Speech markup, made practical

SSML guide

Yes. If you need fine-grained control over pronunciation, pauses, or emphasis, our text to speech editor supports SSML tags for advanced customization.

speech.ssml

<speak xml:lang="en-US">
  <voice name="JennyNeural">
    <prosody rate="-10%">
      Your words, directed.
    </prosody>
  </voice>
</speak>

rootvoiceprosody

Start with the format you need

FreeReadText accepts ordinary text, inline SSML tags, or a complete SSML document. Paste any of these directly into the text editor.

Plain text

Type normally. The selected voice, speed, and pitch controls are applied automatically.

Inline SSML

Add tags such as <break> or <say-as>. The selected voice wraps your markup.

Full document

Start with <speak> to control the voice, language, style, and prosody entirely in SSML.

Copy-ready examples

Paste an example into the text-to-speech editor, then change its values and words to suit your script.

<break>

Hello! <break time="1s"/> Welcome to FreeReadText.

<prosody rate="-20%" pitch="+10%">This sentence sounds slower and higher.</prosody>

<say-as>

Your verification code is <say-as interpret-as="characters">ABC123</say-as>.

I like <phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="təˈmeɪtoʊ">tomato</phoneme>.

<mstts:express-as>

<speak xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis"
       xmlns:mstts="http://www.w3.org/2001/mstts"
       version="1.0" xml:lang="en-US">
  <voice name="en-US-JennyNeural">
    <mstts:express-as style="cheerful">
      Hello! I am very happy to meet you.
    </mstts:express-as>
  </voice>
</speak>

<voice>

<speak xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/10/synthesis"
       version="1.0" xml:lang="en-US">
  <voice name="en-US-JennyNeural">
    Hello, how are you?
  </voice>
  <voice name="en-US-GuyNeural">
    I am doing very well, thank you.
  </voice>
</speak>

Rules that prevent errors

Close every non-self-closing tag.
Use one <speak> root for a complete document.
Put spoken content inside at least one <voice> element in a complete document.
A voice supports only certain styles; choose a style available for that Azure voice.

Ready to hear the difference?

Open the text-to-speech editor, paste an example, and generate your audio.

Try SSML now