Russian to English

What happens when Russian speech is transcribed

Cyrillic letters take up a little more width than Latin ones. A Latin-only font turns Cyrillic captions into empty boxes; BeamTake falls back to a font that covers Cyrillic.

Because Cyrillic is a bit wider, the same sentence may not fit on one line; line breaks are adjusted for it.

Who watches Russian content?

Russian captions reach a wide audience beyond Russia, across Central Asia and the Caucasus. Demand is high for technical and educational content.

What's taken care of when translating into English

Translation follows the flow of speech, not word by word: a Russian 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. Both languages read in the same direction, so alignment needs no extra work.

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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