Translate Video to German

What to expect when translating into German

German translations are typically longer than English and build long compound nouns. The translation may switch between formal Sie and informal du; decide which you want and check for consistency.

From English to German

English to German produces long compound nouns and longer sentences; dubbed lines speed up slightly to fit the original timing. Decide whether you want Sie or du and check for consistency.

German business audiences generally expect Sie in professional content, while consumer brands and creators increasingly use du. Pick one and check that the translation stays consistent, especially across a video series.

German subtitles can get long because of compound nouns and sentence length; dense English narration may produce subtitle cues that are hard to read in time. For subtitle-heavy use, a slightly slower English delivery pays off.

Cost: 650 credits (65¢) with a German voice, or 13 credits (1.3¢) for German subtitles only. English is detected automatically; you only choose German.

The German voice track

Germany is one of the world's biggest dubbing markets, and viewers expect dubbed video. Because German runs long, the voice is sped up slightly — with pitch preserved — to keep pace with the original.

Voice, MP4, subtitles and transcripts: 700 credits (70¢). Subtitles and transcripts only: 14 credits (1.4¢).

German subtitles

German subtitle lines get wide because of compound nouns, so long cues may need splitting for phone screens.

German (Deutsch) is written in the Latin alphabet.

Switch Full translation output off for subtitles only: 19 credits (1.9¢). If the video is already in German, select German as the language instead and the subtitles come back untranslated — see German transcription.

Translating audio files into German

Podcasts and recordings go through the audio translator, which returns a German M4A and transcripts: 2,100 credits ($2.10) with voice, 42 credits (4.2¢) as text only.

Who translates into German

German is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It's used by companies selling into Germany, Austria and Switzerland, German universities, and creators building German-language channels.

Germany, Austria and Switzerland read differently

There is one German option in the picker. Austrian and Swiss viewers read standard German without trouble, but a few details mark a video as made for Germany:

• Switzerland doesn't use ß. Swiss Standard German writes "Strasse" and "gross" where Germany writes "Straße" and "groß", so subtitles for a Swiss audience need a find-and-replace pass.
• Austria has its own everyday words: "Jänner" for January, "Paradeiser" for tomatoes, "heuer" for this year. Product and food videos are where these matter.
• Swiss usage includes "Velo" for bicycle and French loanwords such as "merci" in everyday speech.

The dub speaks standard German too. There is no Austrian or Swiss voice, and Swiss German dialect has no agreed written standard that subtitles could follow, so the realistic local touches are spelling and vocabulary in the text.

For one version aimed at all three countries, leave standard German as it is. For a campaign aimed at one country, budget a short local review.

Gender-inclusive wording is a house decision

English "employees" or "users" carries no gender; German has to choose. Machine translation typically produces the generic masculine ("Mitarbeiter", "Nutzer"). Many companies, universities and public bodies now write "Mitarbeitende", "Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter" or forms with a gender star ("Nutzer*innen"), while others avoid them deliberately, and some German states have restricted the star in official documents. There is no neutral default, so settle your organisation's rule and apply it to the subtitles. The guide to machine translation post-editing explains how to review output against rules like this efficiently.

Speech matters too: the gender star is usually spoken with a short pause, which a voice reading a generic masculine translation won't produce. If inclusive language is essential for your audience, editable subtitles may suit better than a dub whose wording is fixed.

Capital S and other proofreading traps

German capitalises every noun and the formal "Sie". In the middle of a sentence, "sie" means she or they, while "Sie" means you, so one wrong letter changes who is being addressed; search for both when you review.

• English loanwords: German office speech uses "Meeting", "Feedback" and "Deadline" freely, but machine translation may render them as "Besprechung", "Rückmeldung" and "Frist". Both are correct; pick what your audience actually says.
• Separable verbs put their prefix at the end of the clause ("Wir rufen Sie morgen an"), so a subtitle split mid-sentence can leave the meaning open until the next cue.
• Dates appear as 01.10.2026, times on a 24-hour clock, and decimals with a comma and a period for thousands.

Mixed English–German compounds

Software, marketing and engineering videos produce compounds that are half English: cloud storage, e-mail address, onboarding process. German spelling rules join these with hyphens ("Cloud-Speicher", "E-Mail-Adresse", "Onboarding-Prozess") or write them as one word, but machine output sometimes leaves a gap ("Cloud Speicher"). German readers notice that space immediately, and style guides treat it as an error. Search the subtitles for English words followed by a space and a capitalised German noun.

Product names follow the same logic when they become part of a compound: "Acme-Dashboard", not "Acme Dashboard", if the dashboard belongs to Acme. Decide once, add it to your glossary, and the next video in the series is quicker to check.

Pricing a German safety briefing

Safety content needs a stricter review than marketing; the article on safety training video translation explains which lines need a qualified check. For the step-by-step dub workflow, see how to dub a video with AI.

German sign-off list

• Sie or du chosen, with a capital S wherever "you" is meant.
• One rule for gendered nouns, applied in every subtitle.
• ß replaced with ss if the audience is Swiss.
• Anglicisms kept or translated according to how your staff or customers talk.
• Long compound nouns don't overflow a phone-width subtitle line; break the line rather than the word.
• Figures, dates and units in German format.
• The dub previewed at 1× in passages with long sentences, where the voice has the most to fit in.

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.