Translate German to English Audio

How it works

German often saves the key word for the end of a sentence, so work with whole sentences.

1. 1

   Upload the German recording

   Any MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4 or WebM up to 10 minutes and 100 MB. The picker starts on German. Create or open your free account when asked, and start the transcription.

2. 2

   Repair the transcript

   Look for long words broken in two, and for Sie written where sie was said. If you trim the text, cut between sentences and never inside one, or you may lose the verb.

3. 3

   Translate into English

   The target is already English. The result shows the translation, any notes on sayings or doubtful words, and your German below it. Copy it where you need it, or play it with Read aloud if your browser has an English voice.

Where spoken German trips up a translation

Most of these show up in the German transcript first, which is where you can still fix them.

• The verb's other half comes last

  Separable verbs send their prefix to the end of the clause: in "Ich fange morgen mit der Arbeit an", the an belongs to fange. "Mach die Tür auf" is open the door and "Mach die Tür zu" is close it, and you only learn which in the last word. A sentence cut off by a dropped line or a trim can mean the opposite.

• Compounds that split in speech

  A long word like Lieferterminverschiebung, a postponed delivery date, can land in the transcript as separate pieces when someone pauses in the middle of it. Join the pieces before you translate, because the pieces can mean something else alone.

• Sie, sie and du

  Formal Sie, she and they all sound the same, and only the capital letter and context tell them apart on the page. "Sie kommen morgen" can be "you are coming tomorrow" or "they are coming tomorrow". Check who is meant, because English makes you choose.

• Numbers read backward, and big ones that mislead

  Fünfundzwanzig is five-and-twenty, 25, which is an easy swap with 52. Halb drei is 2:30, not 3:30. A German Milliarde is an English billion, and a German Billion is an English trillion. Figures are kept as written and not converted, so check these yourself.

• Switzerland and Austria

  There is one German setting. In German-speaking Switzerland the everyday spoken language is local dialect, while Swiss Standard German is mostly written, so expect a dialect recording to come out worse than one in standard German, and check it closely. Vocabulary shifts too: Velo is a bicycle in Switzerland, and Austrians may say Jänner for January.

German recordings people bring here

Mostly work, where a wrong date or a wrong number has a cost.

• A call with a machine or parts supplier

  Delivery dates, order numbers and specs from a German manufacturer. Let the other side know you are recording, then read the German numbers against the audio before you enter them anywhere.

• A plant tour or a commissioning visit

  An engineer's walkthrough in Stuttgart, recorded with permission. Technical terms are where compounds pile up, so plan to look over those by hand.

• A voicemail from a client in Vienna or Zurich

  Find out who called and what they want before you call back. A message in Swiss dialect may need help from someone who speaks it.

• A seminar or a university lecture

  Upload one 10-minute part at a time, and study with the German and English side by side. Ask the lecturer first if the course has rules about recording.

• A message from Oma, or an interview

  A family voice note saved as a file, or a recorded interview for a story, made with consent. For anything you will quote, go back to the German and have a German speaker check it.