Generate English subtitles for your Persian videos

From right-to-left Persian into English

Persian runs right to left and English runs left to right, so the subtitle file reverses direction relative to the speech. Nothing needs configuring for that, but it is worth previewing once before you publish.

Mixed passages — a Latin-script brand name or number inside a right-to-left line — are where rendering most often looks wrong, and they are worth checking in the player you actually publish to rather than in a text editor.

How Persian audio becomes English subtitles

Audio in Persian (فارسی) is transcribed first, then translated into English (English). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the English subtitle file keeps the timings of the original Persian speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

From Perso-Arabic to the Latin alphabet

Persian is written in Perso-Arabic and English in the Latin alphabet, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a English subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

Why translate Persian video into English

Persian is spoken principally in Iran, Afghanistan, where it is called Dari, and Tajikistan; English in worldwide. A English subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the Persian audio

Persian is right-to-left and, unlike Arabic, is Indo-European — shared script, unrelated grammar. Iranian Persian and Afghan Dari differ mainly in pronunciation and some vocabulary and both transcribe into the same script.

About the English subtitles

English has a wider spread of accents than any other language here, and the gap between spelling and pronunciation means recognition leans on context rather than sound alone. Names and technical terms are where errors concentrate, because those are exactly the words context cannot predict.

What a Persian to English subtitle file looks like

Four lines of Persian speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the Persian speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
Good morning, everyone.

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
I'll share the details in a moment.

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
That's all for today.

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
See you next time.

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in Persian may need loosening to read well in English.
• That the Latin alphabet renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.