--- title: "Speak your language, write in English: dictation for non-native speakers on a Mac" description: "Work in English without writing every message twice. Dictate in German, Spanish, French or 16 other languages and get English text in any Mac app, translated on the device. Needs macOS 26." url: "https://speechbee.app/guides/speak-your-language-write-english-mac" --- # Speak your language, write in English You know exactly what you want to say. It is the English that slows you down: the right word, the polite phrasing, the second read before you hit send. If your team writes in English and you think in another language, you can say it your way and let the English arrive at the cursor. By the SpeechBee team, who make SpeechBee. Checked on 24 October 2026. > ### The short version > > - **The usual way:** write in your language, paste it into a translator, copy the English back, fix it up. It works, and it costs you a few minutes per message. > - **In one step:** SpeechBee, which we make, takes what you say in your language, translates it on your Mac and types the English wherever your cursor is: Slack, Gmail, Teams, Jira, Word. > - **What you need:** a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26, and a language Apple's on-device translation covers. German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian all are. ## Why writing at work takes longer in a second language Most people who work in English as a second language read it well and speak it well enough. Writing is where the time goes. You draft a sentence, doubt a word, look it up, rewrite the start so it sounds less blunt, and read the whole thing again. A two-line reply to a client can take ten minutes. Translators help, but the loop is clumsy: open a browser tab, type or paste, copy, switch back, paste, tidy up. Do that thirty times a day and it becomes a job of its own. ## Say it in your language, get English at the cursor **Your sentence, in the app you are already in.** - Deutsch: Kannst du mir bis Freitag Bescheid geben, ob das Budget passt? → English: Can you let me know by Friday whether the budget works? - Español: Perdón por la demora, te mando los números esta tarde. → English: Sorry for the delay, I'll send you the numbers this afternoon. - Polski: Dzięki, poprawię to jeszcze dziś. → English: Thanks, I'll fix it today. With SpeechBee you hold one key, speak in your own language, and let go. SpeechBee turns your speech into text on your Mac, removes the "ums", and hands the text to Apple's on-device translation. The English lands where your cursor is, in any app. 1. Click the SpeechBee icon in the menu bar and set **Translate To** to **English**. 2. Download the language pair when SpeechBee asks. Apple provides it, once. 3. Click into the message, hold your dictation key and talk the way you would to a colleague who speaks your language. 4. Let go and read the English before you send it. SpeechBee recognises which language you spoke by itself. If you switch to English mid-afternoon, it notices that the text is already English and leaves it alone. To dictate in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Turkish or Vietnamese, turn on SpeechBee's optional Whisper model in Settings first (about 600 MB, also on the device). ## Who this is for - **Remote workers in international teams** who write in English all day on Slack, in tickets and in email. - **People who moved abroad for work** and use English as the office language. - **Freelancers with foreign clients** who want replies to sound natural without spending an hour on them. - **Anyone who reads English easily but writes it slowly.** ## Make the English sound like you - **Speak in full sentences.** Translation works on meaning. A complete thought in your language gives a complete sentence in English. - **Add names and product terms to your dictionary.** SpeechBee fixes them before translation, so a client's name or your company's jargon is not translated into an ordinary word. - **Use a writing mode for email.** With the Email mode on, SpeechBee shapes your words into an email first and translates last. Writing modes run with Apple Intelligence on macOS 26, or with your own AI service. See [AI dictation on a Mac](https://speechbee.app/guides/ai-dictation-mac). - **Read it before you send it.** Machine translation is good, not perfect, and tone is the first thing to slip. Select the text and SpeechBee can read it aloud, which is a quick way to hear whether it sounds right. ## Where it stops SpeechBee translates between the 20 languages Apple's on-device translation offers. If your language is not among them, for example Czech, Swedish or Greek, you get the text exactly as you spoke it, and you would still need a translator. Translation needs macOS 26; on older versions SpeechBee dictates normally. It is a writing tool, so it does not translate meetings, calls or other people's speech. ## Your words stay on your Mac Speech recognition and translation both run on the device. SpeechBee does not upload your audio, and it never sends your text to a translation service. Once the language pair is downloaded, it works offline, which matters when the message is about a contract, a salary or a patient. ## Questions ### Can I speak German and get English text on a Mac? Yes. In SpeechBee set Translate To to English, speak German, and English text appears at your cursor in any app. It needs macOS 26 and a one-time download of the German and English language pack from Apple. ### Does it work with Spanish, French, Polish or Japanese? Yes. Any of Apple's 20 translation languages can be the language you speak: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. ### Does it only translate into English? No. English is the most common choice, but any of the 20 languages can be the target. German to French or Spanish to Italian work the same way. ### Will my colleagues notice it was translated? Sometimes. The translation is usually clear and correct, but it may sound more formal or literal than you would write. Read it once before sending and change a word if it does not sound like you. ### Is it private enough for work? SpeechBee transcribes and translates on your Mac. No audio and no text goes to SpeechBee or to a cloud translator. If you turn on your own AI service for writing modes, text goes to that service only when you use it. ## Keep reading - [Translate while you dictate on a Mac](https://speechbee.app/guides/translate-while-dictating-mac) - [Speak English, write the local language](https://speechbee.app/guides/speak-english-write-another-language-mac) - [Voice translation on a Mac](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-translation-mac) - [Dictation for email and Slack](https://speechbee.app/guides/dictation-for-email-and-slack) ## More on dictation - [Every dictation guide and comparison](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-typing-mac) - [Voice coding on a Mac](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-coding-mac) - [Voice prompts in Cursor](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-prompts-cursor-mac) - [Talk to ChatGPT on Mac](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-to-chatgpt-mac) - [Google Docs voice typing](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-typing-google-docs) - [Voice typing on iPhone keyboards](https://speechbee.app/guides/voice-typing-iphone-keyboard) - [Every read-aloud guide and comparison](https://speechbee.app/guides/read-text-aloud) ## Sources - [Apple: Translate text on Mac](https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/mchldd8b3c15/mac) - SpeechBee facts from our [changelog](https://speechbee.app/changelog) and [privacy policy](https://speechbee.app/privacy)