---
title: AVSpeechUtterance
framework: avfaudio
role: symbol
role_heading: Class
path: avfaudio/avspeechutterance
---

# AVSpeechUtterance

An object that encapsulates the text for speech synthesis and parameters that affect the speech.

## Declaration

```swift
class AVSpeechUtterance
```

## Overview

Overview An AVSpeechUtterance is the basic unit of speech synthesis. To synthesize speech, create an AVSpeechUtterance instance with text you want a speech synthesizer to speak. Optionally, change the voice, pitchMultiplier, volume, rate, preUtteranceDelay, or postUtteranceDelay parameters for the utterance. Pass the utterance to an instance of AVSpeechSynthesizer to begin speech, or enqueue the utterance to speak later if the synthesizer is already speaking. Split a body of text into multiple utterances if you want to apply different speech parameters. For example, you can emphasize a sentence by increasing the pitch and decreasing the rate of that utterance relative to others, or you can introduce pauses between sentences by putting each into an utterance with a leading or trailing delay. Set and use the AVSpeechSynthesizerDelegate to receive notifications when the synthesizer starts or finishes speaking an utterance. Create an utterance for each meaningful unit in a body of text if you want to receive notifications as its speech progresses.

## Topics

### Creating an utterance

- [init(string:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(string:).md)
- [init(attributedString:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(attributedstring:).md)
- [AVSpeechSynthesisIPANotationAttribute](avfaudio/avspeechsynthesisipanotationattribute.md)
- [init(ssmlRepresentation:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(ssmlrepresentation:)-8zam9.md)

### Configuring an utterance

- [voice](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/voice.md)
- [pitchMultiplier](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/pitchmultiplier.md)
- [volume](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/volume.md)
- [prefersAssistiveTechnologySettings](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/prefersassistivetechnologysettings.md)

### Configuring utterance timing

- [rate](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/rate.md)
- [AVSpeechUtteranceMinimumSpeechRate](avfaudio/avspeechutteranceminimumspeechrate.md)
- [AVSpeechUtteranceMaximumSpeechRate](avfaudio/avspeechutterancemaximumspeechrate.md)
- [AVSpeechUtteranceDefaultSpeechRate](avfaudio/avspeechutterancedefaultspeechrate.md)
- [preUtteranceDelay](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/preutterancedelay.md)
- [postUtteranceDelay](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/postutterancedelay.md)

### Inspecting utterance text

- [speechString](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/speechstring.md)
- [attributedSpeechString](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/attributedspeechstring.md)

### Initializers

- [init(SSMLRepresentation:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(ssmlrepresentation:)-2aunp.md)
- [init(SSMLRepresentation:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(ssmlrepresentation:)-7rl77.md)
- [init(coder:)](avfaudio/avspeechutterance/init(coder:).md)

## Relationships

### Inherits From

- [NSObject](objectivec/nsobject-swift.class.md)

### Conforms To

- [CVarArg](swift/cvararg.md)
- [CustomDebugStringConvertible](swift/customdebugstringconvertible.md)
- [CustomStringConvertible](swift/customstringconvertible.md)
- [Equatable](swift/equatable.md)
- [Hashable](swift/hashable.md)
- [NSCoding](foundation/nscoding.md)
- [NSCopying](foundation/nscopying.md)
- [NSObjectProtocol](objectivec/nsobjectprotocol.md)
- [NSSecureCoding](foundation/nssecurecoding.md)

## See Also

### Spoken text attributes

- [AVSpeechSynthesisVoice](avfaudio/avspeechsynthesisvoice.md)