Piper TTS and abbreviated titles Dr. Mrs. etc

Barty · 10-26-2025, 02:15 AM

Hi

Piper has a flaw, common with TTS, in that it pauses after abbreviated titles like

Dr. House -> doctor (pause) house.

It also doesn't know some titles, like St. It reads it as suh or sin and treats the . as full stop.

Fixing the TTS may be too hard. Perhaps it's best to do expansion of the most common abbreviated titles prior to sending it to the TTS engine? "Saint Auburn" instead of "St. Auburn".

Regards

BetterRed · 10-26-2025, 03:49 AM

Outside North America the name "St John", note the lack of a full stop, is normally pronounced Sinj'n.

As in the Reverend St John Eyre Rivers (Jane's cousin), the author Madeleine St John, UK politician Norman St John-Stevas and a dozen or so Baron St Johns of Bletso.

BR

kovidgoyal · 10-26-2025, 03:52 AM

St. can be saint or street probably more. It's not so trivial to do expansion, especially across multiple languages.

JSWolf · 10-26-2025, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barty

Hi

Piper has a flaw, common with TTS, in that it pauses after abbreviated titles like

Dr. House -> doctor (pause) house.

It also doesn't know some titles, like St. It reads it as suh or sin and treats the . as full stop.

Fixing the TTS may be too hard. Perhaps it's best to do expansion of the most common abbreviated titles prior to sending it to the TTS engine? "Saint Auburn" instead of "St. Auburn".

Regards

What you could do is load the eBook into the editor and search/replace these problematic abbreviations.

Quoth · 11-08-2025, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What you could do is load the eBook into the editor and search/replace these problematic abbreviations.

Yes, that "fixes it" but breaks the book.

TTS needs to work better. It's actually a complicated problem.

JSWolf · 11-08-2025, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, that "fixes it" but breaks the book.

TTS needs to work better. It's actually a complicated problem.

So you have a copy for reading and a copy for TTS.

JohnnyBook · 01-18-2026, 01:13 PM

I had seen this problem for awhile and have been editing the books and expanding them from Mr. to Mister, Dr. to Doctor, etc.

It is annoying to hear the pause in Mr. Smith.

Another thing I have noticed that I have not figured out is the pause that we should be hearing for: … and — .

For example: "I just… I just want to ride in an plane."
Piper just reads it as "I just I just want to ride in an plane." all run together.
Which sounds VERY unnatural.

At first I thought of just doing a blanket search and replace for "…" and "—" to replace them with "," but the pause for a comma is really not long enough of a pause. (and I don't really want to make that big of a change to the text.)

In experimenting I found that replacing them with a "." is a much better pause, But then you have the text with many new periods where the next word is NOT capitalized
Ex. "but I’m afraid… afraid of flying." becomes: "but I’m afraid. afraid of flying."

Would this be problem in TTS? or Piper?

And who would be the ones to talk to or suggest this change, or fix, to make "…" and "—" be represented by a long pause instead of ignored as they currently are?

kovidgoyal · 01-18-2026, 09:40 PM

This needs to be fixed in the TTS engine aka Piper in this case. It could be hacked around in calibre by doing blanket search replace on the text before feeding it to the TTS engine, but that's hacky and likely to break other things.

JohnnyBook · 01-19-2026, 10:25 PM

Yeah, I don't mind editing Mr. or Dr. or Mrs. to expand them, (or other abbreviations that sound better when expanded.)

But editing the text this extensively for "…" or "—" is not really something I would like either. (although easy with a global search and replace) I just don't want to modify the book that much.
[for example: David Gerrold's "Deathbeast" has ~70k words, and uses "—" 1736 times, and "…" almost 200 times.]

I did do some looking at Piper and found its github. A request to fix "…" to turn it into a pause instead of skipping it is listed about 7 months ago and another of the same request a few months before that.

On the other hand, its hard to say for sure, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't look like a lot work has been done on Piper since its last release in Nov 2023.

I don't know if the developer of it is still working on it.

kovidgoyal · 01-19-2026, 11:14 PM

IIRC it was forked and more active development is happening in the fork, on my phone right now so cant find the link to the fork.

10-26-2025, 02:15 AM	#1
Barty doofus Posts: 2,557 Karma: 13089041 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle Voyage	Piper TTS and abbreviated titles Dr. Mrs. etc Hi Piper has a flaw, common with TTS, in that it pauses after abbreviated titles like Dr. House -> doctor (pause) house. It also doesn't know some titles, like St. It reads it as suh or sin and treats the . as full stop. Fixing the TTS may be too hard. Perhaps it's best to do expansion of the most common abbreviated titles prior to sending it to the TTS engine? "Saint Auburn" instead of "St. Auburn". Regards

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10-26-2025, 03:49 AM	#2
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 22,334 Karma: 30621608 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Outside North America the name "St John", note the lack of a full stop, is normally pronounced Sinj'n. As in the Reverend St John Eyre Rivers (Jane's cousin), the author Madeleine St John, UK politician Norman St John-Stevas and a dozen or so Baron St Johns of Bletso. BR

10-26-2025, 03:52 AM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,991 Karma: 29579516 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	St. can be saint or street probably more. It's not so trivial to do expansion, especially across multiple languages.

01-18-2026, 01:13 PM	#7
JohnnyBook Addict Posts: 221 Karma: 126824 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Out There Device: K3 W/3G (Fixed screen!) & Paperwhite Wifi	I had seen this problem for awhile and have been editing the books and expanding them from Mr. to Mister, Dr. to Doctor, etc. It is annoying to hear the pause in Mr. Smith. Another thing I have noticed that I have not figured out is the pause that we should be hearing for: … and — . For example: "I just… I just want to ride in an plane." Piper just reads it as "I just I just want to ride in an plane." all run together. Which sounds VERY unnatural. At first I thought of just doing a blanket search and replace for "…" and "—" to replace them with "," but the pause for a comma is really not long enough of a pause. (and I don't really want to make that big of a change to the text.) In experimenting I found that replacing them with a "." is a much better pause, But then you have the text with many new periods where the next word is NOT capitalized Ex. "but I’m afraid… afraid of flying." becomes: "but I’m afraid. afraid of flying." Would this be problem in TTS? or Piper? And who would be the ones to talk to or suggest this change, or fix, to make "…" and "—" be represented by a long pause instead of ignored as they currently are?

01-18-2026, 09:40 PM	#8
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,991 Karma: 29579516 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	This needs to be fixed in the TTS engine aka Piper in this case. It could be hacked around in calibre by doing blanket search replace on the text before feeding it to the TTS engine, but that's hacky and likely to break other things.

01-19-2026, 10:25 PM	#9
JohnnyBook Addict Posts: 221 Karma: 126824 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Out There Device: K3 W/3G (Fixed screen!) & Paperwhite Wifi	Yeah, I don't mind editing Mr. or Dr. or Mrs. to expand them, (or other abbreviations that sound better when expanded.) But editing the text this extensively for "…" or "—" is not really something I would like either. (although easy with a global search and replace) I just don't want to modify the book that much. [for example: David Gerrold's "Deathbeast" has ~70k words, and uses "—" 1736 times, and "…" almost 200 times.] I did do some looking at Piper and found its github. A request to fix "…" to turn it into a pause instead of skipping it is listed about 7 months ago and another of the same request a few months before that. On the other hand, its hard to say for sure, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't look like a lot work has been done on Piper since its last release in Nov 2023. I don't know if the developer of it is still working on it.

01-19-2026, 11:14 PM	#10
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,991 Karma: 29579516 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	IIRC it was forked and more active development is happening in the fork, on my phone right now so cant find the link to the fork.