diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.cc b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.cc
index f5f84b8d0..310fefa78 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.cc
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.cc
@@ -75,8 +75,9 @@ static std::vector<int32_t> ConvertTokensToIds(
   return ids;
 }
 
-Lexicon::Lexicon(const std::string &lexicon, const std::string &tokens) {
-  std::unordered_map<std::string, int32_t> token2id = ReadTokens(tokens);
+Lexicon::Lexicon(const std::string &lexicon, const std::string &tokens,
+                 const std::string &punctuations) {
+  token2id_ = ReadTokens(tokens);
   std::ifstream is(lexicon);
 
   std::string word;
@@ -101,15 +102,22 @@ Lexicon::Lexicon(const std::string &lexicon, const std::string &tokens) {
       token_list.push_back(std::move(phone));
     }
 
-    std::vector<int32_t> ids = ConvertTokensToIds(token2id, token_list);
+    std::vector<int32_t> ids = ConvertTokensToIds(token2id_, token_list);
     if (ids.empty()) {
       continue;
     }
     word2ids_.insert({std::move(word), std::move(ids)});
   }
+
+  // process punctuations
+  std::vector<std::string> punctuation_list;
+  SplitStringToVector(punctuations, " ", false, &punctuation_list);
+  for (auto &s : punctuation_list) {
+    punctuations_.insert(std::move(s));
+  }
 }
 
-std::vector<int32_t> Lexicon::ConvertTextToTokenIds(
+std::vector<int64_t> Lexicon::ConvertTextToTokenIds(
     const std::string &_text) const {
   std::string text(_text);
   ToLowerCase(&text);
@@ -117,15 +125,30 @@ std::vector<int32_t> Lexicon::ConvertTextToTokenIds(
   std::vector<std::string> words;
   SplitStringToVector(text, " ", false, &words);
 
-  std::vector<int32_t> ans;
-  for (const auto &w : words) {
+  std::vector<int64_t> ans;
+  for (auto w : words) {
+    std::vector<int64_t> prefix;
+    while (!w.empty() && punctuations_.count(std::string(1, w[0]))) {
+      // if w begins with a punctuation
+      prefix.push_back(token2id_.at(std::string(1, w[0])));
+      w = std::string(w.begin() + 1, w.end());
+    }
+
+    std::vector<int64_t> suffix;
+    while (!w.empty() && punctuations_.count(std::string(1, w.back()))) {
+      suffix.push_back(token2id_.at(std::string(1, w.back())));
+      w = std::string(w.begin(), w.end() - 1);
+    }
+
     if (!word2ids_.count(w)) {
       SHERPA_ONNX_LOGE("OOV %s. Ignore it!", w.c_str());
       continue;
     }
 
     const auto &token_ids = word2ids_.at(w);
+    ans.insert(ans.end(), prefix.begin(), prefix.end());
     ans.insert(ans.end(), token_ids.begin(), token_ids.end());
+    ans.insert(ans.end(), suffix.rbegin(), suffix.rend());
   }
 
   return ans;
diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.h b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.h
index eefce319b..2e746ada9 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.h
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/lexicon.h
@@ -8,18 +8,22 @@
 #include <cstdint>
 #include <string>
 #include <unordered_map>
+#include <unordered_set>
 #include <vector>
 
 namespace sherpa_onnx {
 
 class Lexicon {
  public:
-  Lexicon(const std::string &lexicon, const std::string &tokens);
+  Lexicon(const std::string &lexicon, const std::string &tokens,
+          const std::string &punctuations);
 
-  std::vector<int32_t> ConvertTextToTokenIds(const std::string &text) const;
+  std::vector<int64_t> ConvertTextToTokenIds(const std::string &text) const;
 
  private:
   std::unordered_map<std::string, std::vector<int32_t>> word2ids_;
+  std::unordered_set<std::string> punctuations_;
+  std::unordered_map<std::string, int32_t> token2id_;
 };
 
 }  // namespace sherpa_onnx
diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-impl.h b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-impl.h
index 61456794e..e9b94064c 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-impl.h
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-impl.h
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 #ifndef SHERPA_ONNX_CSRC_OFFLINE_TTS_VITS_IMPL_H_
 #define SHERPA_ONNX_CSRC_OFFLINE_TTS_VITS_IMPL_H_
 
-#include <fstream>
 #include <memory>
 #include <string>
 #include <utility>
@@ -21,44 +20,52 @@ class OfflineTtsVitsImpl : public OfflineTtsImpl {
  public:
   explicit OfflineTtsVitsImpl(const OfflineTtsConfig &config)
       : model_(std::make_unique<OfflineTtsVitsModel>(config.model)),
-        lexicon_(config.model.vits.lexicon, config.model.vits.tokens) {
+        lexicon_(config.model.vits.lexicon, config.model.vits.tokens,
+                 model_->Punctuations()) {
     SHERPA_ONNX_LOGE("config: %s\n", config.ToString().c_str());
   }
 
   GeneratedAudio Generate(const std::string &text) const override {
-    SHERPA_ONNX_LOGE("txt: %s", text.c_str());
-    auto memory_info =
-        Ort::MemoryInfo::CreateCpu(OrtDeviceAllocator, OrtMemTypeDefault);
+    std::vector<int64_t> x = lexicon_.ConvertTextToTokenIds(text);
+    if (x.empty()) {
+      SHERPA_ONNX_LOGE("Failed to convert %s to token IDs", text.c_str());
+      return {};
+    }
 
-    auto t = lexicon_.ConvertTextToTokenIds("liliana");
-    for (auto i : t) {
-      fprintf(stderr, "%d ", i);
+    if (model_->AddBlank()) {
+      std::vector<int64_t> buffer(x.size() * 2 + 1);
+      int32_t i = 1;
+      for (auto k : x) {
+        buffer[i] = k;
+        i += 2;
+      }
+      x = std::move(buffer);
     }
-    fprintf(stderr, "\n");
 
-    std::vector<int64_t> x = {
-        0, 54,  0, 157, 0, 102, 0, 54, 0, 51,  0, 158, 0, 156, 0, 72,
-        0, 56,  0, 83,  0, 3,   0, 16, 0, 157, 0, 43,  0, 135, 0, 85,
-        0, 16,  0, 55,  0, 156, 0, 57, 0, 135, 0, 61,  0, 62,  0, 16,
-        0, 44,  0, 52,  0, 156, 0, 63, 0, 158, 0, 125, 0, 102, 0, 48,
-        0, 83,  0, 54,  0, 16,  0, 72, 0, 56,  0, 46,  0, 16,  0, 54,
-        0, 156, 0, 138, 0, 64,  0, 54, 0, 51,  0, 16,  0, 70,  0, 61,
-        0, 156, 0, 102, 0, 61,  0, 62, 0, 83,  0, 56,  0, 62,  0};
+    auto memory_info =
+        Ort::MemoryInfo::CreateCpu(OrtDeviceAllocator, OrtMemTypeDefault);
+
     std::array<int64_t, 2> x_shape = {1, static_cast<int32_t>(x.size())};
     Ort::Value x_tensor = Ort::Value::CreateTensor(
         memory_info, x.data(), x.size(), x_shape.data(), x_shape.size());
+
     Ort::Value audio = model_->Run(std::move(x_tensor));
 
     std::vector<int64_t> audio_shape =
         audio.GetTensorTypeAndShapeInfo().GetShape();
 
-    const float *p = audio.GetTensorData<float>();
-    std::ofstream os("t.pcm", std::ios::binary);
-    os.write(reinterpret_cast<const char *>(p), sizeof(float) * audio_shape[2]);
+    int64_t total = 1;
+    // The output shape may be (1, 1, total) or (1, total) or (total,)
+    for (auto i : audio_shape) {
+      total *= i;
+    }
 
-    // sox -t raw -r 22050 -b 32 -e floating-point -c 1 ./t.pcm ./t.wav
+    const float *p = audio.GetTensorData<float>();
 
-    return {};
+    GeneratedAudio ans;
+    ans.sample_rate = model_->SampleRate();
+    ans.samples = std::vector<float>(p, p + total);
+    return ans;
   }
 
  private:
diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.cc b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.cc
index c8d7e8655..2f6365132 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.cc
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.cc
@@ -70,6 +70,8 @@ class OfflineTtsVitsModel::Impl {
 
   bool AddBlank() const { return add_blank_; }
 
+  std::string Punctuations() const { return punctuations_; }
+
  private:
   void Init(void *model_data, size_t model_data_length) {
     sess_ = std::make_unique<Ort::Session>(env_, model_data, model_data_length,
@@ -91,6 +93,7 @@ class OfflineTtsVitsModel::Impl {
     Ort::AllocatorWithDefaultOptions allocator;  // used in the macro below
     SHERPA_ONNX_READ_META_DATA(sample_rate_, "sample_rate");
     SHERPA_ONNX_READ_META_DATA(add_blank_, "add_blank");
+    SHERPA_ONNX_READ_META_DATA_STR(punctuations_, "punctuation");
   }
 
  private:
@@ -109,6 +112,7 @@ class OfflineTtsVitsModel::Impl {
 
   int32_t sample_rate_;
   int32_t add_blank_;
+  std::string punctuations_;
 };
 
 OfflineTtsVitsModel::OfflineTtsVitsModel(const OfflineTtsModelConfig &config)
@@ -124,4 +128,8 @@ int32_t OfflineTtsVitsModel::SampleRate() const { return impl_->SampleRate(); }
 
 bool OfflineTtsVitsModel::AddBlank() const { return impl_->AddBlank(); }
 
+std::string OfflineTtsVitsModel::Punctuations() const {
+  return impl_->Punctuations();
+}
+
 }  // namespace sherpa_onnx
diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.h b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.h
index 9825c89bc..ca2c1c6be 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.h
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-vits-model.h
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #define SHERPA_ONNX_CSRC_OFFLINE_TTS_VITS_MODEL_H_
 
 #include <memory>
+#include <string>
 
 #include "onnxruntime_cxx_api.h"  // NOLINT
 #include "sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts-model-config.h"
@@ -32,6 +33,8 @@ class OfflineTtsVitsModel {
   // true to insert a blank between each token
   bool AddBlank() const;
 
+  std::string Punctuations() const;
+
  private:
   class Impl;
   std::unique_ptr<Impl> impl_;
diff --git a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/sherpa-onnx-offline-tts.cc b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/sherpa-onnx-offline-tts.cc
index 1d5d6cd57..18b520f48 100644
--- a/sherpa-onnx/csrc/sherpa-onnx-offline-tts.cc
+++ b/sherpa-onnx/csrc/sherpa-onnx-offline-tts.cc
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 //
 // Copyright (c)  2023  Xiaomi Corporation
 
+#include <fstream>
+
 #include "sherpa-onnx/csrc/offline-tts.h"
 #include "sherpa-onnx/csrc/parse-options.h"
 
@@ -13,7 +15,7 @@ Offline text-to-speech with sherpa-onnx
  --vits-model /path/to/model.onnx \
  --vits-lexicon /path/to/lexicon.txt \
  --vits-tokens /path/to/tokens.txt
- "some text within double quotes"
+ 'some text within single quotes'
 
 It will generate a file test.wav.
 )usage";
@@ -23,19 +25,33 @@ It will generate a file test.wav.
   config.Register(&po);
   po.Read(argc, argv);
 
-  if (po.NumArgs() != 1) {
+  if (po.NumArgs() == 0) {
     fprintf(stderr, "Error: Please provide the text to generate audio.\n\n");
     po.PrintUsage();
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }
 
+  if (po.NumArgs() > 1) {
+    fprintf(stderr,
+            "Error: Accept only one positional argument. Please use single "
+            "quotes to wrap your text\n");
+    po.PrintUsage();
+    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+  }
+
   if (!config.Validate()) {
     fprintf(stderr, "Errors in config!\n");
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }
 
   sherpa_onnx::OfflineTts tts(config);
-  tts.Generate("hello world\n");
+  auto audio = tts.Generate(po.GetArg(1));
+
+  std::ofstream os("t.pcm", std::ios::binary);
+  os.write(reinterpret_cast<const char *>(audio.samples.data()),
+           sizeof(float) * audio.samples.size());
+
+  // sox -t raw -r 22050 -b 32 -e floating-point -c 1 ./t.pcm ./t.wav
 
   return 0;
 }