Generate French subtitles for your English videos

How English audio becomes French subtitles

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

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

Why translate English video into French

English is spoken principally in worldwide; French in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and much of West and Central Africa. A French 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 French subtitles

French elides heavily in speech — words run together in ways the written form does not show — which makes word boundaries the hard part rather than the vocabulary. African and Québécois French are both well handled.

What an English to French 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
Commençons par la première question.

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
Je partagerai les détails dans un instant.

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
Écrivez vos questions ci-dessous.

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
C'est tout pour aujourd'hui.

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 French.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.