How to emphasize in Eleven Labs text to speech?

[Raveen Paswan]

When using ElevenLabs text-to-speech, how can I make certain words more expressive or emotional? Is there a way to add emphasis through tags or formatting?

[Rohan Patel]

Hey! Great question, if you’ve used ElevenLabs for text-to-speech, you probably noticed how smooth and human-like it sounds. But yeah, sometimes you want it to emphasise a word or add more emotion, and it’s not immediately obvious how to do that.

Here’s what’s worked for me:

Use punctuation smartly

Believe it or not, commas, dashes, ellipses, and periods can totally change the tone.
For example:

• “I really like it.” vs. “I… really like it.”
  
• The second one sounds slower and more thoughtful.
  
• Try adding pauses before or after a word you want to highlight.
  

Use repetition or stretch spelling

If you want a word to stand out, try stretching it:

• “soooo good”
  Or repeat for effect:

• “Yes, yes, yes!”

Capitalise selectively (use with care)

Sometimes capitalizing a word helps draw vocal stress to it. like:

• “This is AMAZING.”
  but don’t overdo it — it can sound unnatural if every other word is in caps.

Adjust voice settings if available

In the VoiceLab or custom settings, you can tweak stability, similarity, and sometimes style sliders.

For more dramatic delivery, try lowering stability — it adds natural variation.

No SSML support (yet)

As of now, ElevenLabs doesn’t support SSML tags, so no <emphasis> or <prosody> options like other tools. Everything is done through text formatting and pacing.

Hope that helps! play around with tone and rhythm — sometimes small tweaks make a big difference in how expressive it sounds.

[akashraj]

So, a few weeks ago, I was playing around with Eleven Labs you know, the AI voice tool everyone’s talking about. It’s pretty awesome, don’t get me wrong. But the first few times I used it, something felt. off.

The voice sounded fine, but it didn’t feel like a person talking. It was like reading from a page with zero emotion. And I was like, “Okay, how do I fix this without learning some complicated coding stuff?”

Well, turns out, you don’t need any special tricks. You just need to write the way people actually talk.

Here’s what I figured out:

Write with tone in mind.
If you want something to sound excited or surprised, type it that way. Like, “Are you SERIOUS?” (Caps help just don’t overdo it.)

Play with pauses.
Commas, dashes, ellipses those little marks do a lot. Want a pause for effect? Add it.
Example: “Wait… what just happened?”

Stretch your words.
It sounds silly, but it works. “No” or “Yes” gives the voice a more dramatic tone. I use this one a lot.

Break it up.
Short sentences help with pacing. When the voice reads them, it sounds more natural.
Like:
“This can not be real.
But it is.”

Honestly, once I started typing the way I talk, everything changed. The voice became way more believable.

So yeah, you don not need fancy tools. Just trust your ear and write like you are having a real convo. That’s what worked for me.

[Anoop Kumar]

so you have been playing around with Eleven Labs’ text-to-speech, right? Super cool tool, no doubt. But maybe you have noticed sometimes the voice sounds a bit. flat? Like, you type something exciting like “Wow! That’s amazing!” and the voice reads it like it’s bored out of its mind. Trust me, I’ve been there.

So, how do you emphasize certain words to make the voice sound more human? Let me tell you it’s actually easier than you think.

1. Use ALL CAPS (But Don’t Shout All the Time)
Want the AI voice to stress a word? Type it in ALL CAPS. Seriously, just like that. If you write “That’s REALLY cool” it’ll read “REALLY” with extra oomph. But don’t go overboard, or it’ll sound weird.

2. Add Pauses with Punctuation
Sometimes, a little comma or a period does wonders. Like this:
“You won’t believe this. it actually works!”
That pause gives the voice time to breathe. And it sounds way more natural.

3. Stretch It Out with Extra Letters
This one’s kinda fun. Want a word to sound dramatic? Try writing it like this:
“Soooo goooood!”
The voice will actually stretch it out a bit. Cool, right?

4. Use Exclamation Marks!
They do make a difference. Just one or two is enough no need to go wild with five in a row. (Okay no emoji, but you get me.)

Honestly, it’s all about playing around. The more you test it, the better it sounds. And the best part? You don’t need to be a tech genius. Just type like you talk.

[Author]

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