Book translator
Translate a book, and keep the original beside it
Upload a book you have, a novel, a classic, a book for work, and get it back in another language with every paragraph next to the original. Read the translation, check it against the author's words whenever you like, and take it to your e-reader.
Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure.
For a long time, I went to bed early.
Parfois, à peine ma bougie éteinte, mes yeux se fermaient si vite que je n’avais pas le temps de me dire : « Je m’endors. »
Sometimes, my candle barely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I had no time to tell myself: “I’m falling asleep.”
Et, une demi-heure après, la pensée qu’il était temps de chercher le sommeil m’éveillait…
And half an hour later, the thought that it was time to go to sleep would wake me…
How to translate a book
- Upload the book: an EPUB, a PDF, a Word file, a text file or an HTML page, in any of 68 languages.
- Choose the language to translate into. A free preview of the opening pages shows the result before you spend anything.
- Translate the whole book, then read it in the browser, or download it as a PDF, an EPUB, or AZW3 and MOBI for Kindle.
A translation you can check
The original stays
Ordinary translators replace the text. Here the original paragraph stays and its translation sits beside it (on an e-reader, right after it), so you can read in either language and look across when a sentence stops you. That is what makes it a parallel text.
Made for whole books
Chapters, headings and the table of contents carry over, and a 400-page novel goes through the same way as a short story.
Honest about machine translation
The translation is made by machine: good for following a story and understanding a book you could not read otherwise, not a polished literary translation. Keeping the original beside it is the answer to that, not an afterthought.
Other ways to translate an EPUB or PDF book
There is more than one way to do it, and the right one depends on what you want at the end:
- Calibre with a translation plugin is free and works on EPUB files. You install and set it up yourself and usually need access to a translation service. You get a translated file; a reading view with the original beside it is not part of it.
- General document translators (Google Translate, DeepL) are fine for a letter or an article. They give you the translation in place of the original, and not all of them accept an ebook.
- Book translation services and apps exist for whole EPUB and PDF files; what differs is what you get back (a translated file, or both languages together), the allowance you get free, and whether you can read the result in a browser.
- This page’s way: upload the file, see the opening pages free, translate the whole book, and read it with the original beside every paragraph, in the browser or on your e-reader. See how we compare.
Translate an English book into another language
Translate a book into English
Notes on reading each language beside English, with an example from a classic:
- Translate a Japanese book into English
- Translate a Chinese book into English
- Translate a Korean book into English
- Translate a Russian book into English
- Translate a German book into English
- Translate a French book into English
- Translate a Spanish book into English
- Translate a Italian book into English
- Translate a Portuguese book into English
- Translate a Turkish book into English
- Translate a Romanian book into English
- Translate a Hindi book into English
- Translate a Indonesian book into English
- Translate a Greek book into English
- Translate a Dutch book into English
- Translate a Polish book into English
- Translate a Vietnamese book into English
- Translate a Arabic book into English
Any other direction works the same way: an English book with Spanish beside it, a Polish novel with German, a Turkish book with Dutch.
Who translates their own books
- Readers of books that were never translated: a novel only out in Japanese, Korean or Italian, a family memoir in the language of a grandparent.
- Language learners who want a real book, not a textbook, with help one glance away. See how to learn with parallel texts.
- Bilingual families and couples sharing one book across two languages: families, couples.
- Students and professionals reading a book or report for work in a language they read slowly.
Questions about translating a book
How do I translate a whole book?
Upload the book as an EPUB, PDF, Word, text or HTML file and choose the language to translate into. You see the opening pages translated for free; then translate the whole book and read it in the browser or download it. A free account starts with 50 pages.
Why keep the original next to the translation?
A machine translation of a book is good enough to follow the story, but not perfect. With the original beside every paragraph you can check any sentence that reads oddly, see the author's own words, and learn the language as you go if you want to.
How is this different from Google Translate or DeepL?
General document translators give you the translation instead of the original, and many do not accept ebooks at all. This is made for books: it takes an EPUB or PDF of any length, keeps the chapters, pairs every paragraph with its translation, and gives you files for e-readers.
How much does it cost to translate a book?
The preview is free and needs no card. 50 pages free, then from $5 a month. A 200-page book: $3, in one piece.
Which books can I upload?
Any DRM-free file: an EPUB, a PDF (scans are read with text recognition), a Word document, a text file or an HTML page. Ebooks locked to a shop's app (most Kindle, Kobo and Apple Books purchases) cannot be opened. Public-domain classics are free to download from sites such as Project Gutenberg and Wikisource.
Can I translate an EPUB for free?
You can see the opening pages of your EPUB translated for free, with no card, and a free account starts with 50 pages. Translating a whole book is paid. Free routes exist too: Calibre with a translation plugin, or a general translator for short texts. They give you a translated file, not the original beside it, and you set them up yourself.
Can I publish the translation?
The translated book is for your own reading. Publishing a translation needs the rights to the book, and a translation made to read beside the original is not meant as a finished literary translation.
In other languages: Deutsch: Buch übersetzen · Español: traducir un libro · Français : traduire un livre · Italiano: tradurre un libro · Português: traduzir um livro · Türkçe: kitap çevirme · Română: traducerea unei cărți · Nederlands: een boek vertalen · Polski: tłumaczenie książki · 中文：书籍翻译 · 日本語: 本の翻訳 · 한국어: 책 번역 · हिंदी: किताब का अनुवाद · Bahasa Indonesia: terjemahkan buku · Ελληνικά: μετάφραση βιβλίου · Tiếng Việt: dịch sách · ไทย: แปลหนังสือ · العربية: ترجمة كتاب