The dubbed voice reads exactly what is in the target text. That means you can nudge how a word is stressed, paused around, or pronounced just by changing how you write it. There are no emotion tags or phonetic markup in Dubly.AI — but a handful of plain-text tricks go a long way. This article lists the ones that reliably work, and what to avoid.
All of these are edited in the Edit Translation tab (or the Advanced Editor). Change the target text, click Save, and only that segment re-renders — no extra credits.
1. Spell it the way it should sound
The most reliable fix for a mispronounced word is to write it phonetically in the target language's spelling. The voice reads letters the way a native speaker of that language would.
Nike → Nikee (English) or Naiki (German)
Hermès → Ermes
Dubly → Dabbly (German target) if the voice reads it as "Doobly"
Once you have found a spelling that works, add it to your Translation Style on the Pronunciations tab so every future dub uses it automatically. The written translation stays untouched — the phonetic version is only used for the voice. See Translation Styles & Glossary.
2. Split syllables with a hyphen
If the voice slurs a word or stresses the wrong syllable, a hyphen forces it to articulate each part. This also works for compound words and long product names.
Ka-ra-o-ke instead of Karaoke
Photo-synthesis, Micro-service
Use hyphens sparingly: one hyphenated word per sentence is fine, five make the line sound chopped.
3. Acronyms: letters or word?
To have it spelled out letter by letter, separate the letters: C-E-O, U.S.A., or A P I.
To have it read as a word, write it in lowercase or as a normal word: Nasa, Unesco.
Short words in ALL CAPS are often read as acronyms — NOW may come out as "N-O-W". Keep capitals for real acronyms only.
4. Numbers, dates and units: write them out when it matters
Dubly.AI tells the voice model to spell numbers, dates, currencies and units out automatically, so "5 km" and "€20" are normally read correctly. What it can't know is which of several correct readings you want: "2024" can be "two thousand twenty-four" or "twenty twenty-four", "1/4" a date or a fraction. When the reading matters, write the words you want to hear:
twenty twenty-four instead of 2024
March third instead of 03/03
Phone numbers and codes: separate digits with spaces or hyphens so they are read one by one.
5. Steer emphasis and rhythm with punctuation
Punctuation is the main lever for delivery. The voice model treats it much like a human reader would:
Comma — a short breath and a slight reset. Add one in front of the word you want to land.
Dash (–) or ellipsis (…) — a longer, more deliberate pause and a small drop in tempo. Good for "and then… nothing happened."
Period — full stop, melody resets. Splitting one long sentence into two often fixes a rushed line.
Question mark — pitch rises at the end.
Exclamation mark — more energy on the whole sentence. One is enough; three don't add more.
Quotation marks around a word — the voice tends to set it apart slightly, similar to a spoken "so-called". Useful for names and terms that should stand out.
Capitalizing a whole word (this is REALLY important) can add stress, but it is unreliable and can trigger the acronym reading from section 3. Try a comma or a dash first.
6. Keep the length roughly the same
Every segment has to fit the original speaker's time window. If your edit makes the text much longer or shorter, Dubly.AI speeds the voice up or down — and past a certain point it automatically rewords the sentence to make it fit. So when you add phonetic spellings or pauses, keep the overall length close to what it was, or your carefully placed wording may be paraphrased away.
Tips for iterating
Change one thing at a time, save, listen. Each save regenerates only that segment.
The voice model is not fully deterministic: if a tweak sounds slightly off, save once more before changing the text again.
When a spelling works, move it into the Pronunciations tab of your Translation Style so you never fix it by hand again.
When to contact support
If a word still comes out wrong after two or three spellings, ask Dubby in the chat (bottom right) and include:
The dub link and the segment
The word and the spellings you tried
How it should sound (a short audio reference helps)