with) the development of its phasic side .” [The development of the phasic side of speech runs ahead of the development of its semiotic [semicheskyj] side.]

“Logic and grammar do not coincide.” Neither in thought nor in speech do the psychological predicate and subject and the grammatical predicate and subject coincide. < “The mind’s grammar.” It was thought that the phasic aspect was the stamp of the mind on speech. > There are two syntaxes – the semantic one and the phasic one.

Gelb: the grammar of thinking and the grammar of speech.

“ The grammar of speech does not coincide with the grammar of thought .”

[What kind of changes are provided by the psychopathological material? (a) a person may speak awkwardly ...; (b) the speaker himself doesn’t know what he wants to say; (c) the limits of language are hindering (a conscious, realized divergence); (d) grammatical competition.]

[The example from Dostoyevsky (“Diary of a writer”).]

Thus: the semiotic [semicheskyj] and phasic sides of speech do not coincide .

Notes of Vygotsky’s Speech on the Occasion of Luria’s Talk

[The shortcoming of Lévy-Bruhl is that he takes speech for something constant. This leads him to paradoxes. If only we accept that the meanings and their combinations (syntax) are different from ours, then all absurdities disappear. The same with the investigations into aphasia – phoneme and meaning are not distinguished.]

< Earlier we carried out our analysis in the plane of behavior and not in the plane of consciousness -hence the abstract nature of our conclusions. (Now) most important for us is the development of meanings. For example, the similarity between the external structure of the sign operations in aphasics, schizophrenics, idiots, and primitives. But the semiotic analysis reveals that their inner structure, their meanings are different (the problem of semiotic aphasia). >

Meaning is not the same as thought expressed in a word .

In speech the semiotic [semicheskyj] and phasic sides do not coincide: thus, phasically the development of speech proceeds from the word to the phrase, but semiotically [semicheskyj] the child begins with the phrase [cf. the merging of words in the phrases of illiterates].

Neither do the logical and syntactical coincide. An example: “The clock fell” – syntactically here “clock” is the subject, “fell” the predicate. But when it is said in reply to the question “What happened?”; “What fell?,” then logically “ fell ” is the subject and “ clock ” is the subject (i.e., what is new). Another example: “My brother has read this book” – the logical emphasis can be on each word.

[Speech without judgment in cases of microcephaly, etc.]

The thought which the person wants to express neither coincides with the phasical nor with the semiotical [semicheskyj] side of speech. An example: the thought “I couldn’t help it” can be expressed in the meanings: “I wanted to dust it”; “I did not touch it”; “The clock fell of itself,” etc. Neither does “I couldn’t help it” itself absolutely express a thought (is not identical with it?); this phrase itself has its semiotic syntax.

The thought is a cloud from which speech is shed in drops .

The thought has another structure besides its verbal expression. The thought cannot be directly expressed in the word.

(Stanislavsky: behind the text lies a hidden meaning.) All speech has an ulterior motive. All speech is allegory. [In what does this ulterior motive consist? Uspensky’s peasant petitioner says: “Our sort does not have language.”]

But a thought is not something ready-made which must be expressed. The thought strives, fulfills some function and work. This work of the thought is the transition from the feeling of the task-via the formation of meaning-to the unfolding of the thought itself.

[Semiotically [semicheskyj] “the clock has fallen” stands to the corresponding thought as the semantic connection in mediated memorization stands to what needs to be memorized.]

The thought is completed in the word and not just expressed in it .

A thought is an internally mediated process. < It is the path from a vague wish to the mediated expression through meaning, more correctly, not to its expression but to the perfection of the thought in the word. >

Inner speech exists already primordially (?).

There is no sign without meaning. The formation of meaning is the main function of the sign. Meaning is everywhere where there is a sign. This is the internal aspect of the sign. But in consciousness there is also something which does not mean anything.

[The] Würzburg approach consisted in the attempt to fight one’s way to the thought . The task of psychology is to study not only these clots, but also their mediation, i.e., to study how these clots act, how the thought is completed in the word. < It is incorrect to think (as did the Würzburgians) that the task of psychology is to investigate these clouds which did not shed their water. >

b. Inner Speech

In inner speech the noncoincidence of the semantic and phasic sides is still more acute .

What is inner speech?

(1) Speech minus the sign (i.e., everything that precedes phonation). < We must distinguish between unspoken speech and inner speech (Here Jackson and Head were mistaken). >

(2) The pronunciation of words in thought (verbal memory – Charcot). Here the theory of types of inner speech coincides with types of ideas (of memory). It is, as it were, the preparation of external speech.

(3) The modern (our) conception of inner speech .

Inner speech has an entirely different structure than external speech. It has another relation between the phasic and the semiotic [semicheskyj] aspects.

Inner speech is abstract in two respects: (a) it is abstract in relation to all vocal speech i.e., it reproduces only its semasiologized phonetic characteristics (for example: three r’s in the word rrrevolution ... ), and (b) it is a-grammatical; each of its words is predicative. It has a different grammar from the grammar of semiotic external speech: in inner speech the meanings are interconnected in a different way than in external speech; the merging in inner speech proceeds along the lines of agglutination.

[The agglutination of words is possible due to the inner agglutination.] < Idioms are most widely spread in inner speech. >

The influence of sense: the word in a context becomes both restricted and enriched; the word absorbs the sense of the contexts = agglutination. The next word contains its predecessor.

“Inner speech is built predicatively.”

[The difficulty of translation depends on the complex path of the transitions from one plane to another: thought → meanings → phasic external speech.

Written speech [The difficulties of written speech: there is no intonation, no interlocutor. It represents the symbolization of symbols; motivation is more difficult.

Written speech stands in another relation to inner speech, it develops later than inner speech, it is the most grammatical. But it stands closer to inner speech than external speech; it is associated with meanings and passes by external speech .]

Summary: in inner speech we meet with a new form of speech where everything is different.

The thought also has independent existence; it does not coincide with the meanings..

We have to find a certain construction of the meanings in order to be able to express a thought [text and ulterior motive].

Clarification . This can he clarified with the example of amnesia. One can forget:

(a) the motive, intention; (b) what exactly? (the thought?); (c) the meanings through which one wished to express something; (d) the words.

“ The thought is completed in the word. ” The difficulties of the completion. < The impossibility of expressing a thought directly. The levels of amnesia-the levels of mediation (transition) from the thought to the word-are levels of mediation of the word by meaning. >

Understanding . Real understanding lies in the penetration into the motives of the interlocutor.

The sense of the words is changed by the motive. Therefore, the ultimate explanation lies in motivation ; this is especially obvious in infancy < The investigation by Katz of children’s utterances. The work of Stolz (psychologist - linguist - mail censor in war time); the analysis of the letters of prisoners of war about hunger. >

Conclusions from this part . Word meaning is not a simple thing given once and for all (against Paulhan).

Word meaning is always a generalization; behind the word is always a process of generalization -meaning develops with generalization. The development of meaning = the development of generalization !

The principles of generalization may change. “ The structure of generalization is changed in development” (develops, becomes stratified, the process is realized differently).

[The process of the realization of the thought in meaning is a complex phenomenon which proceeds inward “from motives to speaking” (?).]

In meaning it is always a generalized reality that is given (L. S.).

6. In Breadth and Afar

[The basic questions]: (1) word meaning germinates in consciousness; what does this mean for consciousness itself?; (2) as a result of what and how does meaning change?

[First answers]: (1) the word that germinates in consciousness changes all relationships and processes; (2) word meaning itself develops depending on changes in consciousness.

The Role of Meaning in the Life of Consciousness

“To speak = to present a theory.”

“The world of objects develops with the world of names” (L.S. – J.S. Mill).

“The constancy and categorical objectivity of the object is the meaning of the object” [Lenin about distinguishing oneself from the world]. < This meaning, this objectivity is already given in perception. >

‘All our perception has meaning.” All meaningless things we perceive (as meaningful), attaching meaning to it.

The meaning of the object is not the meaning of the word. “ The object has meaning” – this means that it enters into communication.

To know the meaning is to know the singular as the universal .

“ The processes of human consciousness have their meaning due to the fact that they are given a name, i.e., are being generalized ” (not in the sense as with the word. L.S.).

Meaning is inherent in the sign.

Sense is what enters into meaning (the result of the meaning) but is not consolidated behind the sign.

The formation of sense is the result, the product of meaning. Sense is broader than meaning.

Consciousness is (1) knowledge in connection; (2) consciousness (social).

[The first questions of children are never questions about names ; they are questions about the sense of the object.] < The meaningful is not imply the structural (against Gestalt theory). >

Consciousness as a whole has a semantic structure . We judge consciousness by its semantic structure, for sense, the structure of consciousness, is the relation to the external world .

New semantic connections develop in consciousness (shame, pride – hierarchy ... the dream of the Kaffir, Masha Bolkonskaya prays when another would think ... ).

The sense-creating activity of meanings leads to a certain semantic structure of consciousness itself .

Speech was thus incorrectly considered only in its relation to thinking. Speech produces changes in consciousness. “ Speech is a correlate of consciousness, not of thinking ”

“Thinking is no gateway through which speech enters into consciousness” (L. S.). Speech is a sign for the communication between consciousnesses . The relation between speech and consciousness is a psychophysical problem < And at the same time transgresses the boundaries of consciousness. >

The first communications of the child, just like early praxis, are not intellectual < Nobody tried to prove that the first communication is intellectual. > It is not at all true that the child is only speaking when he thinks.

“ By its appearance speech fundamentally changes consciousness.” What moves the meanings, what determines their development ? “The cooperation of consciousnesses.” The process of alienation of consciousness.

Consciousness is prone to splintering. Consciousness is prone to merging. < They are essential for consciousness. >

How does generalization develop? How does the structure of consciousness change?

Either: man has resort to the sign; the sign gives birth to meaning; meaning sprouts in consciousness. It is not like that.

Meaning is determined by he relationships = by consciousness,

by the activity of consciousness. “The structure of meaning is determined by the systemic structure of consciousness.” Consciousness has a systemic structure . The systems are stable and characterize consciousness.

“Semiotic analysis is the only adequate method for the study of the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness.” Just like the structural method is an adequate method for the investigation of animal consciousness.

Our word in psychology: away from superficial psychology – in consciousness, being and phenomenon are not equal. But we also oppose depth psychology. Our psychology is a peak psychology (does not determine the “depths” of the personality but its “peaks”).

The path toward internal hidden developments as a tendency in modern science (chemistry toward the structure of the atom, the physiology of digestion toward vitamins, etc). In psychology we first attempted to understand logical memory as the tying of a knot, now as semantic memorization. Depth psychology claims that

things are what they always have been. The unconscious does not develop-this is a great discovery. The dream shines with reflected light, just like the moon.

This is clear from the way we understand development. As a transformation of what was given initially? As a novel form? In that case most important is what developed last!

“In the beginning was the thing (and not: the thing was in the beginning), in the end came the word, and this is the most important ” (L. S.). What is the meaning of what has been said? “For me this knowledge is enough,” i.e., now it is enough that the problem has been stated.

(From the preparatory work for the theses for the debate in the years 1933-1934. Record of Vygotsky’s speeches on the 5th and 9th of December, 1933).

The central fact of our psychology is the fact of mediation.

Communication and generalization . The internal side of mediation is revealed in the double function of the sign: (1) communication, (2) generalization. For : all communication requires generalization.

Communication is also possible directly, but mediated communication is communication in signs, here generalization is necessary. (“Each word (speech) already generalizes.”)

A fact: for the child communication and generalization do not coincide: that is why communication is direct here.

Intermediate is the pointing gesture. The gesture is a sign that can mean anything .

A law: the form of generalization corresponds to the form of communication. “Communication and generalization are internally connected.”

People communicate with meanings insofar as these meanings develop.

The schema here is: not person-thing (Stern), not person-person (Piaget). But: person-thing-person.

Generalization . What is generalization?

Generalization is the exclusion from visual structures and the inclusion in thought structures, in semantic structures.

Meaning and the system of functions are internally connected.

Meaning does not belong to thinking but to consciousness as a whole.

1. Selz, Otto (1881-1944). German psychologist. Investigated the problems of thinking.

2. Watt, Henri (1879-1925). English psychologist. Representative of the Würzburg school.

Vygotsky Archive