SpeechSynthesis: speak() method

The speak() method of the SpeechSynthesis interface adds an utterance to the utterance queue; it will be spoken when any other utterances queued before it have been spoken.

Syntax

js

speak(utterance)

Parameters

utterance

A SpeechSynthesisUtterance object.

Return value

None (undefined).

Examples

This snippet is excerpted from our Speech synthesizer demo (see it live). When a form containing the text we want to speak is submitted, we (amongst other things) create a new utterance containing this text, then speak it by passing it into speak() as a parameter.

js

const synth = window.speechSynthesis;

// ...

inputForm.onsubmit = (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  const utterThis = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(inputTxt.value);
  const selectedOption =
    voiceSelect.selectedOptions[0].getAttribute("data-name");
  for (let i = 0; i < voices.length; i++) {
    if (voices[i].name === selectedOption) {
      utterThis.voice = voices[i];
    }
  }
  synth.speak(utterThis);
  inputTxt.blur();
};

Specifications

Specification
Web Speech API
# dom-speechsynthesis-speak

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also