Verbatim vs Clean Verbatim: Which Do You Need?
Verbatim keeps every um and false start; clean (intelligent) verbatim removes them. When each one is right, and how to get either from dictation.
Verbatim text keeps everything that was said — filler words, repetitions, false starts. Clean verbatim (also called intelligent verbatim) removes that noise but keeps the speaker's wording and meaning. Use verbatim when exact phrasing is evidence, and clean verbatim when the text just needs to be read.
The difference isn't accuracy — both are accurate. It's whether hesitations count as content.
What does each style keep?
| Style | Keeps | Removes |
|---|---|---|
| Verbatim | Every word, filler ("um", "uh", "like"), repetition and false start | Nothing |
| Clean (intelligent) verbatim | The speaker's words and order, with punctuation | Filler, stutters, false starts, words said twice |
| Edited | The meaning | Anything that doesn't serve readability — sentences may be rewritten |
When is verbatim the right choice?
When the way something was said matters as much as what was said: a quote you'll publish, a witness statement, research interviews you'll analyse for hesitation, or the exact wording of an agreement. A cleanup that turns "we may consider it" into "we will consider it" has changed the meaning, and in those settings that's not a style issue.
When is clean verbatim better?
Almost everywhere else. Meeting notes, emails, documentation and messages are read by people who don't need your "um"s. Clean verbatim keeps your voice — your words, your order — while removing what slows the reader down.
How do you get each one when you dictate?
Most dictation tools give you one fixed style. Built-in voice typing in Windows (Win+H) leans literal: it transcribes what you said and leaves the tidying to you. AI dictation apps lean the other way and clean up everything.
Pithflow's Windows app has both, one gesture apart. Raw mode is close to verbatim: no AI rewriting, only punctuation, numbers and spoken commands. Structured mode is clean verbatim plus formatting — filler and false starts go, lists become bullets. Tap Ctrl twice to move between them.
One honest caveat on "verbatim" from any speech recognizer: the recognizer itself doesn't always transcribe every "um" or "uh". Raw mode removes nothing, but a filler sound can still be missing because it was never recognized.
Which style should you default to?
Clean verbatim for anything people will read, verbatim for anything that might be quoted or checked later. If you can't decide, dictate in Raw — you can always clean up a literal transcript, but you can't recover words a cleanup already removed.
Compare the modes on the same sentence on the dictation modes page, or download Pithflow for Windows.
FAQ
Is intelligent verbatim the same as clean verbatim?
Yes. Both names describe a transcript that drops filler, stutters and false starts while keeping the speaker's own words.
Is clean verbatim less accurate?
No. It's a different decision about what counts as content. The words that carry meaning are the same in both.
Can I get a verbatim transcript from dictation?
Close to it. Use a mode with no AI rewriting — in Pithflow that's Raw — and remember that the speech recognizer may not write down every filler sound.
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