Speak your language, get English text on your Mac

Apple Dictation types the language you speak. Its guide has no option to translate as you talk, so the free way is two steps: dictate in your language, then let the Mac translate what you dictated. These steps follow Apple's Dictation guide and its page on translating text on a Mac, both for macOS 27, checked October 16, 2026.

1. Choose Apple menu > System Settings, click Keyboard, and turn on Dictation. Click Edit next to Languages and select the language you speak.
2. Click where the text should go, then press the Microphone key, your Dictation shortcut, or choose Edit > Start Dictation. Speak in your language.
3. Press Escape or your shortcut to stop.
4. Select what you dictated, Control-click it, and choose Translate.
5. Pick your language and English from the pop-up menus, then click Replace with Translation. Or click Copy Translation to paste it somewhere else.

To translate without a connection, open System Settings > General > Language & Region, click Translation Languages and download the languages you need. Apple notes that offline translations may be less accurate than ones done on its servers. Apple also says Translate works in different apps, “including some third-party apps”, so if it's missing from the menu, paste the text into one of Apple's own apps, like Notes, and try there.

Apple's macOS feature availability page lists Dictation in 63 language and region versions, and on-device dictation in 48 of them, checked October 16, 2026. In a language without on-device support, Apple Dictation needs a connection. Keyboard settings say which applies to you.

If you speak more than one language, add each one under Languages. While you dictate, switch by clicking the language shown next to the cursor, or press the Globe key if your keyboard has one. Apple has you pick the language as you go, so you switch each time you change languages.

Koi works the other way round. Its dictation understands 57 languages and works out which one you're speaking by itself, so there's nothing to switch. That matters most if you move between two languages all day.

We make Koi, so read this part with that in mind. Koi's dictation has a switch called Type in English: you speak any language, and the words are typed in English, in whatever app your cursor is in. There's no second step.

1. Open Koi's Settings, go to Dictation, and turn on Type in English.
2. Check the speech model. Whisper Small, which is built in, and Base can type in English. Large v3 Turbo can't translate, so pick Small or Base for this.
3. Click where the text should go in any app, tap Fn + ⌥ once and speak in your own language.
4. Tap the keys again to stop, or just go quiet and it stops by itself.
5. Read it over before you send it.

The speech model runs on your Mac, so your voice isn't sent anywhere to be turned into English: dictation never goes online. Koi runs on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. To set up the rest of Koi's dictation, see the dictation page, and to teach it the names you use, our guide to adding words.

We haven't measured it. How well your words come out in English depends on the language you speak, how clearly you speak and your microphone, and Small and Base are the smaller of Koi's three models. So treat what it types as a draft, and read it before it goes anywhere that matters.

A few more things to know before you rely on it:

• It types English only. If you need your words in French or Japanese, Koi can't do that; Apple's Translate can, in the two steps above.
• We haven't tested mixing two languages inside one sentence. Try it on your own words first.
• For a contract, a medical note or anything legal, have a person who reads both languages check it.
• Koi is Mac only and needs a paid plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once: $59 for the first 25 buyers, rising to $199.

If you only need English now and then, Apple's free two-step way is fine. See Koi's pricing if you'd use it every day.

Two other dictation apps say they translate, both from their own sites, checked October 16, 2026:

• Superwhisper lists 100+ languages and translation into English on its Pro plan, $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 once. Its free plan runs Whisper on your Mac.
• Typeless lists 100+ languages, mixed-language speech and translation, done in the cloud. Pro is $12 a member a month billed yearly, or $30 billed monthly.

Our list of the best dictation apps for Mac compares the rest, and Apple Dictation alternatives covers what the built-in one doesn't do.

Typing is one half. Speaking on calls is the other, and Koi has two things for that on a recorded call. With “Coach how I speak” on, and a yes to Koi's notes when the recording ends, you get a few things you said put more naturally and words worth practising. For notes, the call's words go to Koi's AI, never the audio. With “Live captions in my language” on, on macOS 26 and later, what the others say shows at the bottom of the screen in your language, translated on the Mac.

And when you talk to Koi, the assistant, it answers in whatever language you talk to it in. That part uses cloud AI models.

New to dictation on a Mac? Start with how to dictate on a Mac, and if the shortcut does nothing, our guide to fixing Mac dictation.