Generate Chinese subtitles for your English videos

From the Latin alphabet to Chinese characters

English is written in the Latin alphabet and Chinese in Chinese characters, 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 Chinese 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.

How English audio becomes Chinese subtitles

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

Why translate English video into Chinese

English is spoken principally in worldwide; Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Chinese-speaking communities worldwide. A Chinese 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 Chinese subtitles

Like Japanese, Chinese is written without spaces, so word boundaries are inferred during recognition. Mandarin is what is transcribed; Cantonese is a separate option and choosing the wrong one produces fluent-looking output that does not match the audio.

What an English to Chinese 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
感谢大家的到来。

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
我们从第一个问题开始吧。

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
你们能听清楚我说话吗？

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
今天就到这里。

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 Chinese.
• That Chinese characters renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.