# \<emphasis>

## \<emphasis> <a href="#emphasis" id="emphasis"></a>

Specifies that the enclosed text should be spoken with emphasis.

### Attributes

<table><thead><tr><th width="166.33333333333331">Name</th><th width="172">Data type<select><option value="8585556b18704b4d9cd48a7cd4b133c2" label="String" color="blue"></option><option value="844bc9ab2f8e4a89ab8fe2878258d33f" label="Integer" color="blue"></option><option value="4e8903ab881a47a3be0bfb74ace09f3f" label="Boolean" color="blue"></option></select></th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>level</td><td><span data-option="8585556b18704b4d9cd48a7cd4b133c2">String</span></td><td>Changes the emphasis of the spoken text. You can specify a preset emphasis: "strong", "moderate" (<strong>default value</strong>), and "reduced". This attribute is effective for all TTS engines except AT&#x26;T.</td></tr></tbody></table>

{% hint style="info" %}
For information detailing how to use the `<emphasis>` tag with Polly, see the [Polly documentation](/dev/developer-reference/tts-engine-characteristics/amazon-polly-tts-engine.md#supported-ssml-tags).
{% endhint %}

## Notes

### Example

```markup
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<vxml version="2.0">
  <form>
    <block>
      <prompt>
        I can say hello with no emphasis.
        Or I can say <emphasis>hello</emphasis> with some oomph.
      </prompt>
    </block>
  </form>
</vxml>
```

The output of the above script would be:

> Computer: I can say hello with no emphasis.\
> Computer: Or I can say HELLO with some oomph.

### Child Tags

[\<audio>](/dev/voicexml/tags/audio-tag.md), [\<break>](/dev/voicexml/tags/break-tag.md), [\<emphasis>](/dev/voicexml/tags/emphasis-tag.md), [\<enumerate>](/dev/voicexml/tags/enumerate-tag.md), [\<mark>](/dev/voicexml/tags/mark-tag.md), [\<phoneme>](/dev/voicexml/tags/phoneme-tag.md), [\<prosody>](/dev/voicexml/tags/prosody-tag.md), [\<say-as>](/dev/voicexml/tags/say-as-tag.md), [\<speak>](/dev/voicexml/tags/speak-tag.md), [\<sub>](/dev/voicexml/tags/sub-tag.md), [\<value>](/dev/voicexml/tags/value-tag.md), [\<voice>](/dev/voicexml/tags/voice-tag.md)

### Parent Tags

[\<audio>](/dev/voicexml/tags/audio-tag.md), [\<emphasis>](/dev/voicexml/tags/emphasis-tag.md), [\<enumerate>](/dev/voicexml/tags/enumerate-tag.md), [\<foreach>](/dev/voicexml/tags/foreach-tag.md), [\<paragraph>](/dev/voicexml/tags/paragraph-tag.md), [\<prompt>](/dev/voicexml/tags/prompt-tag.md), [\<prosody>](/dev/voicexml/tags/prosody-tag.md), [\<sentence>](/dev/voicexml/tags/sentence-tag.md), [\<speak>](/dev/voicexml/tags/speak-tag.md), [\<voice>](/dev/voicexml/tags/voice-tag.md)


---

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