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  "identifier" : "/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/SpeechPropertyKey/characterMode",
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  "role" : "Type Property",
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    "kind" : "Type Property",
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    "preciseIdentifier" : "c:@NSSpeechCharacterModeProperty"
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  "title" : "characterMode"
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# characterMode

Get or set the synthesizer’s current text-processing mode.

```
static let characterMode: NSSpeechSynthesizer.SpeechPropertyKey
```

## Discussion

An NSString object that specifies whether the channel is currently in text input mode or phoneme input mode.The supported values are listed in [`NSSpeechSynthesizer.SpeechPropertyKey.Mode`](/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/SpeechPropertyKey/Mode).

When the character-processing mode is [`normal`](/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/SpeechPropertyKey/Mode/normal), input characters are spoken as you would expect to hear them. When the mode is [`literal`](/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/SpeechPropertyKey/Mode/literal), each character is spoken literally, so that the word “cat” is spoken “`C–A–T`”.

This property is used with [`setObject(_:forProperty:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/setObject(_:forProperty:)) and [`object(forProperty:)`](/documentation/AppKit/NSSpeechSynthesizer/object(forProperty:)).

---

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