Translate Video to Arabic

What to expect when translating into Arabic

Translations into Arabic are written in Modern Standard Arabic, which Arabic readers understand whichever dialect they speak at home. Arabic is written right to left, and short vowels are usually left out, as in everyday print.

Spoken Arabic varies by region (Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Maghrebi). Translations are written in Modern Standard Arabic, the form used in news and formal writing.

From English to Arabic

English to Arabic is a core localisation path for Gulf markets. The Arabic is Modern Standard Arabic, written right to left, with English brand names often left in Latin letters inside Arabic sentences.

Modern Standard Arabic is understood across the Arab world, which makes one translation work for Gulf, Levantine, Egyptian and North African audiences. It is more formal than everyday speech; that suits corporate, government and educational videos, while very casual social content may sound stiff.

Arabic subtitles are written right to left. Most video platforms and players display them correctly, but if you burn them into the picture in an editor, check that the editor supports right-to-left text.

Cost: 400 credits (40¢) with a Arabic voice, or 8 credits (0.8¢) for Arabic subtitles only. English is detected automatically; you only choose Arabic.

The Arabic voice track

The Arabic voice speaks Modern Standard Arabic — a good fit for training, education and corporate video. Content whose tone depends on a local dialect will sound more formal.

Voice, MP4, subtitles and transcripts: 450 credits (45¢). Subtitles and transcripts only: 9 credits (0.9¢).

Arabic subtitles

Arabic subtitles run right to left. SRT and VTT store the text correctly, but preview lines that mix Arabic with English names or numbers, because players differ in how they order mixed-direction text.

Arabic (العربية) is written in the Arabic script. It is written right to left; SRT and VTT files store the text correctly, and players that support right-to-left text display it properly.

Switch Full translation output off for subtitles only: 15 credits (1.5¢). If the video is already in Arabic, select Arabic as the language instead and the subtitles come back untranslated — see Arabic transcription.

Translating audio files into Arabic

Podcasts and recordings go through the audio translator, which returns a Arabic M4A and transcripts: 1,500 credits ($1.50) with voice, 30 credits (3¢) as text only.

Who translates into Arabic

Arabic is spoken in the Middle East and North Africa, where it is an official language in more than 20 countries. It's used by brands entering Gulf markets, e-learning providers, NGOs and public bodies communicating with Arabic-speaking audiences.

Who the viewer is: gender and number in Arabic

Arabic verbs, pronouns and commands change with the gender and number of the person addressed. English "Press here to start" has one form; Arabic has separate forms for one man, one woman and a group: اضغط، اضغطي، اضغطوا. Machine translation often falls back on the masculine singular, which is the conventional default in much Arabic interface and marketing text, while some organisations prefer the plural so the whole audience is addressed. Decide which your brand uses, then scan the translated transcript for commands and "you" forms and make them consistent.

This matters most in training and onboarding videos, where the narrator gives instructions in nearly every line. A video that switches between forms from one segment to the next reads as careless even when each sentence is correct.

Digits, punctuation and mixed-direction lines

Western digits

2026 and 3.5

Eastern Arabic digits

٢٠٢٦ and ٣٫٥

Arabic comma

، (turned the other way)

Arabic question mark

؟ (mirrored)

Arabic publications use either Western digits or Eastern Arabic digits, and usage varies by country and by publisher: Western digits are standard across the Maghreb, while both appear in Egypt and the Gulf. Check which the translation produced and whether it matches your website, brochures and packaging.

A subtitle that mixes Arabic with a Latin product name and a version number, such as "download version 2.5 of the app", runs right to left with embedded left-to-right segments. Players order these with the Unicode bidirectional algorithm, and a full stop or bracket next to a Latin word can land at the wrong end of the line. Preview such cues in the player you'll publish on. Right-to-left video localization covers on-screen graphics and other RTL details.

Unwritten vowels and the Arabic voice

Everyday Arabic is printed without most short-vowel marks, so the same letters can spell different words: علم can be read ʿilm (knowledge), ʿalam (flag) or ʿallama (he taught). Readers resolve this from context, and a voice model has to do the same. When you preview the dub, listen for words whose meaning depends on vowels, especially names, technical terms and short phrases with little context around them. Note the timestamp of any misreading so the line can be fixed in your editor or replaced with a recorded take.

Foreign names need attention too. Standard Arabic has no letters for p, v or hard g, so a name may be spelled with ب, ف or ج, or with the extra letters پ, ڤ and گ used in some regions. Check names against the spelling your partners in that market already use.

When formal Arabic suits the video

The translation is written in Modern Standard Arabic, which works well for product walkthroughs, safety training, lectures and corporate updates. It sounds like a news broadcast when applied to comedy, street interviews or chatty creator content. Subtitling foreign films and series in standard Arabic is long-established, so formal subtitles feel familiar to viewers even where a formal voice would feel distant. For casual content, translated subtitles over the original audio are often the better fit; subtitles vs dubbing walks through the decision.

Arabic release checklist

1. Make the form of address (masculine, feminine or plural) consistent from start to finish.
2. Match the digit style to your other Arabic materials.
3. Preview every cue that mixes Arabic with Latin names or numbers.
4. Check foreign names against your market's established spelling.
5. Listen for vowel-dependent misreadings in the dub.
6. Tag the subtitle track as Arabic when uploading so viewers can find it.

Hebrew is the other right-to-left language in the picker; see Hebrew video translation if you are localising for both audiences.

Using the tool on this page

• The spoken language is detected automatically; you select the output language — the spoken language itself for an untranslated transcript, or another language for a translation. Files can be up to 2 hours long.
• Only the audio is sent for processing — the video stays on your device — and audio and text are deleted within 30 minutes of delivery (how files are protected).
• You can download a translated video that keeps your music and effects, the translated audio as M4A, a transcript and subtitles (SRT and VTT). Every output, step and limit is explained on the video translator page.