# Adding pauses

Sometimes you want your voice agent to slow down — to take a breath between a long greeting and a question, to space out the digits of a phone number, or to pause dramatically before delivering an important piece of information. Dapta voice agents support this directly from your prompt using a simple dash-based syntax.

***

## How pauses work

Inside any text the agent will speak (prompts, greetings, fixed responses), a **dash (`-`) surrounded by spaces** is interpreted as a short pause of roughly **0.3 seconds**. To make the pause longer, just chain more dashes together — each additional dash adds about 0.3 seconds.

| Syntax              | Approximate pause |
| ------------------- | ----------------- |
| `word - word`       | \~0.3 s (short)   |
| `word - - word`     | \~0.6 s (medium)  |
| `word - - - - word` | \~1.2 s (long)    |

{% hint style="warning" %}
**The spaces around each dash matter.** `word-word` is read as a hyphenated word; `word - word` introduces a pause. Always keep one space on each side of every dash.
{% endhint %}

***

## Examples

**Short pause** for natural phrasing:

```
Hi, this is Sofia from Dapta - how can I help you today?
```

**Longer pause** before delivering a key piece of information:

```
Your confirmation number is - - - 4 - 8 - 2 - 9.
```

**Spacing out digits** so phone numbers and codes are easy to understand:

```
You can reach us at 3 - 2 - 1 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 0.
```

***

## When to use pauses

* **Phone numbers, codes, and emails** — split into smaller chunks so the listener can follow along. See [Improving pronunciation](/ai-voice-agents/how-to-set-up-your-ai-voice-agent/improving-pronunciation.md) for the full pattern.
* **Greetings and transitions** — a short pause after the agent introduces itself feels more natural than a single run-on sentence.
* **Emphasis** — a longer pause before an important value (price, date, deadline) draws attention to it.
* **Reading instructions step by step** — a pause between steps gives the caller a moment to process.

***

## Tips

> **💡 Tip:** Don't overuse pauses. Two or three well-placed dashes per response feel natural — a dash after every clause feels robotic and slow.

> **💡 Tip:** Never write instructions like `[pause]`, `[wait]`, or `(pause for 2 seconds)` in your prompt. The agent will read them out loud literally. Use dashes instead.

> **💡 Tip:** If you need a much longer pause (e.g., 3+ seconds), reconsider the script — long silences on a phone call usually feel like the line dropped. Consider phrasing it as a question that invites the caller to respond instead.

***

{% content-ref url="/pages/vXIOj6QMd8jL6IDkZeLB" %}
[Improving pronunciation](/ai-voice-agents/how-to-set-up-your-ai-voice-agent/improving-pronunciation.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/HLpmU3btHRnsghtarlsM" %}
[Prompt Guide](/ai-voice-agents/how-to-set-up-your-ai-voice-agent/prompt-guide.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


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```

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