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Make your Mac speak with the say command

Have macOS read any text aloud — or export it to an audio file.

macOSTerminalLow risk
Run the command below — the Mac speaks the text through its speakers. List Chinese voices with say -v '?' | grep Tingting.

01Command

Command
$ say -v Tingting "你好，这是终端朗读测试"

02What it does

say uses the same speech engine as VoiceOver and Spoken Content. Without -v it picks the system default voice, which reads English; -v Tingting (Mandarin) or -v Sinji (Cantonese) reads Chinese text correctly. Export instead of speaking with -o out.aiff, and speed up with -r 200 (words per minute). The classic party trick: say -v ? lists every installed voice, and remote Macs can be made to talk over SSH.

03Risk

RiskLow risk
CompatibilitymacOS 10.11 El Capitan – 15 Sequoia

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • macOS say command reference
    SS64 · technical · 2026-09-16
    Evidence: say speaks the given text; -v selects a voice, -o writes the audio to an AIFF/WAV file instead of playing it.

Last verified: 2026-09-16 · Category: Media

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