The Top Five Hardest Languages to Subtitle

At Capital Captions, we work with subtitle translation services in over 50 different languages. Price ranges can differ for European language pairs versus Asian, African or South American. Some reasons for this can be outlined as the level of demand and number of translators in a given language. Additionally to be considered is the differing standard rates for translation, often based on a country’s typical costs of living. The major reason, however, can be seen to be the complexity of working with subtitles based on the nuances of different languages and their structures and syntax. In this blog, we’ll look at the five hardest languages to subtitle.

1. Arabic Subtitling

Arabic can be a difficult language to work with when it comes to translating subtitles. It’s important to work with fully trained Arabic subtitlers. Arabic writing reads right to left, and so should Arabic subtitles. One issue that can arise with Arabic subtitling is where typically some company names, jargon and/or grammar may remain in the source language with many languages, working in this way with Arabic can prove troublesome. Mixing characters from Arabic with other languages can be known to cause problems where SRT or other format subtitle text may recognise Latin characters and read left to right. For this reason, it’s important to fully translate Arabic subtitles every time.

2. German Subtitling

When it comes to translating subtitles from English into European languages, usually things are quite straightforward and should run smoothly. This isn’t always the case with German, due to the wordiness of the language. German translation can typically run at up to 30% longer than its’ source English text. This can make subtitle splits tricky in terms of character and line limits. Additionally and most importantly, German translations for subtitles often require summarising of information and shortening of messages in order to retain reading speeds which allow viewers time to actually digest the captions onscreen.

3. Chinese Subtitling

The language structure of Chinese can be significantly different to that of other languages. When working with Chinese subtitles, it’s paramount to ensure as much as possible, sync to familiar words and phrases, especially those that retain the characters and spelling of the source language, e.g. company and individual names. Line splits within Chinese subtitles also need to be accurate and aren’t always as straightforward as with other languages. The major reason for this is as there are no spacing between words and characters, and a sloppy split can completely change a sentence or render it as nonsense.

4. Scots Gaelic and Welsh Subtitling

When it comes to the above language, for some broadcasters and VoD providers within the UK, such as the BBC, it’s recommended to work with these languages where possible for broadcast. The reason that these languages can be more difficult to work with doesn’t actually amount to anything technical. On the contrary, the main difficulty in translating subtitles for Scots Gaelic and Welsh is in finding a suitable translator to work on the file. Along with some of the other less widely spoken languages of the world, rates can be higher for working with rarer languages due to the smaller number of linguists and subtitlers available with the skills, qualifications and experience to provide services.

5. English Subtitling

The last choice in terms of subtitling difficulty may seem a surprising one but there are some very good reasons why English can be a complex language to subtitle or closed caption. Especially where closed captions for the deaf and hard of hearing are concerned, there can be a huge amount of grammatical and technical specifications to follow when working with English subtitles. In addition to working with guidelines, English speech contains a huge number of slang words, fillers, ahs, erms, etc, and subtitlers need to make sensible, logical decisions as to what to include and what to omit. When the source and target language match on a video, any mistake can stand out a mile, so the level of accuracy required in writing English subtitles can be enormous.

So there you have it, our top 5 hardest languages to subtitle. If you have a language that you require subtitling for, why not click the quote button to see what our friendly team can offer you. You can also take a look at our translation section of the site if you want to get a better idea of the many languages that we handle.