Arabic to English

What happens when Arabic speech is transcribed

Written right to left, with letters joining into connected forms. Printed without letter shaping, words look broken apart; right alignment and connected forms are both required.

Modern Standard Arabic is shared in writing but spoken dialects vary by country; the transcript follows the spoken dialect while translation leans toward the standard language.

Who watches Arabic content?

Arabic is spoken from Morocco to the Gulf, and mobile video use in the region is above the global average. The right-to-left direction makes captioning a technically separate job.

What's taken care of when translating into English

Translation follows the flow of speech, not word by word: a Arabic sentence can come out longer or shorter in English, so subtitle timings are rebalanced. Names and brand names get spelled by ear; downloading the transcript and fixing them is the fastest route.

Line breaks follow the target language: 32–38 characters per line reads comfortably. The source reads right to left and the target left to right: alignment is rebuilt during translation.

Where are English-speaking viewers?

English captions open content up to the global feed. Most viewers whose first language isn't English still follow English captions easily, so it's usually the first extra language to add.

Technical summary

Subtitles, not dubbing

We don't generate synthetic voices. The speaker's own voice and intonation stay, and viewers read the text. For interviews, lectures, podcasts and other speech-heavy content, that's more honest than imitating a voice, and causes fewer problems in practice.

FAQ

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