InkSpoke for non-native English speakers

For anyone who thinks and speaks faster in English than they can type it — bilingual and multilingual professionals, students, and developers who want clean, natural English (or their own language) without fighting articles, prepositions, and word order.

Profile

You're comfortable speaking English, but writing it is slower and more stressful. You second-guess grammar, re-read sentences for phrasing, and switch between English and your native language during the day. Typing in a second language is a bottleneck — but speaking usually isn't.

InkSpoke flips the problem around. You talk, it transcribes on your own device, and an AI pass cleans up the grammar and phrasing before the text lands where your cursor already is. You get to think out loud in whatever language feels natural and hand the polishing to the machine.

What you'll get from InkSpoke

• Speak instead of type. Push-to-talk dictation in any app means your second-language writing happens at the speed of speech, not the speed of hunting for the right spelling.
• Grammar and phrasing fixed for you. AI refinement removes filler and cleans up grammar, punctuation, and awkward phrasing — so a rough spoken sentence comes out as a polished written one.
• Dictate in more than one language. Auto-detect handles day-to-day switching; a language picker on the overlay lets you force a specific language when you want to.
• Translate and rephrase on the fly. Select any text and speak an instruction like "translate to English" or "make this more polite" to transform it in place.
• Names and terms stay correct. Teach InkSpoke the names, brands, and jargon it keeps mishearing so they always come out spelled the way you mean.
• A personal "house style." Tell it once — for example, "Use UK English" — and it applies that to everything you dictate.

Recommended setup

You can dictate the moment you install InkSpoke — the defaults are tuned for this. A few small tweaks make it noticeably better for a second-language workflow.

Models

What	Default	Recommendation
Speech model	Whisper Small (on-device, free, offline)	Great starting point. If you have a strong accent or dictate in several languages, try a larger on-device model or a cloud/Platform model for extra accuracy in Settings → Audio & Models.
AI Refinement	On	Keep it on — this is what fixes your grammar and phrasing. See how refinement works.

Your speech audio never has to leave your computer with the on-device model. If you'd rather use a cloud model for accuracy, InkSpoke can route to the built-in Platform models or your own provider keys — read models and providers to choose.

Key settings

Setting	Default	Why it matters for you
AI Refinement	On	The core win — turns rough spoken English into clean written English.
Auto-detect language	On	Dictate in any of your languages without stopping to switch.
Personal dictionary	On	Deterministically fixes names/terms (e.g. spoken "gpt" → "GPT").
Personal Context	Empty	Add a house-style note like "Use UK English" or "I'm a non-native English speaker — correct my grammar and make the phrasing natural."

Default hotkeys

Action	Windows / Linux	macOS
Start / stop dictation	Alt + Space	⌥ + Space
Command Mode (transform selected text)	Alt + Shift + C	⌥ + ⇧ + C
Toggle AI Refinement	Alt + Shift + R	⌥ + ⇧ + R
Cycle language on the overlay	↑ / ↓	↑ / ↓

Workspaces worth creating

Workspaces bundle vocabulary, tone, and even a preferred language that apply automatically based on the app you're in. Two that pay off quickly:

• A polished-English workspace for email and documents — professional tone plus your Personal Context house-style note.
• A native-language workspace — set its preferred language so dictations for that context are transcribed in your language without touching the picker.

Essential features

1. Multi-language dictation & auto-detect — Auto-detect is on by default, so you can move between your languages mid-day. When you want to pin one, use the language picker on the listening overlay (or press ↑ / ↓ to cycle). The picker lists Auto plus the languages you've added.
2. AI Refinement — The grammar-and-phrasing engine. It strips filler, fixes punctuation and grammar, and matches the tone of the app you're writing in. Toggle it any time with Alt + Shift + R (⌥ + ⇧ + R); the overlay shows "AI refinement off" when it's disabled.
3. Command Mode — Select text in any app and speak an instruction to transform it: "translate to English," "fix my grammar," "make this more formal," "rephrase this to sound natural." Your selection is captured first, then replaced with the result — and if the model can't help, your original text is left untouched.
4. Personal context & dictionaries — Two tools for keeping words right: the Personal Context note (free text like "Use UK English" that applies to every dictation) and the personal dictionary of whole-word substitutions (Trigger → Replacement) for names, brands, and terms InkSpoke keeps mangling.
5. Workspaces & per-workspace language — Give a context its own language, tone, and vocabulary so the right treatment is applied automatically by the app you're using.
6. The InkSpoke keyboard on iOS — Dictate into any app on your phone, with a multi-language keyboard that includes composition input such as Telex for Vietnamese and Romaji for Japanese.

Example workflows

1. Turn rough spoken English into a polished email

You want to reply to a client, but writing the English cleanly is slow.

1. Click into the email body and press Alt + Space (⌥ + Space). The listening overlay appears.

   ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
   │  ●  Listening…                    Alt+Space   │
   ├───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
   │   ▁▃▅▇▅▃▁▂▄▆▄▂   "thanks for your email…"     │
   │                                               │
   │   [ Email ▾ ]   [ Auto ▾ ]         [ Send ]   │
   └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘

2. Speak your reply naturally — don't worry about grammar or word order.

3. Press the hotkey again (or click Send). InkSpoke transcribes, AI refinement cleans up the grammar and phrasing, and the polished text is injected right where your cursor was.

Give it a house style

Add "Use UK English" (or "Use US English") to your Personal Context and every refined dictation follows it — no more mixed spellings.

2. Write in your native language, then translate to natural English

Sometimes it's easier to get your thoughts down in your first language.

1. Dictate the passage in your native language — the language picker set to Auto (or pinned to that language) handles it.
2. Select the text you just wrote.
3. Press the Command Mode hotkey, Alt + Shift + C (⌥ + ⇧ + C), and say "translate to English."
4. The selection is replaced with the English version. Not quite right? Select it again and say "make this sound more natural" or "make this more formal."

3. Dictate on your phone in your language

1. On iOS, add the InkSpoke keyboard and turn on Allow Full Access (see set up the keyboard).
2. In any app, switch to the InkSpoke keyboard and tap Start. Because a keyboard can't record audio on its own, this briefly opens the InkSpoke app to capture your voice, then injects the result back at your cursor.
3. Tap the language button in the toolbar to pick your dictation language — selecting a keyboard language also sets the dictation language. Pick your workspace manually from the workspace button (workspace auto-matching isn't available on iOS).

note

On iOS there's no on-device AI model, so refinement runs through the Platform models or your own provider key. Everything else — multi-language dictation, workspaces, personal context — works the same. See dictation & features on iOS.

Pro tips

• Front-load your names and jargon. Before an important document, add the recurring names, product terms, and acronyms to your personal dictionary and custom vocabulary so they're never mistranscribed. The dictionary fixes how a word is written; vocabulary helps InkSpoke hear it in the first place.
• Let refinement handle grammar — speak freely. You don't need perfect grammar out loud. Say what you mean and let AI Refinement fix articles, tense, and prepositions. Restarting your sentence mid-thought is fine.
• Add your languages to the picker once. Then ↑ / ↓ cycles between them on the overlay without opening settings.
• Use a workspace per language. Pin a preferred language to a workspace so dictations for that context come out in the right language automatically — no manual switching.
• Command Mode is a two-way translator. It works from your language into English and from English into your language ("translate to Spanish"), plus rephrasing English you've already written.
• If accuracy dips on a language or accent, try a larger on-device model or a cloud model in Settings → Audio & Models.

Next steps

• Install and set up InkSpoke — get running in a few minutes.
• Multi-language dictation — auto-detect, the language picker, and defaults.
• Polish your writing with AI — a hands-on refinement walkthrough.
• Personal context & dictionaries — house style, names, and terms.
• Dictate on your phone — the InkSpoke keyboard, step by step.