No, the letters observed in menus can be disabled by turning off the reporting of object shortcut keys.
This is found under NVDA's settings in the object presentation category.
On 27/06/2020 1:01 pm, E.T. via groups.io wrote:

   I have tried quite  few voices but ended up with buying Samantha. Yes perhaps that is where the issue is but I added that to the dictionary and its fine now. But now I wonder if it is Samantha that is adding letters to the menu items as I posted earlier.

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On 6/26/2020 7:07 PM, Gene wrote:

That sounds to me like a synthesizer problem.  Spelling control never happens to me.  The word control as in "control n" is spoken.  What happens when you try another synthesizer?

Gene
-----Original Message----- From: E.T. via groups.io
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2020 6:37 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] Some NVDA Questions

    Ok I won't worry about the unknown. :)

    I know how the menu system works. If one has super memory then
knowing all the shortcuts would be fine.

    What I am talking about is that NVDA will not read 'ctrl' as
'control' but spells the letters out. Another one might be F3 for find
next. NVDA reads that as 'f3n'. I have a hearing impairment so this
makes it more difficult to understand.

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On 6/26/2020 4:08 PM, Gene wrote:

Unknown means something, it could be anything, is unknown to NVDA.
NVDA is simply telling you that it doesn't know how to read something.
Often, it doesn't matter.  If you hear what you should, it doesn't matter. Its just clutter.  If you hear unknown instead of what you should hear, then there is a problem and there is probably nothing you can do because the screen-reader itself doesn't know what something is.

I'm not sure what you are asking for in terms of how control plus letter is read.  For example, in a new menu, new document may be control n.
New message in an e-mail program may be control n.  In both cases, you are creating something new, a new document you are going to work with or a new message you are going to write. You must hear control and the letter. Either by itself means nothing.

The purpose of such short ccuts is to avoid opening a menu. You execute a command directly from the program window.  You will also hear the menu shortcut when you are moving through a menu.  For example, you might hear new message as a menu item, then control n, then a letter.  The letter is the short cut you use when you are in the menu.  For example, in a file menu new something may have a control n short cut.  It may also have a letter, such as d.  I've never seen d used in this way, it is an example. Let's say it means document.  If you want to use the shortcut that opens the menu, you would use alt f then d for new document.  If you want to bypass the menu and use only one command, you would use control n.

Gene
-----Original Message----- From: E.T. via groups.io
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2020 2:50 PM
To: NVDA
Subject: [nvda] Some NVDA Questions

    I am more comfortable with Voiceover but need to keep running
Windows for some applications.

    First, I'm still using NVDA 2019.2 because I have one purchased
voice. Have any new voices been added to later versions? The purchased
voice is Voiceover's Samantha voice or close to it.

    One web pages, and maybe elsewhere, sometimes I hear 'unknown'. Not
sure what element is spoken that way. Can I change it?

    When NVDA speaks shortcuts, for example, ctrl-a, it speaks the
letters. Can I change this so 'control' is spoken instead? Thanks much.

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