Translate Portuguese to English audio and video

Translate Portuguese audio to English, timestamps included

One upload gives you two steps in a row. Kotosay writes the Portuguese down, then moves it into English piece by piece. That is the whole path from Portuguese audio to English text, and every piece remembers the moment it was spoken.

Those moments make the English usable as subtitles too. When a line holds fast speech, gíria or a name you have never seen spelled, its timestamp takes you to the right minute of your recording.

Brazilian and European Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese to English audio works the same way as Portuguese from Portugal, Angola or Mozambique. The vocabulary and grammar differ, though, and those differences are the first thing to check.

• Bus is ônibus in Brazil and autocarro in Portugal.
• Cell phone is celular in Brazil and telemóvel in Portugal.
• Brazil says estou fazendo, and Portugal usually says estou a fazer.
• Brazil mostly uses você, while tu is common in Portugal and in parts of Brazil.

Spoken Brazilian Portuguese with tá, pra and a gente

Brazilians shorten words when they talk. Tá stands for está, pra for para and cê for você. The transcript may show either the short or the full form, and both translate the same.

A gente means we, not the people. Né at the end of a sentence works like right? in English, and a translation that keeps every né sounds repetitive, so cut it where an English speaker would.

Regional words inside Brazil

Brazil alone has strong regional speech. In Minas Gerais, trem can mean almost any thing, not only a train. In the Northeast, massa means great and oxe shows surprise. Mark words like these in the editor when the English reads strangely.

European Portuguese and its swallowed vowels

Speakers from Lisbon or Porto drop many unstressed vowels, so telefone can sound close to tlfon, and short words run together. Lines from Portugal deserve a slower read next to your own recording, above all names and figures.

Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde

Portuguese from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde carries words from local languages, and Cape Verdean speakers may switch into Kriolu mid-conversation. Mark those passages in the editor and read them with someone who knows where the speaker comes from.

Voice notes from WhatsApp

In Brazil, long voice notes are a normal way to talk. Save or export the audio from the chat first. It is usually an OPUS or OGG file, and it uploads as it is. Kotosay transcribes the Portuguese, and with Single file or Unlimited you translate it into English.

A chat full of voice notes

Ten voice notes from one chat are ten files. Upload them in the order they were sent and name each one by its time, so the English reads as one conversation. With Unlimited, 3 notes run at the same time.

Portuguese look-alikes with other meanings

A few Portuguese words fool English readers because they look so familiar.

• Puxar means to pull. To push is empurrar.
• Pretender means to intend.
• Esquisito means strange or weird.
• Livraria sells books. To borrow them, you go to a biblioteca.
• Legal in Brazil usually means cool or nice, as in que legal.

TipGive these words, plus every name and figure, a second read in the English before anyone else sees it.

Which surname to use

Portuguese names usually put the mother's surname before the father's, and the last surname is the one used on second mention. Ana Paula Ferreira Costa becomes Ms. Costa in an English report. Spanish names work the other way round, so keep the two habits apart when a recording has both.

Nicknames add a second layer. Zé is José, Bia is Beatriz and Duda can be Eduardo or Maria Eduarda, so one person may appear under two names in the same recording.

English captions for Portuguese creators

Creators who post in Portuguese can reach English viewers with one more file. Upload the video, translate Portuguese video to English text with Single file or Unlimited and download SRT or VTT. The cues line up with the Portuguese voice, so YouTube Studio or your editor places them correctly.

Documents that need a sworn translator

Immigration files, court papers and hospital documents go to a tradutor juramentado or another certified translator. Passing along the Portuguese transcript spares them retyping the recording.