To dictate in Spanish on a Mac, open System Settings → Keyboard, go to Dictation, click Edit next to Languages, and select Spanish with your region. Start Dictation, then click the language abbreviation next to the cursor, or press the Globe key, to switch to Spanish. The same steps add any other language Apple supports, and you can keep multiple Mac dictation languages set up and switch between them.
The steps come from Apple's Dictate messages and documents on Mac page in the Mac User Guide for macOS 27. The macOS 26 edition has the same language section. If your screen looks different, search System Settings for "Dictation" and look for a Languages row.
How do you change the dictation language on a Mac?
- Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. You may need to scroll down.
- Go to Dictation and make sure it is turned on.
- Click the Edit button next to Languages.
- Select a language and region, for example Spanish (Mexico) or Spanish (Spain).
- To remove a language you no longer want, deselect it.
- Stay connected to the internet while the Mac sets the language up. Apple's feature list says on-device dictation "Requires download of speech models."
The Dictation language list is its own setting. Apple's Keyboard settings page shows it under Dictation, separate from the Text Input list that holds keyboard layouts.
How do you switch between multiple dictation languages?
Apple describes two ways, both available once more than one language is selected:
- Click the language next to the cursor. While Dictation is active, the current language is shown beside the cursor. Apple says languages "are displayed as abbreviations or characters that represent the language". Click it and choose another.
- Press the Globe key. Apple says to "press the Globe key (if available), then choose the language you want to use."
Apple's guide describes choosing the language yourself. It does not describe Dictation detecting a change of language automatically, so if you move from English to Spanish mid-message, switch before you speak the Spanish part.
One side effect: if you set the Globe key to do something else, such as open the emoji picker, the language menu may not be what appears. The Mac dictation shortcut guide explains that key's settings.
Which Spanish regions does Mac Dictation support?
Apple's macOS feature availability page lists Dictation features by language and region. For Spanish, as of 1 October 2026 (the page is for macOS 27):
| Spanish region | Dictation | On-device dictation | Auto-punctuation | Dictate emoji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mexico | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| United States | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Colombia | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chile | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Not listed |
"Not listed" means the region does not appear in Apple's list for that feature on the day we checked. Apple notes that "Dictation is not available in all languages or regions, and features may vary", so check the page for your own region. If your variety is not listed, pick the closest listed region and test it.
On-device matters for privacy and for working without a connection. Apple says the text below the Dictation switch in Keyboard settings tells you whether general text dictation is processed on your device. Is Mac Dictation private? explains what that means.
Auto-punctuation means Dictation inserts commas, periods and question marks for you. Where a region is not on that list, say the punctuation yourself.
Which other languages can you dictate in?
Apple's general Dictation list on the same page, for macOS 27, includes Arabic, Cantonese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Shanghainese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese, most of them with specific regions.
The on-device list is shorter than the general list. Catalan, Greek, Hindi and Polish, for example, are on the general list but not on the on-device list we checked, which suggests they are processed on Apple's servers. Your Keyboard settings will confirm it. The lists change between macOS releases, so read the current page instead of relying on this summary.
How do you say punctuation in Spanish?
Spoken commands are in the language you are dictating. Apple publishes the Spanish list on the Spanish (Spain) edition of its dictation commands page. Wording may differ in other regions. The ones you will use most:
| Say (Spanish) | Result | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| punto | . | period |
| coma | , | comma |
| signo de interrogación | ? | question mark |
| signo de exclamación | ! | exclamation mark |
| dos puntos | : | colon |
| punto y coma | ; | semicolon |
| puntos suspensivos | … | ellipsis |
| comillas | opening quotation mark | quote |
| comillas de cierre | closing quotation mark | end quote |
| paréntesis de apertura | ( | open parenthesis |
| paréntesis de cierre | ) | close parenthesis |
| nueva línea | Starts a new line | new line |
| nuevo párrafo | Starts a new paragraph | new paragraph |
| todo en mayúsculas | Next word in capitals | all caps |
That page lists a single command each for the question mark and the exclamation mark. It has no separate entries for the opening marks ¿ and ¡. Dictate a test question to see what your Mac produces, and type the opening mark if it is missing. The full English list is in Mac dictation commands and punctuation.
What if Spanish dictation is not working?
Work through these plain checks:
- Is Spanish selected? Check Keyboard → Dictation → Languages → Edit.
- Is Spanish the active language? Look at the abbreviation next to the cursor when Dictation starts.
- Are you online? A newly added language may still need its download.
- Is the right microphone selected? Check Microphone source in the same settings section.
- Is Voice Control on? Apple says standard Dictation is not available while Voice Control is on.
Mac Dictation not working has the full symptom table.
What about dictation apps other than Apple's?
Apple's Dictation is the place to start for Spanish. It is free and lists five Spanish regions for on-device dictation.
Third-party dictation apps handle languages in their own ways, usually by having you pick a language and a speech model that supports it. Some are built on Whisper, which OpenAI describes as a model that can perform "multilingual speech recognition". Its README notes that Whisper's "performance varies widely depending on the language."
SuprFlow is one of those apps. Its setup asks for a speech-recognition language, and its Small and Medium models come in versions that are not English-only as well as English-only ones. We make no accuracy claim for Spanish or any other language, and we have not run a controlled benchmark. If you are considering it, How to test SuprFlow with another language gives a short script-based test. SuprFlow costs $125 once and has no free tier, so run Apple's free Dictation through the same test first. SuprFlow vs Apple Dictation covers when the built-in tool is enough.
A 10-minute test for your own Spanish
- Write four made-up sentences: two ordinary ones, one with an English product or person name, and one with a date, an amount and a negation. For example: "La reunión con Jordan Chen es el 14 de mayo. El importe es de 2.750 euros, no de 2.570."
- Dictate them into Notes with Spanish active.
- Check accents, the name, the numbers and the "no".
- Dictate a question and see whether the opening ¿ appears.
- Switch to English with the cursor menu, dictate one English sentence, and switch back.
Questions people ask
How do I dictate in Spanish on a MacBook?
Add Spanish under System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation → Languages → Edit, start Dictation, and choose Spanish from the language shown next to the cursor.
Can Mac Dictation handle two languages at once?
You can set up several languages and switch between them while dictating. Apple's guide describes switching by hand; it does not describe automatic detection within a sentence.
Does Spanish dictation work offline on a Mac?
Apple lists Spanish for Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and the United States under on-device dictation, with a speech model download. Confirm it in Keyboard settings, where the text below the Dictation switch says whether dictation is processed on your device.
Why is my Mac typing English words when I speak Spanish?
The active Dictation language is probably still English. Click the language abbreviation next to the cursor and choose Spanish.
Related guides
- How to use voice to text on a Mac
- Mac dictation commands and punctuation
- Mac dictation shortcut: default keys and how to change them
- How to test SuprFlow with another language
- Is Mac Dictation private?
- Mac Dictation not working? Causes and fixes