To dictate in another language on a Mac, open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation → Languages, add the language you want (the Mac may download a model the first time), and select it before you start. The built-in tool dictates one language at a time, so if you mix languages in a single sentence you'll need a tool that pins to the languages you speak instead of asking you to switch by hand.
Add a dictation language in System Settings
macOS's built-in dictation can type in more than the language your Mac's interface uses — you just have to add it. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation, find the Languages control, and add the language you want. The first time you pick a language, the Mac may download a small model for it, so give it a minute on Wi-Fi before you expect words to appear. From then on the language you selected is what dictation transcribes, and you can add several so they're all available to choose between.
Where the built-in tool gets in the way
The friction is that macOS's built-in dictation transcribes one language at a time, and switching is manual. If you set it to Spanish, it hears everything as Spanish — so an English name, an English quote, or a whole clause you slip into mid-sentence comes out garbled, because the recognizer is committed to the language you last chose. Bilingual people don't talk that way. You reach for the word that fits the thought, and it's often in the other language: a term of art, a place name, a phrase that simply lands better. Every one of those becomes a moment where you either stop and change the setting or accept a mistranscription and fix it afterwards.
How AI dictation handles mixed-language speech
AI dictation approaches the problem from the other side. Instead of asking you to declare one language per session, it pins transcription to the set of languages you actually speak and transcribes what it hears — so when you switch languages mid-thought, the words land in the right language without a settings trip. You dictate in any language in that set, and mixed-language sentences stay intact rather than being forced through a single recognizer. For people who live between two languages, that's the difference between dictation you fight and dictation you forget is running.
Dictate in one language, send in another
There's a second thing AI dictation can do that the built-in tool can't: translate as you go. Because polishing the transcript is a separate step from capturing it, translation can be a per-app setting — think in the language that comes naturally and have the finished text arrive in the language your reader needs. Set it once for the apps where you write to an international audience, and speak your own language while the output is another. It turns dictation from a transcription tool into a way to write fluently in a language you'd otherwise have to compose in slowly.
Dictate in the languages you actually speak
Clavio is an AI dictation app for Mac that lives in the menu bar. You dictate in any language you speak; it pins transcription to the languages you pick and handles mixed-language speech, including switching languages mid-thought. Translation is a per-app setting — dictate in one language, send in another — and it pastes finished, correctly-toned text into any focused field. Free to try: 3,000 words a month, no card, macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon.
Keep reading
Common questions
How do I change the dictation language on a Mac?
Open System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation and use the Languages control to add the language you want. The first time you add one, the Mac may download a model for it, so allow a minute on Wi-Fi; after that, the language you selected is what dictation transcribes.
Can I dictate in two languages at once on a Mac?
Not with macOS's built-in dictation — it transcribes one language at a time, so mixing languages in a single sentence tends to garble the words from the other language. AI dictation that pins to the languages you speak handles mixed-language speech, so you can switch mid-sentence without changing a setting.
Why does Mac dictation get the other language wrong when I switch mid-sentence?
Because the built-in recognizer is committed to the one language you last selected, so anything you say in another language is heard as that language and comes out wrong. A tool that transcribes against the whole set of languages you speak keeps each word in its actual language instead.
Can I dictate in one language and have it come out in another?
Yes — with AI dictation, translation can be a per-app setting, so you speak your own language and the finished text arrives in the language your reader needs. In Clavio you set it for the apps where you write to an international audience and dictate normally.