Create English Subtitles From Foreign-Language Video
If your video is in Spanish, Japanese, German or another language, you can make English subtitles in one step. The generator listens to the speech and writes the English meaning, with timing, in a single pass.
Add your video or audio
Drop the file onto the generator. The speech can be in any of the 99 supported languages.
Choose “Translate speech to English”
In the Output menu, select translation to English. Set the spoken language too if you know it; this prevents mistakes with short clips.
Generate and read carefully
Check names, numbers and idioms. Automatic translation is useful, but it can miss nuance and humour, so read it with the audio.
Download and publish
Export SRT or VTT and upload it as an English subtitle track on your video platform.
When English subtitles are the right choice
English is the most common second language for online video, so English subtitles open your content to a very large audience. They are useful when you have a lecture, interview or product video in another language and want viewers worldwide to follow it, when you are sharing foreign-language material with an English-speaking team, or when you need a quick English reference for a recording.
The translate option takes the speech in your video and produces English text directly, in one step, with timings. You do not need to transcribe first and then translate separately.
How translation differs from transcription
- Transcription writes down what is said, in the same language it was spoken.
- Translation to English writes what is said as English sentences, so the meaning carries across even though the words differ.
- Timing follows the spoken audio in both cases, so the English lines appear as the speaker talks.
If you want subtitles in the original language as well, generate that first as one file and the English version as a second file.
Getting the best translated subtitles
Start with clear audio. Translation builds on recognising the speech correctly, so anything that helps recognition also helps the English result. Set the spoken language yourself instead of relying on auto-detect, and pick a higher quality mode for accents, technical vocabulary or fast speech.
When you read the output, check for idioms and cultural expressions. A translated phrase can be accurate and still sound slightly unnatural, so a quick edit for tone makes the English feel as if it were written for English readers.
Publishing subtitles in more than one language
Many platforms let you attach several subtitle files to one video, one per language. Viewers then choose the language from the captions menu. That means a single upload can serve audiences in several countries.
On YouTube, the process is described in our guide on adding subtitles to a YouTube video, and the same SRT works elsewhere too. If you want to know what is inside the file, read what an SRT file is.
Quick tips
- This produces English only. For a transcript in the original language, choose “Subtitles in the spoken language”.
- Clear speech with one speaker at a time translates best.
- Ask a fluent speaker to review important videos before publishing.
Ready to try it? Drop a video or audio file into the free subtitle generator and have subtitles in minutes. Open the generator →