How do you dictate foreign names and words correctly?

To dictate a foreign name or word correctly, set the language first, then give the tool the exact spelling in a vocabulary list if it has one, and fix what it still gets wrong. A language setting alone does not fix a rare name or a loanword, because the recognizer has to know the spelling. Accents are part of the spelling, so keep them in the entry and check that they survive in the text you paste elsewhere.

Our guide to multilingual dictation covers the wider question of languages, and the question on mixed-language speech covers sentences that switch languages.

Add the word to a vocabulary list when the tool has one

A vocabulary list is the most reliable fix, because it tells the recognizer which spelling to prefer. On a Mac, Voice Control accepts up to 1,000 custom vocabulary terms, and you can teach it how to say each one ¹. This is Voice Control, not Dictation, and the Mac guide to adding words covers the steps.

The list has a language limit. In Voice Control, the Vocabulary option is dimmed when the selected language does not support a custom vocabulary, so you cannot add terms in that language ². Check the language before you spend time on a list.

In Dragon, you add a word by specifying the word and its spoken form, and you can optionally train Dragon on its pronunciation ³. Dragon is a dedicated speech product, not the free dictation built into Mac or Windows, so this route applies only if you already use it.

When you run Whisper yourself, its initial prompt can take custom vocabulary or proper nouns, which makes those words more likely to be transcribed correctly ⁴.

Accents are part of the spelling, so type them when needed

Many foreign names carry accent marks, and the transcript needs them to be correct. On a Mac, Apple says that when you press and hold a letter key, the accent menu opens and shows the accent marks you can enter with that letter ⁵. Use this after dictation to add a missing accent, because Apple's page does not describe dictating accents.

Accent marks may not work in every app, so check the app you paste into. We did not find a dictation command that types an accent mark in the Apple pages we read.

The accent problem is also a recognition problem for speakers of accented English. A 2007 study of foreign-accented English found that the best combination of pronunciation modelling and acoustic adaptation cut word error rate by 46 to 71 percent relative ⁶. That is an older system, so today's tools may do better, but the study shows that accent-specific fixes help.

Steps to take when the tool has no list

1. Set the dictation language to the language of the name or word. If you need both languages in one passage, dictate in blocks, as the guide to changing the dictation language explains.
2. Say the word once. If it comes out wrong, say it in a different way, or spell it out letter by letter if the tool allows that.
3. Type the accent or the last correction by hand after dictation, using the accent menu where your device supports it.
4. Keep a short list of the names you use often, with the spelling you want, and paste them in when you write.
5. Proofread every name before you send or publish, since a misspelled name is easy to miss in a long text.

Test the names you use most

A short test shows which names a tool gets right. Write a list of the names and foreign words you use most, dictate each one in a sentence, and mark the ones that come out wrong. Then add the wrong ones to the tool's list, if there is one, and dictate them again. A word error rate from a short test is a rough guide, and the list of failed names tells you more about your daily work.

For the Mac case in detail, see how to add custom words to Mac dictation. For the general method for names on any tool, see how to make dictation spell names correctly. For a name that comes out wrong on iPhone, see why iPhone dictation spells your name wrong.

Yap, which we make, is one on-device dictation app for Mac and Windows. Check its vocabulary and language options on the download page before you rely on it, and test your own names first.