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Use <break> tags to insert an explicit silence at a specific point — before a verification code, between list items, or wherever punctuation alone doesn’t give you the pause you want.

Syntax

Use the self-closing form. Attribute values may use single or double quotes.

Durations are snapped

The model is trained on three discrete pause lengths: 200 ms, 400 ms, and 500 ms. Whatever you request is snapped to the nearest trained value (ties resolve to the longer pause), so the effective pauses are: Need a silence longer than 500 ms? Chain tags: <break time="500ms"/><break time="500ms"/> ≈ 1 s.

Example

Break tags work the same in streaming — send them inline with your text; tags split across token boundaries are reassembled by the server’s text buffer.

Notes & limits

  • Breaks survive normalization. The text around a break is normalized independently and the pause is re-inserted afterwards, so normalize: true and break tags compose.
  • Model support: kugel-3 supports break tags (see Models). On models without break support the tags are stripped and synthesis continues without the pause.
  • Punctuation first. For natural rhythm, commas/periods/ellipses are usually better — see Punctuation as pacing. Breaks are for deliberate silences of a specific length.
  • Inside <spell> blocks, don’t place break tags — use the spell tag’s group attribute for paced codes instead.