Forester Spanish (Chile) Transcription Guidelines

NOTE: All information provided in this document is confidential.
Any
publication, provision, or dissemination of this content is strictly
prohibited. Do not share or post the contents on the internet.
Transcription Guidelines
Pautas de Transcripción
Introduction
Introducción
Project goal: The goal of this project is to transcribe audio files that will
ultimately help our client build state of the art automatic speech
recognition models.
The aim of this project is to accurately transcribe (i.e. type out or represent with
pre-filled tags) the speech presented to you in audio files. You will be using our
online transcription platform called "Ampersand". A separate guide is provided for
using Ampersand.
Please read these guidelines in full and keep them handy when you start
transcription. There are a lot of things to remember, but you will find it gets easier
once you have done a few transcriptions. If anything is unclear, please contact your
project supervisor. Good luck!
General information
Información General
Speech, non- The purpose of this project is to transcribe all valid
speech as well as the non-speech sounds which occur at
speech
the same time as speech.
noise, and Speech is anything which contains human language. In this
no-speech project, we transcribe speech even if it is not grammatically
correct — including:
Habla, ruido
● hesitations ("am", "ehh","mmm"),
no hablado y ● colloquial words ("cachai", "tinca" ), and
no habla ● repeated words ("es que es que", “haz de cuenta que
que").
Example
1
NOTE: All information provided in this document is confidential. Any
● TRANSCRIPTION: ehh creo que esta noche podríamos ir

al teatro ¿te tinca?
● TRANSCRIPTION: es que es que podrías mentir.
● TRANSCRIPTION: am si seguro.
Most speech is represented by words and characters. Some

speech, however, is unintelligible or overlaps with other speech
from a different speaker. This speech should be represented
with pre-filled tags.
Non-speech sounds which occur during speech also need to
be tagged. If non-speech sounds such as music, laughter,
coughing, clicks, and bangs occur within 1 second of speech,
these sounds should be tagged.
Any sounds which occur in a speech free audio file should not be
tagged. Any audio which does not contain speech, foreground
noise, speaker noise or music for more than 1 second can be
tagged as no-speech.
Foreground Your volume settings should be set so that the loudest speaker
speech/noise in the utterance is at a comfortable volume. Foreground
speech is any speech which can be clearly understood at that
volume, without straining or repeated listening.
Discurso en Speech and noises which are clearly quieter than this volume
primer should not be transcribed or tagged, even if they are audible
plano/ruido and intelligible.
An utterance is a single unit of transcription. Each utterance has

Utterance its own text input box and needs to be saved before a user can
move on to the next utterance. The breaks between utterances
Enunciado can generally be ignored: they are only intended to break up the
audio into easily transcribable sections.
Batch
A batch of transcription work is a single, continuous audio file
which is further divided into pages and utterances.
Lote
Transcribing speech
2
Transcribiendo discurso
Use standard Spanish spelling.
This includes characters like ñ, accents (á, é, í, ó, ú), and
dieresis (ü).
Use standard contractions ("de + el = del", "a + el = al") if this

is how a word is pronounced in the audio.
Spelling
Hyphens should be used in compound words or expressions,
it’s a word that merges two concepts (oferta-demanda,
Ortografía escuela-taller, franco-americano, académico-profesional).
Example.
● TRANSCRIPTION: el concepto de oferta-demanda en el
mundo académico-profesional es diferente al que se nos
enseñó.
If a pronunciation is only one sound different from its

conventional spelling, please use the conventional spelling. If
the spoken form differs by more than one sound, and there is a
commonly-used Mexican Spanish spelling, please use that
spelling.
Acceptable Example
non-standard One sound different
spellings
● apá ==> TRANSCRIPTION: papá
Ortografía no ● comistes , llorastes , dijistes ==> TRANSCRIPTION:
comiste, lloraste, dijiste
estándar
aceptable More than one sound different
● eda ==> TRANSCRIPTION: eda

● pos (en vez de “pues”) ==> TRANSCRIPTION: pos
Capital letters Use Spanish capitalization rules with one exception: do not
use a capital letter if the only reason to do so is that the
word is at the start of a sentence.
Letras
mayúsculas Most person names ("Vicente Fernández"), location names ("El
Ángel de la Independencia", "Chile"), products, and brand
names ("La Gorda", "YouTube") should be capitalized.
3
For transcribing an utterance that appears to contain English

proper nouns (brand names, place names, people’s names,
Script etc), the key is to understand which language the word is
intended to be in and transcribe as is. In cases where it can be
Guión either English or Spanish, use Spanish if the transliteration is
standardized and widely used. Otherwise, please use the
official English spelling.
Use as a placeholder for a word, or several words, that cannot

be understood because there is interference, an audio problem,
or because the person is not talking clearly.
Enter this tag in place of the speech which cannot be
understood after three attempts at listening.
If there is more than one unintelligible word in sequence, use a
single tag. If the entire sentence or utterance cannot be
understood, use a single unintelligible tag.
Also use this tag for word fragments and stutters.
If you cannot understand a word because it is in a foreign

language, use the tag
u Example
A speaker says a word in Spanish that you don't
understand
TRANSCRIPTION: a ella no le parece que la sea
por nuestra cuenta.
Speaker says 'ir d-después'

TRANSCRIPTION: ir después
g Use for any singing in the foreground. Singing includes

rapping, chanting mantras, recital of poetry, words spoken in a
sing-song manner, or ritualistic holy sermons.
Also use this tag for singing in a foreign language.

singing
Use this tag if the entire utterance is singing.
4
Use when two or more foreground speakers talk at the same

time at more or less the same volume. Do NOT transcribe
overlapping speech, insert this tag in place of overlapping
words.
o Do not use the overlap tag when there is background speech
and you can clearly hear a single foreground speaker.
There are two ways to transcribe foreign speech: a not
Spanish tag to replace a word you do not know and a
span tag to highlight foreign words you can write
down.
Use the tag for speech in a language other than

Spanish which would not be understood by Spanish Mexican
speakers.
Loan words such as “okay” and “bye” are acceptable and
should be transcribed.
Example:
A speaker says a foreign word after “el” and you
cannot identify the foreign word
Foreign
TRANSCRIPTION: creo que el problema es que el
Speech
que usamos es diferente.
If there is more than one foreign word in sequence, use one

tag for each word. Use your best judgement to
determine the number of foreign words.
Example:
A speaker says “we will have lunch together“ in the
middle of a sentence but you do not understand
TRANSCRIPTION: pensé que ella dijo

y
entonces
5
If you can understand the foreign language, please write

the words down and highlight them with the span tag
.
Example:
A speaker says “we will have lunch together“ in the
middle of a sentence and you understand the words
TRANSCRIPTION: pensé que ella dijo we will have lunch

together y entonces
/!\ Tips:
● Remember that loanwords are words borrowed from

other languages that are widely known and understood
by Spanish speakers. They are not considered foreign
words for the purposes of this project and should not
receive a foreign tag. Instead, transcribe it and tag it
with
● Foreign names (people’s names, places, etc.) are not
considered foreign words and should be transcribed.
● If you cannot understand a word due to interference,
audio problems, or because the person is not talking
clearly but it is in Spanish, use
● If you cannot understand a word because it is in a
foreign language, use not
● If you are unsure of the spelling but you understand the
word and it is used in your language as a loanword, do
an internet search to find the most common spelling.
● If you can understand and transcribe what is said but it
is not in Spanish and not a loanword, please highlight
the words with
● Singing in a foreign language should be tagged as
Numbers Numbers should be spelled out as full words, the way they
were said.
6
Examples
Números
The number '1989' may be said in many different ways
● 1989 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: diecinueve ochenta y

nueve
● 1989 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: mil novecientos ochenta y
siete
Speaker states a lottery number (4 8 6 2)
● 4 8 6 2 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: cuatro, ocho, seis, dos
Speaker reads the time
● ahora son las 5:30 pm.
==> TRANSCRIPTION: ahora son las cinco treinta.

==> TRANSCRIPTION: ahora son las cinco y media.
Speaker reads a math equation
● 1 + 1 = 2 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: uno más uno es igual

a dos.
Speaker uses a currency
● esto objeto cuesta $12.99. ==> TRANSCRIPTION: este

objeto cuesta doce pesos con noventa y nueve centavos.
Digits (e.g. 1 2 3 4 5 ...) can be used ONLY when they are

joined to a letter as part of a name without a space.
Example
● H2O ==> TRANSCRIPTION: H2O
● iPhone 6S ==> TRANSCRIPTION: iPhone 6S
● PS4 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: PS4
However
7
● Xbox 360 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: Xbox tres sesenta
Acronyms and initialisms are words made up of the first letters

of words. They may be pronounced as a word, or each letter
may be pronounced separately. Acronyms and initialisms are
spelled using uppercase letters with no space or period in
between.
Acronyms & Example
Initialisms
● U.N.A.M. or U N A M ==> UNAM
Acrónimos e ● U.S.A. or U S A ==> USA
● A.M / P.M. ==> AM / PM
Inicialismos ● IFE
● FIFA
● BANAMEX
● CFE
When a speaker spells a word out, letter by letter, please

transcribe uppercase letters with a space in between.
Example
Spelled out
words ● TRANSCRIPTION: cuando dictamos una palabra se
deben de escribir las letras en mayúsculas con un
espacio de separación entre ellas, por ejemplo mi
Palabras nombre sería M A G D A L E N A.
deletreadas
● C A B A L L O. TRANSCRIPTION: C A B A doble L O.
● J O S É. TRANSCRIPTION: J O S É acentuada.
Emails / If you need to transcribe an email address or website address,

separate the elements as spoken.
websites
Example
Correos ● www.facebook.com ==> TRANSCRIPTION: WWW punto

electrónicos / Facebook punto com.
Sitios web ● juanperez@gmail.com ==> TRANSCRIPTION: Juan
Perez arroba Gmail punto com.
● www.adolfo.ch ==> TRANSCRIPTION: WWW punto
8
Adolfo punto CH.
Inappropriate
language All inappropriate language should be transcribed. If you feel
uncomfortable typing a particular word, use the unintelligible
Lenguaje tag (see unintelligible tag) in its place.
inapropiado
Transcribe hesitations and other disfluencies like mmm and ah.
List of Hesitations/Interjections
Acceptable
Meaning
Spelling
Agreement ajá, sip
Disagreement nah, oh oh, nel
Hesitation ehh, am, mmm,
guau, wow, ah,
Surprise
ay, yay, éjale
Hesitations
and Seeking
eh, mhm,
Confirmation
interjections
Disgust bah, uy
Vacilaciones e eh, wow, guau,
Delight
interjecciones ah, wao
ehi, hey, eh, oh,
Calling Someone
oye, yo
eh, oh, ah, uh,
Emphasizing
ey
Example
● TRANSCRIPTION: mmm, ¿qué es eso?

● TRANSCRIPTION: ah, ya entendí.
● TRANSCRIPTION: este este yo podría
pensándolo bien mejor no.
9
Span Tags (highlighting)

Etiquetas de Extensión (resaltadas)
There are two types of tags: span tags (colored) and event tags (gray). Look for
these in the screenshot below.
Event tags are inserted between words, while span tags are used to highlight
words. To undo highlighting tags, select the highlighted word and then click on
untag. You will not notice any change until you move on, then the highlighting
color will revert to white.
Shortc
Span Tag How to use it
ut
For non-standard words and spellings that often
10
appear in spoken language, transcribe what is
heard and highlight the word using the
colloquial span tag.
In general, if a word would not appear in a

dictionary or formal written context (e.g. a
newspaper), then the word is likely to be
colloquial. When in doubt, use the colloquial tag
rather than leaving a word untagged.
Example
Speaker's Transcription Full Form
Pronunciation
cachai cachai entender
tinca tinca parecer
flaite flaite ordinario
weon weon tonto
carbonero carbonero conflictivo

c garzón garzón camarero
barsudo barsudo aprovechado
Diminutives and augmentatives words are

not to be tagged as colloquial as the ending
variants can be found in the dictionary.
Example:
Casa (Diminutives: casita, caseta, casina.

Augmentatives: casona, casaza.)
Cerveza (Diminutives: cervecita, cervezuela,

cervecica. Augmentatives: cervezota,
cerveceja.)
i Use this to highlight any words that were

accidentally mispronounced. Spell the word in
11
the normal (correct) way, then highlight it.
There is no need to use this if someone has an
accent — it should only be used when the
person accidentally said something the wrong
way. When in doubt ask yourself "would this
person pronounce the word differently if I
asked them to repeat themselves?" If they
would, it can be classified as a
mispronunciation.
Example
You hear “¿vas a ir a la inglesia?”
TRANSCRIPTION: ¿vas a ir a la iglesia?
If you hear a word in the audio but you are not

entirely sure how to spell it or you are not
entirely confident you are hearing the word
correctly, highlight the word using the best
guess tag.
This tag might be needed if the speaker uses a

proper name you are unfamiliar with.
Please do not use the best guess tag if the

speech is unintelligible because the audio
quality is poor, the speaker mumbles, etc. for
these cases please use the tag.
best guess b
Example:
● You hear "me dijo que fuera a Wolengi”

but you are not sure what is Wolengi or
how to spell it; you spell as best guess
and use the tag: Wolengi
Do NOT use this tag for words you can easily
12
spell correctly by doing a quick online search.
Examples:
● You are unsure of the name of an

artist, "Emir Kusturica"= you should
look up online with an approximate
spelling + keywords (e.g you heard
"movie" in the batch) to find the
correct spelling.
● You are unsure of the spelling of
"probablemente" = you should look up
online or in a dictionary and use the
correct spelling.
/!\ Remember:
If you hear something in Spanish but cannot
make out at all the word = use
If you hear something in a foreign language

that you cannot understand = use
13
Tagging non-speech noises and events

Etiquetado de ruido y eventos no hablados
These are listed in order of how often they are likely to be used. The more common
tags are listed at the top of the table.
Event Tag Shortcut How to use it
Any pause of at least one second without speech
should be tagged with the no speech tag.
Non-speech noises which are not within 1 second of

speech do not need to be tagged.
Example
You hear some speech punctuated by a cough,
followed by a 1 second pause, and then a loud
noise:
TRANSCRIPTION: nunca lo escuche.
/!\ If an entire utterance does not contain any

c speech, it should be transcribed with one tag ONLY:
no speech tag. Even if it contains other sounds, you
must ignore them if there is no speech at all.
Example
The whole utterance contains someone

crying, loud noises or instrumental music:
TRANSCRIPTION:
You must ignore all sounds if there is no speech in
the entire utterance.
14
Use for all sounds made by a foreground human
which is not speech (e.g. breath, cough, lipsmack,
and laughing).
s Only use this tag if:

● the volume is at or near the volume of the
surrounding foreground speech.
● AND the sound occurs within one second of
speech.
Use for music (without lyrics) that does not overlap
with foreground speech. Singing from the foreground
speaker should be tagged as , not

as .
m
Only use this tag if:
- the volume is at or near the volume of the
- AND the sound occurs within one second of
speech.
Use for any non-speaker noise that occurs at the
same volume as foreground speech. Do not tag
background noise that is at a lower volume than
speech.
n
Only use this tag if:
● the volume is at or near the volume of the
● AND the sound occurs within one second of
speech.
Insert the speaker change tag at any point that the
foreground speaker changes. This may be at the
beginning of an utterance or in the middle of an
k utterance.
Speaker change tags only need to be used for
speech — tagged noises from a different speaker do
not require a speaker change tag.
t Use when a word gets cut off at the end of an
utterance because the computer has not cut up the
audio correctly. This is different from a fragment
15
(where the person stops talking part way through a
word). In a truncation, the recording has cut
someone off while they were saying a word.
Therefore, truncations only occur at the start or end
of an utterance.
When you hear a truncation at the end of an
utterance and you can transcribe the word with
certainty, write out the truncated word in full
followed by the tag. When you hear

a truncation at the start of an utterance, insert
the tag only.
Example
The word 'probablemente' is split with "prob-"
at the beginning of the first utterance and "-
ablemente" at the beginning of the second
utterance.
UTTERANCE 1: deberíamos de decir probablemente
UTTERANCE 2: nuestro punto de

vista.
If you are unable to tell what the truncated word is,

simply insert the tag in place of the
word followed by the tag.
Example
An unintelligible word is truncated.
UTTERANCE 1: deberíamos de decir
UTTERANCE 2: nuestro punto de

vista.
16
If you come across user-identifiable
information (UII), do not transcribe those words,
and insert this tag instead. The purpose is not to
disclose a user's private information.
UII includes things like full names, usernames,
gamertags, street addresses, telephone numbers,
credit card numbers, social security numbers, etc.
There are exceptions. You do not need to mark UII if
the information is public, e.g.:
● It is a news broadcast, TV show, TV or radio

program.
● It is clearly a commercial promotion (e.g. an
advertisement) with no expectation of privacy
● It is a public blogger broadcast
● The full name is of a well-known public figure
(singer, writer, politician, athlete, etc.). A well-
known local public figure is also not marked as
UII (e.g. a well-known teacher) (please do
more research, by googling the name, if you’re
not sure whether or not the full name is a
well-known public figure)
● It is not a full name (you hear either the first
name or the surname)
/!\ Please use caution, full names mentioned in

raffles/lucky draws should always be marked
as UII.
We have already removed most files that contain UII

so you should not need to use this tag often.
Punctuation
Puntuación
Punctuation A sentence is a grammatically complete unit. A sentence will usually,

but not always, contain a subject (e.g. "el perro") and a verb (e.g.
"ladró"). Examples of grammatically complete sentences which do not
Puntuación
17
have a subject and verb include answers to questions (e.g. "sí." and
"no.") and exclamations ("¡de verdad!" and "¿cuándo?").
It is also possible to not write the subject and only the verb, where the
subject is implicit. (e.g. "voy." and "estás llorando.")
Example
● TRANSCRIPTION: no entiendo. ¿sabré la respuesta al final? me

sería útil.
At the end of each sentence, use either a period (.) for statements, at
the beginning and at the end, question marks (¿?) for questions, or
exclamation marks (¡!) for exclamations.
Do not use punctuation combinations ("?!", "!!!", "...").
Do not use hyphens or quotation marks to indicate quoted or

mentioned speech. No other punctuation (such as : ;) should be used.
Apostrophe should only be used in your transcription for proper nouns

(e.g McDonald’s TRANSCRIPTION: McDonald’s)
Only place punctuation at the end of an utterance if the end of the

utterance is also the end of a sentence. If the speaker continues the
same sentence into the next utterance, put the punctuation wherever
it naturally falls in the speech. See the description of an utterance.
Examples:
● TRANSCRIPTION:
UTTERANCE 1: exentar el examen. ¿tú piensas
UTTERANCE 2: lo lograría? quizás si
See the "incomplete" tag section below for instructions about

sentence fragments which are not grammatically complete.
Insert the incomplete tag when a foreground speaker begins a
sentence and is either (a) interrupted by a new speaker, or (b) begins
a new sentence before the first grammatically complete sentence is
finished.
The tag should not be used to indicate that a sentence is continuing
into a second utterance.
Examples:
18
● TRANSCRIPTION: el árbol es muy pero también

las plantas son bellas.
● TRANSCRIPTION: desconozco si vendrán sus

quizá estén de vacaciones.
You do not need to use the incomplete tag when the speaker restarts
or repeats a single word.
Use commas (,) in two situations only:
● For lists of items ("comí dos manzanas, tres naranjas y una

Commas banana.)
● For introductory phrases and separate the vocative ("sin

Comas embargo, ¿no lo sé? Manuel, me gusto mucho.").
When unsure whether to use a comma, err on the side of not using
one.
Resources
Recursos
● Spanish Punctuation Rules
● Capitalization in Spanish
● Spanish Dictionary
19

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● TRANSCRIPTION: ehh creo que esta noche podríamos ir

Most speech is represented by words and characters. Some

An utterance is a single unit of transcription. Each utterance has

Use standard contractions ("de + el = del", "a + el = al") if this

If a pronunciation is only one sound different from its

● eda ==> TRANSCRIPTION: eda

For transcribing an utterance that appears to contain English

Use as a placeholder for a word, or several words, that cannot

Also use this tag for word fragments and stutters.

If you cannot understand a word because it is in a foreign

Speaker says 'ir d-después'

g Use for any singing in the foreground. Singing includes

Also use this tag for singing in a foreign language.

Use when two or more foreground speakers talk at the same

Use the tag for speech in a language other than

If there is more than one foreign word in sequence, use one

TRANSCRIPTION: pensé que ella dijo

If you can understand the foreign language, please write

TRANSCRIPTION: pensé que ella dijo we will have lunch

● Remember that loanwords are words borrowed from

● 1989 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: diecinueve ochenta y

Speaker states a lottery number (4 8 6 2)

● 4 8 6 2 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: cuatro, ocho, seis, dos

Speaker reads the time

● ahora son las 5:30 pm.

==> TRANSCRIPTION: ahora son las cinco treinta.

Speaker reads a math equation

● 1 + 1 = 2 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: uno más uno es igual

Speaker uses a currency

● esto objeto cuesta $12.99. ==> TRANSCRIPTION: este

Digits (e.g. 1 2 3 4 5 ...) can be used ONLY when they are

● Xbox 360 ==> TRANSCRIPTION: Xbox tres sesenta

Acronyms and initialisms are words made up of the first letters

When a speaker spells a word out, letter by letter, please

Emails / If you need to transcribe an email address or website address,

Correos ● www.facebook.com ==> TRANSCRIPTION: WWW punto

● TRANSCRIPTION: mmm, ¿qué es eso?

Span Tags (highlighting)

In general, if a word would not appear in a

cachai cachai entender

tinca tinca parecer

flaite flaite ordinario

weon weon tonto

carbonero carbonero conflictivo

barsudo barsudo aprovechado

Diminutives and augmentatives words are

Casa (Diminutives: casita, caseta, casina.

Cerveza (Diminutives: cervecita, cervezuela,

i Use this to highlight any words that were

If you hear a word in the audio but you are not

This tag might be needed if the speaker uses a

Please do not use the best guess tag if the

● You hear "me dijo que fuera a Wolengi”

Do NOT use this tag for words you can easily

● You are unsure of the name of an

If you hear something in a foreign language

Tagging non-speech noises and events