Microsoft Copilot voice dictation does not detect French when Windows display language is English

Language note: Although the local post is fr-fr (French), your question is written in English so the answer is given in English for your convenience.

Hello Maxime MERCIER,

Thank you for sharing the detailed test results.

I was unable to find other reports that clearly match this specific behavior, and there does not appear to be an official announcement confirming a widespread issue at this time.

Microsoft’s current documentation also does not indicate that Copilot voice dictation uses the Windows display language to restrict which spoken languages it can recognize. Since French is officially supported, it should normally work without requiring Windows to be displayed in French.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Open Copilot, select your profile picture, then check Settings > Preferences > Voice language. If available, choose French instead of Auto-detect. You can also open a voice conversation, select the gear icon, and set the language there.

If the issue continues in both the Copilot app and web version, please submit feedback through the Copilot app by selecting ... > Send feedback. You can also use the Microsoft Feedback Portal to vote for a similar report or create a new one.

Include the Windows display language, Copilot and browser versions, and the comparison results from your English and French tests. These details can help the Copilot team investigate whether language detection is working as intended. Reports posted in this user-to-user forum do not normally reach the product team directly.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and community contributors, including external Microsoft employees, cannot access back-end systems or directly make changes to Microsoft product features. Our role here is limited to providing technical guidance and possible workarounds based on the information available.

Hopefully this issue will be sorted out soon. Thank you so much for your patience!

Hello,

Thank you for your detailed response and clarification.

We have already checked the available language settings. The main point in our case is that the issue is reproducible depending specifically on the Windows display language:

• With English (United Kingdom) as the Windows display language, Copilot voice dictation recognizes English but does not correctly recognize French.
• With French (France) as the Windows display language, Copilot voice dictation correctly recognizes both French and English.

This behavior is reproducible in both the Microsoft Copilot Windows application and Copilot Web, while French voice input continues to work correctly in Microsoft Word on the same computer.

Since changing only the Windows display language changes the behavior, and as you confirmed that the current documentation does not indicate that voice dictation should be restricted by the Windows display language, I will submit this case through the Microsoft Feedback Portal with our reproduction steps and environment details.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.