Dub your English video into Persian

What to expect in Persian

Persian is written right to left in the Arabic script, with a few letters of its own. Numbers and Latin words inside a sentence still run left to right, which is where most subtitle problems start. Dublio lays Persian subtitles out right to left so the full stop and the question mark land on the correct side.

Persian also has two registers. People speak one way (می‌شه، نمی‌دونم) and write another (می‌شود، نمی‌دانم). A lecture or a news piece usually wants the written, formal register. A channel talking to friends wants the spoken one. Dublio asks the translator for natural spoken Persian by default. Say “formal and polite” in the instructions if you want the other register, and translate the script again.

The default instructions keep brand names and technical terms in Latin letters. If you would rather have them written in Persian letters, say so in the instructions before the first translation.

Half-spaces, letters and digits

Persian uses the half-space (a zero-width non-joiner) inside many words: می‌شود, کتاب‌ها. Without it the parts of the word either touch wrongly or fall apart. Dublio asks for correct half-spaces, and it is worth a glance at the script when a word looks odd. Check also that the text uses the Persian letters ی and ک and not the Arabic ي and ك, which look almost the same and break searching and spell checking. Decide whether you want digits as ۱۲۳ or 123, and put it in the instructions. Our guide to Persian text in subtitles explains each of these and how to check them.