Generate Portuguese subtitles for your Spanish videos

Choosing between Spanish and Portuguese

Spanish and Portuguese are close enough that automatic detection between them is unreliable, especially on short clips — there is simply not enough audio to tell them apart. Set both languages explicitly here rather than leaving the source on detection.

Because the two are so close, translation between them is largely a matter of vocabulary and written convention rather than restructuring sentences. Expect a Portuguese subtitle file that tracks the Spanish original almost line for line.

How Spanish audio becomes Portuguese subtitles

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

Why translate Spanish video into Portuguese

Spanish is spoken principally in Spain and most of Latin America; Portuguese in Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa. A Portuguese 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 Spanish audio

European and Latin American Spanish differ in pronunciation, pronoun use and a good deal of everyday vocabulary, and Caribbean and Rioplatense speech diverge further still. All transcribe well; the variety is preserved rather than standardised.

About the Portuguese subtitles

Brazilian and European Portuguese differ enough in rhythm and vowel reduction that they can sound like separate languages to a learner. Both transcribe accurately, and the written output follows the variety spoken.

What a Spanish to Portuguese subtitle file looks like

Four lines of Spanish speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the Spanish 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
Vocês estão me ouvindo bem?

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
Vou compartilhar os detalhes em um momento.

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
É tudo por hoje.

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
Até a próxima.

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in Spanish may need loosening to read well in Portuguese.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.