Translate English to Italian, whole files at once
Upload an English file and read the opening in Italian before paying. Tu and Lei stay stable between characters, narration keeps the passato remoto, and the layout comes back unchanged.
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
FreeLa mattina in cui i traghetti si fermarono, Mara Ellison percorse tutto il Molo delle Lanterne e contò le barche che non sarebbero partite. Undici.
- 31 names and places in the glossary
- Layout kept
- 24 chapters
At a glance. English to Italian
- $22.50 for a 90,000-word novel
- Chapter one is free
- EPUB, MOBI, FB2, DOCX or PDF · up to 300 MB
- Chapters, footnotes, images and styles
One glossary for the whole file. Names read the same in Italian 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.
La mattina in cui i traghetti si fermarono, Mara Ellison percorse tutto il Molo delle Lanterne e contò le barche che non sarebbero partite. Undici. Da qualche parte oltre la nebbia, anche i Guardiani della Marea stavano contando.
Italian takes 5% more characters than English. Measured on our sample.
| Measure | English | Italian |
|---|---|---|
| Words | 84 | 84 |
| Characters, without spaces | 388 | 406 |
At the same ratio, a 92,400-word English book comes out at about 92,400 words in Italian.
You pay for the words of the English original, not for the length of the translation.
What changes in Italian. Handled for you, adjustable before you pay.
- Tu and Lei follow your style setting and stay stable between the same characters.
- Dialogue can use caporali «…» or em dashes, depending on the house style you pick in the notes.
- The passato remoto keeps literary narration natural for Italian readers.
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 Italian?
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 Italian translation?
Yes. The whole file is read first and every person, place and invented word gets one Italian form. You can change any of them before translation starts.
Caporali or dashes for dialogue?
Either. Write your house style in the notes for the translator, and every chapter uses the same punctuation.
Are Italian number and date formats used?
Yes. Decimals use a comma and thousands a dot, dates read day first, and currency follows Italian conventions throughout the file.
More language pairs. Same file, other languages.
Every format you work with. Layout kept in each one.
English to Italian translation: tenses, dialogue and Lei
Narration in the passato remoto
Italian literary fiction tells its story in the passato remoto. An English past tense turned into the passato prossimo sounds like someone retelling the plot over coffee. Transleaf uses the passato remoto for narration by default, as in the preview: Mara Ellison percorse tutto il Molo delle Lanterne.
If your book has a spoken, present-day voice, ask for the passato prossimo in Notes for the translator. The instruction applies to every chapter.
Read the full guideHide the guide
Caporali or dashes
Italian publishers do not agree on dialogue punctuation. Some use caporali, the angle quotes, and others use a dash. Both are correct. The only real mistake is mixing them in one book, so state your house style once and every chapter follows it.
Tu or Lei
Italian has a polite form English lacks: Lei, the third person used to address someone directly. Between the same two characters it should stay stable for as long as their relationship does.
- Informal tu suits stories among friends and family
- Formal Lei suits professional settings and period novels
- Per relationship lets a doctor say Lei to a patient while the patient’s children say tu to each other
Numbers, dates and money
Italian writes 1.240,00 € where English writes €1,240.00, and dates go day first. This matters more in documents than in novels, but one wrong decimal point in a report makes readers doubt the rest. Number, date and currency formats are converted throughout the file.
How the price is worked out
You pay per 1,000 English words: $0.25 to read, $0.60 to publish. A 90,000-word novel costs $22.50 or $54. A 16,000-word report in Read mode costs $4. Short files pay the minimum, $3 or $9. Text inside images can be translated for an extra $0.40 per order.
Reading the Italian chapter
Start with the opening dialogue. Italian speakers drop subject pronouns, and a translation that keeps every io and lei sounds wooden. Then check the polite form in the first conversation between strangers. If either feels off, add a line to the translator notes and run chapter one again, free up to three times.
Names that stay and names that change
Character names stay as they are. Invented places and words get Italian forms, such as il Molo delle Lanterne and i Guardiani della Marea. Look through the glossary before the free chapter: fixing a name there takes seconds, while spotting it later in chapter 18 takes luck.