English to Chinese

What happens when English speech is transcribed

Speech is fast, with lots of contractions and connected forms (gonna, wanna). Names and brand names get spelled by ear; downloading the transcript and fixing them is the fastest route.

Spoken English uses connected forms: “going to” becomes “gonna”. The transcript writes what was said, not written English; you can tidy it up in the .srt file.

Who watches English content?

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.

What's taken care of when translating into Chinese

Translation follows the flow of speech, not word by word: a English sentence can come out longer or shorter in Chinese, so subtitle timings are rebalanced. A caption engine that breaks on spaces can't break Chinese at all, and the text runs off the screen.

Line breaks follow the target language: 14–18 characters per line. Both languages read in the same direction, so alignment needs no extra work.

Where are Chinese-speaking viewers?

Chinese is the world's largest language by speakers. Simplified vs traditional script matters: simplified for the mainland, traditional for Taiwan and Hong Kong.

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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