diff --git a/config/punctuation/default.conf b/config/punctuation/default.conf
index 44d5590e..e2c30871 100644
--- a/config/punctuation/default.conf
+++ b/config/punctuation/default.conf
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 # the entrys are seperated with :===: in words colon tripple equal colon ( to not collide with substitutions)
 [levelDict]
 none:===:
-some:===:.-$~+*-/\\@
-most:===:.,:-$~+*-/\\@!#%^&*()[]}{<>;
+some:===:.-$~+*-/\@
+most:===:.,:-$~+*-/\@!#%^&*()[]}{<>;
 all:===:!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~
 
 # the punctuation char in some cases are append to the words because they create a pause in TTS, the behaviour may differ between the synthesers
diff --git a/src/fenrir/core/punctuationManager.py b/src/fenrir/core/punctuationManager.py
index f2ab3da8..b7eb0a9c 100644
--- a/src/fenrir/core/punctuationManager.py
+++ b/src/fenrir/core/punctuationManager.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class punctuationManager():
                 if key in punctuation:
                     if self.env['runtime']['settingsManager'].getSetting('general', 'respectPunctuationPause') and \
                       len(key) == 1 and \
-                      key in string.punctuation:
+                      key in ",.;:?!-":
                         resultText = resultText.replace(str(key),' ' +str(item) + str(key) + ' ')                    
                     else:
                         resultText = resultText.replace(str(key),' ' +str(item) + ' ')