Generate English subtitles for your German videos

Translating German speech into English subtitles

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

Both languages are written in the Latin alphabet, so the subtitle file needs nothing special from your player beyond that script.

Why translate German video into English

German is spoken principally in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; English in worldwide. A English 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.

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation tends to handle less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in German may need loosening to read well in English.
• Line length, since English may be considerably more or less compact than German for the same sentence.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.

About the German audio

German compounds nouns freely, producing long single words that make subtitle lines run wide — shorter blocks help. Swiss and Austrian varieties differ from standard German considerably in speech, and Swiss German especially is a real test of any recogniser.