Languages · Finnish
Finnish speech to text on your Mac
NoteOwl turns Finnish speech to text on your Mac. Dictate into any app, record a meeting or import a recording, and it writes Finnish with ä and ö and its long words kept whole, using on-device AI models that work offline after a one-time download.
Below is a real sample: a short Finnish work call about a summer customer event by a lake, and NoteOwl’s transcript of it, unedited. Dictation is free and unlimited; meetings and imported recordings are part of NoteOwl Pro.
Finnish in NoteOwl
- Plan
- Dictation free and unlimited; meetings and imports in NoteOwl Pro
- Dictation and meetings
- Settings → Auto-Context → Spoken language: Auto-detect
- Imported recordings
- Language detected automatically
- On the sample
- 96.9% of the characters matched
- Where it runs
- On your Mac; offline after the one-time model download
A real sample
What does NoteOwl’s Finnish transcript look like?
Here’s a sample recording, and NoteOwl’s transcript of it, unedited. On this sample NoteOwl matched 96.9% of the characters (punctuation and spacing aside).
The recording · 0:58
A short work call between Aino and Mikko. NoteOwl detected the language by itself.
NoteOwl’s transcript
In English
Tilataan pitopalvelu niin kenenkään ei tarvitse seistä grillin ääressä koko iltaa. Sovitaan niin
In English: Let’s order catering, so nobody has to stand at the grill all evening. Agreed,
pyydän tarjoukset kahdelta yritykseltä torstaihin mennessä. Hyvä
In English: I’ll ask two companies for quotes by Thursday. Good,
minä lähetän osallistujille muistutuksen ja ajoohjeet ensi viikon alussa, ettei kukaan eksyn matkalla. Varataanko myös sauna? Se kuuluu tilan
In English: I’ll send the participants a reminder and driving directions early next week, so nobody gets lost on the way. Shall we book the sauna too? It’s included in the
hintaan. Ilman muuta
In English: price of the venue. Absolutely.
No niin, sitten ollaan aika pitkällä. Kiitos
In English: Right, then we’re pretty far along. Thanks,
Mikko. Kiitos itsellesi. Palataan asiaan torstoina.
In English: Mikko. Thank you too. Let’s pick this up again on Thursday.
How does NoteOwl write Finnish?
With ä and ö in place and long words kept whole. In the sample, asiakastilaisuuden, ilmoittautuneita and pitopalvelu came out as single words, and questions built with -ko and -kö, such as “Varataanko myös sauna?”, got their question marks.
Numbers came out as words, but long inflected numerals are where it slipped: neljäkymmentäkaksi was split into “neljäkymmentä kaksi”, and neljällekymmenelle came out as “neljäkymmentelle”. The simpler “kahdelta yritykseltä” was right.
A few word boundaries moved: “tila järven rannalla” became “tilajärven rannalla”, ajo-ohjeet lost its hyphen to become “ajoohjeet”, and torstaina came out as “torstoina”. The opening “Moi Mikko” didn’t make it into the transcript at all.
How do you dictate in Finnish on a Mac?
Tap fn in any app, speak Finnish and tap fn again: the words type at your cursor. In Settings → Auto-Context → Spoken language, choose Auto-detect, because Finnish isn’t one of the languages that menu can pin.
The setting starts on your Mac’s own language, so on a Mac set to English, switch it to Auto-detect before you dictate or record a meeting in Finnish. Recordings you import are always detected automatically, the way NoteOwl recognised the sample above.
Where is Finnish spoken, and what do people record in it?
Finnish is the first language of about 5 million people, most of them in Finland, where it is an official language alongside Swedish. NoteOwl lists it as one language, without regional variants.
At work that means the palaveri and its muistio, customer events, supplier calls and interviews. The sample plans a summer evening for customers at a lakeside venue, sauna included.
The script is standard Finnish, minä rather than the spoken mä, so it doesn’t show how NoteOwl handles puhekieli. If your meetings are in everyday spoken Finnish, try NoteOwl on a short recording of your own first.
How do you get the best Finnish transcripts?
Check numbers and compound words, and teach NoteOwl the names it doesn’t know. In the sample the meaning came through; the slips were in long numerals and in where one word ends and the next begins.
A Vocabulary rule, part of NoteOwl Pro, fixes a slip that keeps coming back: under “When I say…” type the form NoteOwl writes, such as ajoohjeet, and under “Replace with…” the one you want, ajo-ohjeet. Finnish words change with every case, so each form you use needs its own rule.
Is Finnish speech to text free in NoteOwl?
Yes, for dictation. Speaking Finnish into any app is free and unlimited, forever, like voice notes. Meetings, imported recordings, summaries, Chat and custom vocabulary are part of NoteOwl Pro.
NoteOwl Pro is $79 once for one Mac, with a 7-day free trial in the app and no card. Everything runs on your Mac, with the same on-device AI models on both plans.
- Dictation in Finnish, into any app
- FreeUnlimited
- ProUnlimited
- Voice notes
- FreeUnlimited
- ProUnlimited
- Finnish meetings, with no bot joining
- FreeNo
- ProYes
- Imported Finnish recordings
- FreeNo
- ProYes
- Summaries, action items and Chat
- FreeNo
- ProYes
- Custom vocabulary
- FreeNo
- ProYes
- Read and export your own transcripts
- FreeYes
- ProYes
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Dictation in Finnish, into any app | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Voice notes | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Finnish meetings, with no bot joining | No | Yes |
| Imported Finnish recordings | No | Yes |
| Summaries, action items and Chat | No | Yes |
| Custom vocabulary | No | Yes |
| Read and export your own transcripts | Yes | Yes |
FAQ
Questions about Finnish transcription
Can NoteOwl transcribe Finnish offline?
Yes. NoteOwl turns Finnish speech into text on your Mac with on-device AI models, so after the one-time model download it works with no internet connection. Your recordings and transcripts stay on your Mac.
Does NoteOwl handle Finnish case endings?
Mostly. In NoteOwl’s transcript of the Finnish sample, endings such as kahdelta, yritykseltä and torstaihin mennessä were right, but a long inflected number, neljällekymmenelle, came out as “neljäkymmentelle”. Check figures before you share a transcript.
Do I have to tell NoteOwl I’m speaking Finnish?
Not for imported recordings: NoteOwl detects their language by itself. For dictation and meetings, set Settings → Auto-Context → Spoken language to Auto-detect, since Finnish isn’t one of the languages that menu can pin.
Is Finnish dictation free in NoteOwl?
Yes. Dictating Finnish into any app is free and unlimited, forever. Meetings, imported recordings, summaries, Chat and custom vocabulary are part of NoteOwl Pro, $79 once for one Mac, with a 7-day free trial in the app.
Can NoteOwl transcribe Finnish meetings?
Yes, with NoteOwl Pro. It records your microphone and your Mac’s audio, with no bot joining the call, and transcribes the Finnish on your Mac. Set Spoken language to Auto-detect before the meeting.
Related
- All 34 languages The languages NoteOwl understands, grouped by region.
- Free speech to text for Mac Tap fn in any app, talk, and the words type at your cursor.
- Transcribe audio to text Import a recording and get a transcript with speakers and a time on every line.
- AI meeting notes without a bot Record calls from your Mac, with nothing joining the meeting.
- Offline AI meeting notes Transcripts, summaries and Chat with no internet connection.
- Estonian speech to text Hear a Estonian sample and read NoteOwl’s transcript of it.
- Swedish speech to text Hear a Swedish sample and read NoteOwl’s transcript of it.
- Hungarian speech to text Hear a Hungarian sample and read NoteOwl’s transcript of it.
Keep exploring
More languages
- Swedish speech to textSwedish dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
- Estonian speech to textEstonian dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
- Latvian speech to textLatvian dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
- English speech to textEnglish dictation, meetings and imported recordings transcribed on your Mac, with a real NoteOwl transcript of a sample recording
Dictation, meetings and recordings
- Free dictation into any appFree, unlimited speech to text in every app on your Mac: tap fn, talk, and the words type at your cursor; one tap polishes them in the right tone for that app
- Audio to textTranscription software for your Mac: drop in an audio or video file and get a speaker-labelled transcript with timestamps, unlimited, with nothing uploaded
- AI meeting notes without a botHow NoteOwl records calls from your Mac with no bot joining, and what you get when the call ends
Free tools
- Finnish audio to textTranscribe a Finnish recording free in your browser, with the language set to Finnish; text, SRT, VTT or Word; nothing is stored
- Finnish subtitle generatorMake Finnish subtitles from a video or recording free in your browser, with the language set to Finnish; SRT, VTT or text; nothing is stored
- Translate subtitles to FinnishTranslate SRT or VTT subtitles into Finnish free in your browser: every cue keeps its number and times; nothing is stored
Transcribe Finnish on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
Last updated