Translate Arabic Video to English

What you get back

• An English transcript next to the original Arabic transcript, plus a timestamped version.
• English subtitles as SRT and VTT files.
• With Full translation output on: an English voice track in which each person (up to 8) speaks in a copy of their own voice, the translated audio as M4A, and an MP4 that keeps your original picture, music and effects.
• Arabic is detected automatically. The tool above is already set to English, so you only drop in the file.

Arabic to English at a glance

Arabic to English works best when the speaker uses Modern Standard Arabic; dialect-heavy speech is transcribed less reliably, and transcript errors carry into the translation.

Formal speech — news, lectures, sermons, official statements — is close to Modern Standard Arabic and transcribes most reliably. Everyday dialect, especially Maghrebi, is harder, and errors in the Arabic transcript carry over into the English.

Researchers, NGOs and journalists use this direction for interviews and field recordings. For published quotes, have an Arabic speaker verify the key lines.

Phrases English doesn't have

Arabic conversation is full of fixed expressions: إن شاء الله (inshallah), الحمد لله (alhamdulillah), ما شاء الله (mashallah) and greetings like السلام عليكم. A translation may render them as "God willing", "thank God" or "peace be upon you", or leave them out. For a Muslim audience or a diaspora audience, many viewers prefer the original words, transliterated, in the English subtitles. For a general business audience, the English meaning or nothing at all usually reads better. Decide which and edit the SRT to match. Fillers like يعني ("I mean") can also clutter the English; delete them from subtitles where they add nothing.

Spelling Arabic names in English

There is no single English spelling for most Arabic names: Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohamed are all common, as are Abdel and Abdul, and al- or el- before a family name. The translation picks one, and a misheard letter in the Arabic transcript can change a name altogether. Check every person, place and organisation against how they spell themselves in English; translation vs transliteration explains why names behave differently from other words.

From right to left to left to right

The Arabic transcript is written right to left; the English subtitles run left to right, which every player handles without special settings. Numbers spoken in Arabic come out in Western digits in English. In the Arabic transcript they may appear as Eastern Arabic digits (٣ for 3), so search both forms when you check figures.

Dialects and mixed speech

Formal speech close to Modern Standard Arabic transcribes most reliably. Everyday dialect is harder, and speech that mixes languages, such as Maghrebi Arabic with French or Gulf business Arabic with English, is the least predictable. The English words in mixed speech usually pass through; the French ones may not. Test a two-minute clip of the actual speakers before committing a long recording.

Sermons, lectures and religious content

Khutbahs, lectures and religious lessons are often in formal Arabic, which suits transcription. Quranic verses and hadith quoted in a talk are machine-translated freshly, so they won't match an established English translation. Replace them with the translation your community uses before publishing. The sermon translation page covers recorded services in more detail.

In a dub, each person speaks English in a copy of their own voice, up to 8 people per file. To the vocal separation, recitation is a voice like any other: it is removed from the background, and whatever the speech recognition heard is spoken in English. If the recitation itself should stay audible, English subtitles on the original video are the better format.

Costed examples

Cost: 1,550 credits ($1.55) for the English dub, which includes the subtitles and both transcripts, or 31 credits (3.1¢) for English subtitles and transcripts without a voice.

Cost: 1,000 credits ($1.00) for the English dub, which includes the subtitles and both transcripts, or 20 credits (2¢) for English subtitles and transcripts without a voice.

Cost: 500 credits (50¢) for the English dub, which includes the subtitles and both transcripts, or 10 credits (1¢) for English subtitles and transcripts without a voice.

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.