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# preUtteranceDelay

The amount of time the speech synthesizer pauses before speaking the utterance.

```
var preUtteranceDelay: TimeInterval { get set }
```

## Discussion

When multiple utterances exist in the queue, the speech synthesizer pauses a minimum amount of time equal to the sum of the current utterance’s [`postUtteranceDelay`](/documentation/AVFAudio/AVSpeechUtterance/postUtteranceDelay) and the next utterance’s `preUtteranceDelay`.

---

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