Generate Arabic subtitles for your English videos

Reading Arabic subtitles right to left

Arabic runs right to left while English runs left to right, so the exported file reads in the opposite direction from the audio you uploaded. Subtitle formats carry that correctly and mainstream players render it without configuration.

Mixed passages — a Latin-script brand name or number inside a right-to-left line — are where rendering most often looks wrong, and they are worth checking in the player you actually publish to rather than in a text editor.

How English audio becomes Arabic subtitles

Audio in English (English) is transcribed first, then translated into Arabic (العربية). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the Arabic subtitle file keeps the timings of the original English speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

From the Latin alphabet to the Arabic script

English is written in the Latin alphabet and Arabic in the Arabic script, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a Arabic subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

Why translate English video into Arabic

English is spoken principally in worldwide; Arabic in North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. A Arabic subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the English audio

English has a wider spread of accents than any other language here, and the gap between spelling and pronunciation means recognition leans on context rather than sound alone. Names and technical terms are where errors concentrate, because those are exactly the words context cannot predict.

About the Arabic subtitles

The gap between Modern Standard Arabic and the regional dialects is the thing to plan around: broadcast news is close to the standard, while everyday Egyptian, Gulf, Levantine and Maghrebi speech diverge from it considerably. Standard-register material transcribes markedly better than heavy dialect.

What an English to Arabic subtitle file looks like

Four lines of English speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the English speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
صباح الخير للجميع.

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
شكرًا لكم جميعًا على الحضور.

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
هل تسمعونني بوضوح؟

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
هذا كل شيء لليوم.

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in English may need loosening to read well in Arabic.
• That the Arabic script renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.