Systems and methods for switching between voice dictation modes using a gesture are provided so that an alternate meaning to a dictated word may be applied. The provided systems and methods time stamp detected gestures and detected words from the voice dictation and compare the time stamp at which a gesture is detected to the time stamp at which a word is detected. When it is determined that a time stamp of a gesture approximately matches a time stamp of a word, the word may be processed to have an alternate meaning, such as a command, punctuation, or action.