Translate English to German, whole files at once
Upload an English book, document or subtitle file and read the first chapter in German before you pay. Choose du or Sie once, pick German for Germany, Austria or Switzerland, and every invented name keeps one German form.
Source · English, detected
On the morning the ferries stopped, Mara Ellison walked the length of the Lantern Quay and counted the boats that would not leave. Eleven.
Preview
FreeAm Morgen, als die Fähren ausblieben, ging Mara Ellison den Laternenkai entlang und zählte die Boote, die nicht ablegen würden. Elf.
- 31 names and places in the glossary
- Layout kept
- 24 chapters
At a glance. English to German
- $22.50 for a 90,000-word novel
- Chapter one is free
- Germany, Austria, or Switzerland
- Chapters, footnotes, images and styles
One glossary for the whole file. Names read the same in German on every page.
Pick a name to find it in both versions.
On the morning the ferries stopped, Mara Ellison walked the length of the Lantern Quay and counted the boats that would not leave. Eleven. Somewhere behind the fog, the Tidewardens were counting too.
Am Morgen, als die Fähren ausblieben, ging Mara Ellison den Laternenkai entlang und zählte die Boote, die nicht ablegen würden. Elf. Irgendwo hinter dem Nebel zählten auch die Gezeitenwächter.
German takes about as many characters as English. Measured on our sample.
| Measure | English | German |
|---|---|---|
| Words | 84 | 79 |
| Characters, without spaces | 388 | 393 |
At the same ratio, a 92,400-word English book comes out at about 86,900 words in German.
You pay for the words of the English original, not for the length of the translation.
What changes in German. Handled for you, adjustable before you pay.
- Characters choose between du and Sie. You can set it once for the whole book or let it follow each relationship.
- Invented place names usually become compounds, like Laternenkai for Lantern Quay. The glossary keeps them identical in every chapter.
- Long German compounds make tight captions and table headers overflow first, so those are reflowed rather than cut.
What a book costs. Pick an example or set your word count.
Free preview: chapter one. No account or card needed.
Questions. Short answers.
How much does it cost to translate a book from English to German?
A one-off translation costs $0.25 per 1,000 words for reading or $0.60 with glossary, style guide and review. A 90,000-word novel is $54 in Publish mode. You see the exact price before paying.
Will names stay the same in the German translation?
Yes. The whole file is read first and every person, place and invented word gets one German form. You can change any of them before translation starts.
Can characters switch from Sie to du?
Yes. Choose “Decide per relationship” in the style settings: strangers start with Sie, family and friends use du, and the switch happens where the story makes it.
Which German should I pick: Germany, Austria or Switzerland?
Pick where your readers live. Swiss German writes ss instead of ß, and Austrian German has its own everyday words, such as Jänner for January. The whole file follows the variant you choose.
More language pairs. Same file, other languages.
Every format you work with. Layout kept in each one.
Translating an English book into German: what to decide before chapter one
What German readers notice in the first pages
German readers spot a translated book fast, and usually for small reasons. Quotation marks sit low and high („like this“) in most German books. Numbers use a decimal comma. Every noun is capitalized, so an invented English word left as it is still has to behave like a German noun in the sentence.
Transleaf applies these typographic rules to the whole file on its own. The bigger decisions are about tone and names, and those are yours to make on the second step, before anything is translated.
Read the full guideHide the guide
Du or Sie: three settings and when each one fits
English has one you. German makes every conversation choose between the familiar du and the polite Sie, and readers feel it when two characters get it wrong.
- Informal du: everyone is on first-name terms. Fits young adult fiction, most fantasy and books narrated among friends.
- Formal Sie: polite distance throughout. Fits business memoirs, period dramas and manuals that address the reader.
- Decide per relationship: family says du, strangers say Sie, and the switch happens where the story makes it. This is the setting we suggest for novels.
Invented names become German compounds, once
In The Harbour Ledger, our sample novel, Lantern Quay becomes Laternenkai and the Tidewardens become die Gezeitenwächter. Mara Ellison stays Mara Ellison. That is the default: people keep their names, while places and invented words get a German form.
Each choice is stored in the glossary and reused in every chapter, so chapter 20 cannot drift to Laternenhafen. If a place should sound English on purpose, switch it to Keep. Greyhaven stays Greyhaven in our sample for exactly that reason.
Germany, Austria or Switzerland
Pick the country where most of your readers live. Swiss Standard German drops ß and writes ss, so Straße becomes Strasse. Austrian German says Jänner for January and has its own kitchen vocabulary. The setting applies to the whole file, chapter titles and table of contents included.
What a German edition costs
The price depends on the English word count, not on the length of the German text. Our sample novel has 92,400 words selected for translation. In Read mode that is $23.10. In Publish mode, which adds the editable glossary, the style guide and review notes, it is $55.44. Pro at $29 a month includes 200,000 words, so a book of this size fits in one month with room to spare.
What to check in the free chapter
Read the first chapter as a German reader would, not side by side with the original. Then look at whether du and Sie feel right, whether the invented names sound natural, and whether idioms were adapted or kept close to the English. If something is off, change the setting and run chapter one again. Up to three reruns are free.