How to Set Pauses Between Sentences and Paragraphs for Speech Synthesis

29-12-2023 , 29-12-2023

You can set a custom pause for the entire text between sentences and paragraphs by default. The settings are available in the menu above the speech generation button.

By default, our system has the following pauses set:

• between sentences - 300 ms,
• between paragraphs - 400 ms.

1 second consists of 1000 ms.

To change these values, select the desired option in the settings. Available pause values range from 150 ms to 5 seconds, including intermediate values (200 ms, 250 ms, etc.). See the gif to understand how it works:

Pause Between Individual Sentences

For pauses of non-standard duration, use the <break> tag or the pause symbol dash with a dot " -." at the end, between, or at the beginning of sentences. The pause will correspond to the time specified in the tag, in seconds or milliseconds.

For example, you set a pause of 1 second between sentences for the entire text, but wanted a short pause of 200 ms between some sentences. To do this, place a break with a duration of 200ms at the end, beginning, or between sentences. Let's consider some examples.

Break at the End of a Sentence:

One<break time="200ms"/>. Two. Three

Example:

Break  at the Beginning of a Sentence:

One. <break time="200ms"/>Two. Three

Example:

Break  Between Sentences:

One. <break time="200ms"/> Two. Three

Example:

As you can see, the pause between the 1st and 2nd sentences became 200ms, while it remained 1 second between the second and third.

Thus, you can set a longer default pause and shorten it for specific sentences with the break tag. Similarly, you can set a short pause and place a longer one between specific sentences with the break tag.

Pause Between Specific Paragraphs

To change the pause between paragraphs, insert the <break> tag at the end of a paragraph or between them. For example: <break time="5000ms"/>

Example:

In this example, I set a break equal to 5 seconds at the end of the last sentence of the paragraph. The default value is 1 second. As a result, the pause between the first and 2nd paragraph is regulated through break and equals 5 sec, while between the 2nd and 3rd, it's 1 second as per the default setting.

What is a Paragraph?

A paragraph is formed by one or more line breaks. Inserting the <break> tag on a new line also creates a paragraph, as in the previous example.

Example:

In this example, I placed a break tag with a 7-second pause between paragraphs. The system accounted for this pause, and between the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs, it took a 1-second pause from the default value.