Change Speech Recognition Language in Windows 10

Speech Recognition Microphone Icon

Windows provides both a device-based speech recognition feature (available through the Windows Speech Recognition Desktop app), and a cloud-based speech recognition service in those markets and regions where Cortana is available. In this article, we will see how to change the language for the speech recognition feature in Windows 10.

Windows Speech Recognition lets you control your PC with your voice alone, without needing a keyboard or mouse. There's a special wizard to help you get started. You need to plug in your microphone, and then configure Windows Speech Recognition. Speech Recognition is a nice addition to the dictation feature of Windows 10.

Speech Recognition is only available for the following languages: English (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia), French, German, Japanese, Mandarin (Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional), and Spanish.

To change the Speech Recognition Language in Windows 10, do the following.

  1. Add the required language to Windows 10 if you haven't already added it.
  2. Open the classic Control Panel app.
  3. Go to Control Panel\Ease of Access\Speech Recognition.
  4. On the left, click on the link Advanced speech options.
  5. In the Speech Properties dialog, select the language you want in the Language drop down list on the Speech Recognition tab.

You are done.

Note: The selected speech language must match the display language of the user interface for your user account in Windows 10. Otherwise, you will get a 'Speech Recognition could not start because the language configuration is not supported' error message. In this situation, you must change either your speech recognition language or your display language.

If this is the first time you are using the selected language for the Speech Recognition, Windows will open the 'Set up Speech Recognition' wizard. You need to configure its basic properties before proceeding.

That's it.

Related articles:

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:

If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!

Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

3 thoughts on “Change Speech Recognition Language in Windows 10”

  1. Hello,

    You changed from “English – UK” to “English – US”. Can you try to change to “French – FR” ?

    I have an error message saying recognition can only use display language.

    Thx

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Exit mobile version
Using Telegram? Subscribe to the blog channel!
Hello. Add your message here.