Generate English subtitles for your Greek videos

From the Greek script to the Latin alphabet

Greek is written in the Greek script and English in the Latin alphabet, 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 English 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 Greek audio becomes English subtitles

Audio in Greek (Ελληνικά) 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 Greek speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

Why translate Greek video into English

Greek is spoken principally in Greece and Cyprus; 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.

About the Greek audio

Modern Greek is written with a single accent mark on the stressed syllable, and that accent is not optional — it is what separates otherwise identical words. Sigma also takes a different form at the end of a word than in the middle. Cypriot Greek differs from the mainland standard enough in everyday vocabulary to be worth flagging before you review a transcript.

About the English subtitles

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.

What a Greek to English subtitle file looks like

Four lines of Greek speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the Greek 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
Thank you all for coming.

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
Can you hear me clearly?

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
I'll share the details in a moment.

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
Please write your questions below.

What to check before publishing

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