What to expect when translating into French
French translations usually run noticeably longer than English. The translation chooses between tu and vous sentence by sentence and may not stay consistent, so check the tone for brand or training content.
From English to French
English to French makes text noticeably longer, so dubbed lines speed up slightly to fit. Watch for consistent use of vous in professional content and for French spacing rules in subtitles.
French audiences in France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and Africa share a written standard, so one translation usually serves all of them — but vocabulary differs, especially in Quebec. If you're targeting Canada specifically, have a Québécois reviewer check common words (courriel vs e-mail, magasiner vs faire du shopping).
France and Quebec both have rules about French on commercial content, so localised marketing videos often need French versions rather than English with subtitles.
A Toronto SaaS company translates a 7-minute English product demo into French for customers in Quebec.
Cost: 350 credits (35¢) with a French voice, or 7 credits (0.7¢) for French subtitles only. English is detected automatically; you only choose French.
The French voice track
France has a strong dubbing tradition, so audiences are used to dubbed content. Expect the translated voice to speed up slightly to fit longer French sentences into the original timing.
A Toronto company dubs an 11-minute HR onboarding video into French for employees in Québec.
Voice, MP4, subtitles and transcripts: 550 credits (55.0¢). Subtitles and transcripts only: 11 credits (1.1¢).
French subtitles
French typography puts a space before : ; ? and !. Machine output may not follow this, so adjust the subtitles if your audience expects it.
French (Français) is written in the Latin alphabet.
An NGO in Dakar adds French subtitles to a 13-minute English awareness video.
Switch Full translation output off for subtitles only: 13 credits (1.3¢). If the video is already in French, select French as the language instead and the subtitles come back untranslated — see French transcription.
Translating audio files into French
A history podcast turns a 50-minute English episode into French audio for listeners in Belgium and Switzerland.
Podcasts and recordings go through the audio translator, which returns a French M4A and transcripts: 2,500 credits ($2.50) with voice, 50 credits (5¢) as text only.
Who translates into French
French is spoken in France, Canada (Québec), Belgium, Switzerland and much of West and North Africa. It's used by brands entering France, Canada or francophone Africa, Canadian organisations that need bilingual material, and educators.
Agreement that changes with who is watching
French adjectives and past participles agree with the person they describe, and that includes the viewer. "Are you ready?" becomes "Êtes-vous prêt ?", "prête ?" or "prêts ?" depending on who is addressed, and English gives no hint. Machine translation usually falls back to the masculine. That is conventional, but some organisations prefer neutral rephrasing ("Tout le monde est prêt ?") or inclusive spellings such as "prêt·e·s". The middle-dot spelling is contested in France and discouraged in some official settings, so decide your house rule before reviewing and apply it to every French video. The guide to creating a translation style guide shows how to write such rules down so reviewers apply them the same way.
Job titles raise the same question. "Our engineer" can be "notre ingénieur" or "notre ingénieure", so check the titles of the people who actually appear on screen.
Numbers, money and quotation marks
French writes 1 250,50 where English writes 1,250.50, puts the euro sign after the amount (12,50 €), uses a 24-hour clock (14 h 30) and quotes speech with « guillemets ». Machine-translated subtitles get some of this right and some not, especially in lines where the speaker reads out figures. In Quebec the dollar sign also follows the amount (12,50 $). Ordinals are abbreviated 1er, 2e and 3e rather than 1st, 2nd and 3rd. For prices, statistics and schedules, compare each figure with the original transcript before publishing.
The voice has its own version of the problem: listen in the preview to how times, ordinals like "1er" and abbreviations are read aloud, since those are the spots where synthetic speech is most likely to stumble.
One French voice for every francophone market
There is a single French option, and its written translation is standard French. That suits France, Belgium, Switzerland and most of francophone Africa, where schools, administration and broadcasting use the same written norms. Quebec is where a local review matters most, because everyday vocabulary and attitudes to anglicisms differ. For audiences in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire or Cameroon, check local references the source may mention: currency in CFA francs, institutions and place names.
Subtitles keep the original speaker's voice, which matters for interviews and testimonials where the person's credibility is the point. The dub suits onboarding, instructions and anything watched while doing something else.
Costing a French onboarding course
A Geneva software company dubs its English onboarding module into French for new hires in Geneva and Lyon. The dub costs 1,100 credits ($1.10); a French subtitle file alone, from transcript mode, costs 22 credits (2.2¢). One run serves both offices, because neither the voice nor the written translation varies by French-speaking country.
French subtitles carry more words per cue than the English they replace. If a cue feels crowded, split it at a natural pause; subtitle readability covers line length and reading speed. For staff training specifically, the training video translation workflow covers review and rollout. If the module is updated every quarter, keep your corrected French SRT; it becomes the reference for checking the next version's terminology and tone.
Product names, capitals and titles
French gives every noun a gender, including your product names, and a translation can switch between "le" and "la" for the same brand from one line to the next ("la nouvelle Acme", then "le Acme"). Pick one and keep it. Brand names that start with a vowel also take an elided article ("l'application Acme", "d'Acme"), which a quick find-and-replace can break if you change the name later.
Capitalisation is the other giveaway. English title case ("Getting Started With Your Dashboard") looks wrong in French, where titles use sentence case ("Premiers pas avec votre tableau de bord"). Days, months and language names are lowercase in French ("lundi", "octobre", "l'anglais"), so lines that copy English capitals read as translated.
Before the French version ships
- Choose masculine default, neutral rephrasing or inclusive spelling, and apply it everywhere.
- Check the gender of job titles for real people.
- Put figures in French form: spaces in thousands, decimal comma, currency after the amount.
- Use « » for quotes, with a non-breaking space before : ; ? ! if you follow French typography.
- For Quebec, have a local reviewer scan vocabulary.
- Keep the form of address consistent across a series.
- Listen to every number and abbreviation in the dub at 1×.
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.
Translating French videos into…
Other languages
Frequently asked questions
Can the French translation use vous throughout?
The translation decides per sentence, so you may see a mix. For formal content, check the transcript and subtitles — they are plain text and quick to edit.
Is there a Canadian French voice?
There's one French option. The written translation is standard French; review vocabulary for Quebec audiences.
Will the French translation use inclusive writing?
Don't expect it; where English doesn't specify gender, machine translation usually picks masculine forms. If your organisation uses inclusive spellings or neutral rephrasing, apply them in the SRT and VTT files. The dubbed audio keeps the original wording.
Can one French version serve viewers in France and West Africa?
Usually, yes, since both use the same written standard. Adapt examples, prices and institutions the speaker mentions so they make sense to both audiences, or add a note in the description.