Languages NoteOwl understands
Last updated Checked against NoteOwl 1.0.0
NoteOwl's speech recognition understands 34 languages, and all of it runs on your Mac. Dictation and meetings follow Spoken language in Settings → Auto-Context, which can pin English, Hindi, Spanish, French or German, or detect the language for you. Recordings you import are always detected automatically.
Which languages does NoteOwl understand?
These 34, grouped by region. Where a language has its own page, its name links to a sample recording and NoteOwl's real transcript of it. Variants that NoteOwl lists are in brackets.
| Region | Languages |
|---|---|
| Western Europe | English (United States, United Kingdom), French (France, Canada), German, Spanish (Spain, United States), Portuguese (Brazil, Portugal), Italian, Dutch, Greek |
| Northern Europe | Danish, Finnish, Norwegian (Bokmål, Nynorsk), Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian |
| Central and Eastern Europe | Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian |
| Middle East | Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish |
| Asia | Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese |
Accuracy varies by language and accent. Before you rely on a language for a long meeting, try NoteOwl on a short recording of your own.
How does NoteOwl decide which language you're speaking?
It depends on what you're transcribing. Dictation with fn and meetings follow the Spoken language setting. Recordings you import, and voice notes you record with New Dictation, ignore it: NoteOwl works out their language by itself.
| What you're transcribing | How NoteOwl picks the language |
|---|---|
| Dictation into any app with fn | Spoken language, in Settings → Auto-Context |
| Meetings | Spoken language, the same setting |
| Voice notes recorded with New Dictation | Detected automatically |
| Recordings imported in Transcripts | Detected automatically, whatever Spoken language says |
How do I set the spoken language?
Open Settings → Auto-Context and use the Spoken language menu. It offers Auto-detect, English, Hindi, Spanish, French and German, and it starts on your Mac's own language: on a Mac set to English, that's English.
- Click Settings in the sidebar. Settings opens on the Auto-Context tab.
- Find Spoken language, the first setting on the tab.
- Click the menu beside it and choose a language, or Auto-detect.
NoteOwl uses the new setting from the next dictation or meeting you start.
When should I choose Auto-detect?
Whenever you speak a language the menu doesn't list, such as Portuguese, Polish or Japanese. NoteOwl then recognises the language from what it hears. Pin a language instead if Auto-detect ever writes your words in the wrong script, which is what the menu is for.
With English pinned, NoteOwl writes the Latin alphabet only, and the same goes for Spanish, French and German. Your words can't come out in another script, but a language with its own alphabet, such as Greek, Russian, Arabic or Hindi, can't come out in its own letters either. If your Mac's language is English, check the menu once before you dictate or record a meeting in another language.
Do I need an internet connection for a new language?
Only the first time NoteOwl needs a part of its speech model that isn't on your Mac yet. The part for the language Spoken language is set to comes with the one-time download at setup. Other parts download the first time something needs them.
Each of these may download a part NoteOwl doesn't have yet, so do them once while you're online:
- Your first recording import, or your first voice note with New Dictation.
- Your first dictation or meeting on Auto-detect.
- Your first dictation or meeting after you switch Spoken language to another language.
If you chose Skip — download on first use during setup, your first dictation downloads what it needs too. From then on, NoteOwl transcribes that language offline: see use NoteOwl offline.
Does custom vocabulary work in other languages?
Yes. A Vocabulary rule works in any language NoteOwl writes, matching whole words in any mix of capitals. Letters in Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Devanagari and other alphabets count as part of a word, so a rule never fires inside a longer word.
Words that change their endings, as in Polish, Russian or Greek, need a rule for each form that comes out wrong. Chinese, Japanese and Thai are written without spaces between words, so a rule in those languages matches only next to punctuation or a space.
Vocabulary is part of NoteOwl Pro: see teach NoteOwl names and jargon.
Do NoteOwl Free and NoteOwl Pro understand the same languages?
Yes. Both use the same on-device AI models, so they understand the same 34 languages. On NoteOwl Free you can dictate into any app and record voice notes in each of them; meetings, imported recordings and custom vocabulary are part of NoteOwl Pro.
You can try NoteOwl Pro free for 7 days: see start the 7-day NoteOwl Pro trial.
Common questions
Why isn't my language in the Spoken language menu?
The menu can pin only English, Hindi, Spanish, French and German. NoteOwl understands the other 29 languages too. For those, choose Auto-detect, and NoteOwl recognises the language from what it hears.
Why did my dictation come out in English letters?
Spoken language is probably set to English, which is where it starts when your Mac's language is English. With English pinned, NoteOwl writes only the Latin alphabet. In Settings → Auto-Context, choose Auto-detect, or your language if the menu lists it.
Do I need to choose a language before I import a recording?
No. NoteOwl works out the language of each recording you import in Transcripts by itself, whatever Spoken language is set to. Voice notes you record with New Dictation are detected automatically too.
Can NoteOwl transcribe other languages offline?
Yes. NoteOwl's speech recognition runs on your Mac. The first time you use a language that the setup download didn't cover, NoteOwl may fetch one more part of its speech model, so do your first import and your first Auto-detect dictation while you're online.
NoteOwl system requirements
NoteOwl needs macOS 26 or later, a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and 16 GB of memory, plus room for a one-time download of its on-device AI models.
macOS permissions NoteOwl asks for, and why
The macOS permissions NoteOwl asks for, from Microphone and Input Monitoring to Screen Recording and Calendar, what each is for, and how to turn it on.