Generate English subtitles for your Persian videos

Translating Persian speech into English subtitles

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

Persian is written in Perso-Arabic and English in the Latin alphabet, so the exported file will be in a different script from the audio you uploaded.

Why translate Persian video into English

Persian is spoken principally in Iran, Afghanistan, where it is called Dari, and Tajikistan; 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 Persian may need loosening to read well in English.
• Line length, since English may be considerably more or less compact than Persian for the same sentence.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.

About the Persian audio

Persian is right-to-left and, unlike Arabic, is Indo-European — shared script, unrelated grammar. Iranian Persian and Afghan Dari differ mainly in pronunciation and some vocabulary and both transcribe into the same script.