How to fix dictation mistakes on Mac, fast

Why English words, numbers and names go wrong

English terms, amounts and dates, and colleagues’ names are where voice input slips most. AI cleanup can drop filler words and add punctuation, but it can’t guess that “chat gbt” should be “ChatGPT”, that “3 hundred k” should be “$300k”, or that “Lynn Way” is really “Lin Wei”. These errors have to be fixed by hand, so how fast you can fix them is what saves time.

Fixing mistakes in macOS Dictation

These steps follow Apple’s official help for macOS 27:

1. Look for blue underlines. Ambiguous text is underlined in blue; click the underlined word and select an alternative.
2. Wrong but not underlined: select the wrong text and type the correct text, or dictate it again.
3. On a Mac with Apple silicon you can type while dictating without stopping; the cursor resumes pulsing when you stop typing, so you can keep talking.
4. If you mix in a lot of English, go to Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation, click Edit next to Languages and add a second language; while dictating, click the language next to the cursor or press the Globe key (if available) to switch.

Can a dictionary stop the same mistake next time?

Apple’s Dictation help describes no personal dictionary. Custom vocabulary in Voice Control is a separate feature, and when Voice Control is on it handles dictation and standard macOS Dictation isn’t available.

Most third-party voice input tools have a dictionary. According to their sites:

• Wispr Flow: Yes. Learns names and terms automatically or add them manually; Snippets; shared team dictionary
• Typeless: Yes. Learned automatically or added manually
• Shandianshuo: Yes, for names and product names; also a knowledge base and saved replies

When choosing, check whether you can view and edit the entries, and whether they’re stored on your computer or in the cloud.

Fixing mistakes in Qugora

Qugora is built around fixing. When a number, English word or name comes out wrong, your hands stay off the keyboard:

1. Swipe left to right across the wrong words on the trackpad. Close enough is fine; without a trackpad, drag with the mouse.
2. A candidate bar pops up with spellings suggested from the context and your personal lexicon. Pick the right one and it replaces the text in place.
3. If no candidate fits, say those few words again, or describe the word (for example “Lin, as in two trees”). Only that span is replaced.
4. The corrected spelling goes into your on-device personal lexicon and comes first next time. You can view, edit or delete entries any time.

The Qugora macOS preview (Apple silicon) is free to download on the Download page; the Windows build and Pro subscriptions aren’t open yet. For the full differences, see Qugora vs macOS Dictation.

Which approach fits you

• You dictate occasionally and most errors are the words the system underlines: built-in Dictation and its blue underlines are enough.
• You often fix words the system didn’t flag, or the same name keeps coming out wrong: pick a tool with a dictionary that remembers your fixes.
• You want to swipe any span, re-say just those words, and keep audio on your computer: keep an eye on Qugora.