Translate Video to Spanish

What to expect when translating into Spanish

Spanish translations usually run longer than English. Latin American and European Spanish differ in vocabulary (computadora or ordenador, carro or coche) and in ustedes versus vosotros; the written translation uses one Spanish model, so check regional terms for your market.

Choose Spanish (Latin America) or Spanish (Spain) for the accent of the translated voice. The written translation uses one Spanish model for both.

From English to Spanish

English to Spanish is the highest-volume localisation pair in the Americas. Spanish runs longer than English, so dubbed lines speed up slightly; pick a Latin American or Castilian voice accent for your market.

Decide on your market before you start. A US company addressing Hispanic customers usually wants a Latin American voice; a company selling in Spain wants Castilian. The written translation is the same either way, so the biggest regional differences to review are vocabulary (computadora/ordenador, celular/móvil) and whether the viewer is addressed as tú or usted.

English marketing copy often relies on short, punchy phrases that become longer in Spanish. If the Spanish voice sounds rushed in a dense passage, shorten that line in the transcript wording for future runs or slow down the original delivery when you record.

Cost: 450 credits (45¢) with a Spanish voice, or 9 credits (0.9¢) for Spanish subtitles only. English is detected automatically; you only choose Spanish.

The Spanish voice track

Spanish-speaking audiences are used to dubbing. Pick Spanish (Latin America) for a Latin American accent or Spanish (Spain) for a Castilian one; because Spanish runs long, the voice speeds up slightly in dense passages.

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

Spanish subtitles

Spanish subtitles are longer than the English they replace, so fast speakers produce denser cues. If your audience spans several countries, neutral wording works across Latin America and Spain.

Spanish (Español) is written in the Latin alphabet.

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

Translating audio files into Spanish

Podcasts and recordings go through the audio translator, which returns a Spanish M4A and transcripts: 2,200 credits ($2.20) with voice, 44 credits (4.4¢) as text only.

Who translates into Spanish

Spanish is spoken in Spain, Mexico, most of Central and South America, and the United States. It's used by US companies reaching Spanish-speaking customers, creators growing into Latin America, and schools and clinics serving Spanish-speaking families.

Choosing between the two Spanish voices

The picker offers Spanish (Latin America) and Spanish (Spain). The choice sets the accent of the stock voice; the written translation behind it comes from the same model either way, so the decision is really about who will hear the dub.

US Hispanic audience

Spanish (Latin America), the accent US Spanish-language broadcasting mostly uses

Mexico, Central America, Colombia, Peru

Spanish (Latin America)

Argentina and Uruguay

Spanish (Latin America); add voseo in the subtitles yourself if you want a local feel

Spain

Spanish (Spain)

Several countries at once

The variant that matches the larger share of viewers, with neutral wording in the subtitles

Because the accent and the wording come from separate steps, a Castilian voice can end up reading a word a Spaniard wouldn't use, and a Latin American voice can say something that sounds peninsular. Listen for those mismatches in the preview, and fix the wording in the subtitle files if your viewers will read along. The article on translating for regional audiences goes further into adapting one translation for a specific market.

Neutral Spanish for viewers in many countries

Latin American dubbing studios have long worked in "español neutro", a style that avoids slang, local food names and region-specific verbs so one track can air from Mexico to Chile. You can apply the same idea when you review machine output. Watch especially for:

• Everyday nouns with regional splits: "jugo" and "zumo" for juice, "aguacate" and "palta" for avocado, "boleto" and "billete" for a ticket.
• Verbs that are harmless in one country and vulgar in another; "coger" is the classic example, so check any line where it appears.
• Recipes, DIY and household videos, where regional vocabulary is densest.
• Filler words and diminutives from the original speaker that the translation may carry over too literally.

Accents, ¿ and ¡ in the subtitle files

Spanish subtitles use characters English files never need: á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, ñ and the opening marks ¿ and ¡. The SRT and VTT downloads are plain text, and when a player shows "¿" or a black diamond instead of "¿", the file is almost always being read in the wrong character encoding rather than being damaged; the guide to subtitles showing strange characters explains the fix for common players and editors. If you edit the subtitles, keep the opening marks: dropping "¿" is normal in chat but looks careless in a published caption.

Spanish needs more words than English for the same idea, so a fast English presenter produces Spanish cues with more text in the same on-screen time. In dub mode the subtitles follow what the voice actually says, including lines shortened to fit timing, which makes them a little lighter to read than a full translation. The piece on text expansion explains why the length grows and how translators manage it.

Costing a 40-minute webinar in Spanish

Webinars bring extra Spanish work: audience names in the Q&A, product tier names that may or may not be translated, and slide text, which stays as it is in the picture. The webinar translation workflow covers preparing and publishing a recorded session end to end.

Spanish release checklist

1. Confirm the voice variant matches the market you announced the video for.
2. Search the subtitles for vosotros forms if the audience is in the Americas, and for regional food or household words.
3. Check that every ¿ and ¡ survived and that accented letters display in the player you will actually use.
4. Read prices aloud: Spain and much of South America write 1.500,50, while Mexico and the US write 1,500.50.
5. Verify job titles carry the right gender ("la directora", "el gerente") for the people named.
6. Spot-check the dub at 1× in the stretches where the original speaker talks fastest.
7. Decide whether place names appear in Spanish form ("Nueva York", "Londres") and keep that choice consistent.

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.