> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vowen.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Languages

> Multi-language transcription support in Vowen.

## Supported Languages

Vowen supports **99 languages** via Whisper models and **25 European languages** via Parakeet.

## Setting Your Language

Go to **Settings > Language** and select your language from the dropdown.

### Auto-Detect vs Fixed Language

| Mode               | When to Use                                                  |
| ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Auto-detect**    | You speak multiple languages and want Vowen to figure it out |
| **Fixed language** | You primarily speak one language (more accurate)             |

<Tip>For best accuracy, set a fixed language instead of relying on auto-detect. Auto-detect can occasionally switch to the wrong language mid-sentence.</Tip>

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  <div className="shrink-0 pt-0.5 text-violet-500 dark:text-violet-400">
    <svg width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth="2" strokeLinecap="round" strokeLinejoin="round">
      <path d="M15 14c.2-1 .7-1.7 1.5-2.5 1-.9 1.5-2.2 1.5-3.5A6 6 0 0 0 6 8c0 1 .2 2.2 1.5 3.5.7.7 1.3 1.5 1.5 2.5" />

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    </svg>
  </div>

  <div className="text-sm leading-relaxed text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300">
    <strong className="text-violet-700 dark:text-violet-300">Pro tip:</strong> Switching languages mid-sentence? Set your language to **Auto-detect** and pair it with **Soniox**, which handles real-time multilingual transcription (English to Hindi, Spanish to English, and so on) better than anything else we've tested. Soniox is a paid streaming model, but on our two-person team, \$5 of credit has lasted more than six months of daily use.
  </div>
</div>

## Translate to English

<div style={{ marginBottom: "0.75rem" }}>
  <Info>Translate to English is a <a href="https://vowen.ai" className="font-semibold underline-offset-2" style={{ color: "#8b5cf6", backgroundColor: "rgba(139, 92, 246, 0.12)", border: "1px solid rgba(139, 92, 246, 0.35)", padding: "2px 8px", borderRadius: "6px", fontSize: "0.85em", textDecoration: "none", whiteSpace: "nowrap" }}>Pro</a> feature.</Info>
</div>

Enable **Settings > Language > Translate to English** to automatically translate non-English speech into English text. This uses Whisper's built-in translation capability.

## Language-Specific Recommendations

| Language         | Recommended Model               | Notes                                      |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ |
| English          | Base.en or Parakeet             | .en models optimized for English           |
| Spanish          | Multilingual Small or Groq      | Works well with local models               |
| French           | Large v3 Turbo or Groq          | Good accuracy with larger models           |
| German           | Parakeet or Large v3            | Parakeet supports German natively          |
| Swedish          | Large v3 Turbo or Groq Large v3 | Smaller models struggle with Swedish       |
| Romanian         | Groq Whisper Large v3           | Cloud recommended for best results         |
| Indian languages | Sarvam AI Saaras v3             | Specialized for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, etc. |
| Japanese/Chinese | Large v3 or Groq                | Needs larger models for accuracy           |
| Arabic/Hebrew    | Large v3 or cloud models        | RTL languages supported                    |

## Parakeet Language Support

Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3 supports these 25 languages with auto-detection:

Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian.

## Tips for Non-English Transcription

1. **Use a multilingual model** — avoid `.en` models which are English-only
2. **Set language explicitly** — don't rely on auto-detect for non-English
3. **Try cloud models** — Groq Whisper Large v3 often gives better non-English results than local models
4. **Add vocabulary** — Add names and technical terms specific to your language in Settings > Dictionary