Subtitling · Amharic
Amharic subtitling services
Native Amharic subtitlers for corporate video, NGO and development content, healthcare material, eLearning and broadcast. Delivered in the format your platform requires. Part of a full Amharic language service: subtitles, voice over scripts, and translation of any content you need.
About Amharic subtitling
Amharic subtitles that survive the platform they ship to
Amharic is the working language of the Ethiopian federal government and the second most widely spoken Semitic language after Arabic, with roughly 35 million first-language speakers.
It is written in the Geʽez script, an abugida where each character carries a consonant and a vowel together. That produces several hundred distinct characters rather than a short alphabet, and it is where most Amharic subtitling projects run into trouble.
At GoLocalise, we work with native Amharic subtitlers and check every file in the context it is going to play in, rather than exporting it and hoping.
Which do you need?
Open captions, closed captions or SDH
Three different deliverables that people often ask for by the wrong name. Here is the short version.
Open captions
Burnt inSubtitles burnt permanently into the picture. Nobody can switch them off, which is exactly what you want for social feeds that autoplay muted — and in Amharic it also removes any dependency on the viewer's device having the right font.
- Always visible
- Geʽez rendering fixed at delivery
- Delivered as a finished video file
Closed captions
SwitchableA separate file the viewer can turn on and off, and that can carry several languages at once. The standard for YouTube, Vimeo and the streaming platforms.
- Viewer controls them
- Multiple languages from one video
- Indexed by search engines
SDH
AccessibilitySubtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing: dialogue plus speaker IDs and the sound effects and music cues that carry meaning.
- Speaker identification
- Non-dialogue audio described
- Meets accessibility requirements
What we subtitle
Amharic subtitling for every kind of content
Amharic subtitling spans development, healthcare, education and diaspora media, and each brings its own on-screen script demands. These are the project types we handle most.
Corporate & training video
Internal comms, onboarding and product training subtitled for global teams and LMS delivery.
eLearning & online courses
Timed, readable subtitles for course platforms, MOOCs and instructional video.
Documentary & factual
Festival, broadcast and streaming documentaries, including interview clean-up and on-screen text.
Advertising & social
Burnt-in captions for muted autoplay on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and paid social.
Streaming & OTT
Platform-spec subtitle and caption files for VOD, OTT and broadcast delivery.
Accessibility (SDH & closed captions)
Same-language SDH and closed captions to meet WCAG and accessibility requirements.
Events, webinars & conferences
Recorded talks, town halls and webinars captioned for on-demand viewing.
E-commerce & product video
Short product and explainer videos captioned to lift conversion and reach.
How can we help you?
Your project manager has everything covered
One point of contact from brief to delivery, and both a linguistic and a technical check on every file.
Brief review
We review your video, your audience, and where the file is going to be published.
Template and translation
Where needed, we create an English subtitle template first, then send it to a native Amharic subtitler.
Timing and quality checks
Subtitles are timed against the video and checked for reading speed, line length, character rendering, and format compliance.
Delivery and display check
Files are delivered in the format your platform requires, confirmed to display correctly.
Our standards
The specs we work to
Readable subtitles are a matter of measurable limits, not opinion. These are the defaults we apply to Amharic unless your style guide says otherwise.
Maximum per line
37 for broadcast delivery
Maximum on screen
Bottom-weighted, centred
Reading speed
Lower for children's content
Minimum duration
Seven seconds maximum
The limits are the easy part. Players and editing tools that handle Latin script without complaint will substitute fonts, drop characters, or render the file as boxes. A subtitle file can be linguistically flawless and still be unusable on the platform it was made for, which is why the display check is a step in our process rather than an afterthought.
Deliverables
Professional subtitle formats
We adapt your existing translations into subtitle format or create subtitles from scratch, in Amharic, English or any other language. And if the project needs a timed script or a plain document instead, we deliver that too.
Standard text-based
Compatible with most platforms and players.
Broadcast & professional
For broadcasters, post houses and streaming delivery specs.
Burnt-in video
A finished file with the subtitles baked into the picture, Geʽez included.
Need a different format? Convert SRT, VTT and more with our free subtitle converter →
Amharic specifics
Boxes, burn-in, and the briefs we see most
When Amharic subtitles show as boxes or question marks, it is almost always a font or encoding problem rather than a translation problem. The Geʽez script needs a font that supports it, and files moved between systems that handle Unicode inconsistently can corrupt along the way. Tell us which player or platform the file is for and we will deliver something that works there.
For Amharic, burning the subtitles into the picture is often the safer option. It removes any dependency on the viewer's device having a suitable font installed, which matters when content is distributed across mixed or low-specification devices. The trade-off is that burnt-in subtitles cannot be switched off or edited later, so we settle that at the brief.
NGO, healthcare and development content makes up a large share of the Amharic work we do. Material of this kind usually carries terminology that has to stay consistent and remain clear to a general audience, so we agree glossaries before subtitling begins.
Since 2008
Subtitling & captioning
100+
Languages covered
ISO 9001 & 14001
Certified processes
In-house
Subtitling team & studios
Subtitling rates
Professional Amharic subtitling
For single videos and straightforward content where accurate, well-timed subtitles are what you need.
- Native Amharic subtitler
- Geʽez rendering checked
- Frame-accurate timing
For longer content and recurring projects, including transcription, SDH, burned-in subtitles and multiple output formats.
- Everything in Standard
- Transcription and template
- SDH and burnt-in
- Multiple output formats
Every project is quoted individually and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us your video for an exact, no-obligation quote.
Trusted by global brands
We have used GoLocalise on a regular basis for projects in a number of languages. The service we receive is great. The team is always friendly and professional. The voiceovers we receive are of a very high quality and the turnaround is extremely quick. We are very happy to recommend GoLocalise to other businesses.
It was a pleasure to work with David and the team at GoLocalise. David gave me lots of help and advice, guiding me through my first subtitling project. He really knows his stuff! The experience was completely pain-free. I would not hesitate to recommend GoLocalise – outstanding work at a good price.
They're reliable, adaptive and obsessed with quality. And while you can never be 100% guaranteed of perfection, you can be sure GoLocalise will go the extra mile to get it right every time. We've worked with them now for over 5 years and we are truly thankful to have such a strong localisation partner for our business.
Related services
The rest of your Amharic project
Subtitling & captioning in more languages
Native subtitlers for corporate video, eLearning, streaming, documentary and advertising. Browse another language, or ask us about yours.
Most common questions
Almost always a font or encoding problem rather than a translation problem. The Geʽez script needs a font that supports it, and files moved between systems that handle Unicode inconsistently can corrupt along the way. Tell us which player or platform the file is for and we will deliver something that works there.
Ready to subtitle your video in Amharic?
Send us your video and we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.
Professional voice over services for your audio and video productions
Voice over
- State-of-the-art studios
- Neumann microphones
- On-hand sound engineers
- 1,000+ voice actors
Translation
- 100+ languages covered
- Tailored to your needs
- Stringent quality control
- Dedicated project managers
Subtitling
- Experienced subtitlers
- Industry-standard software
- Burn-in and graphic editing
- Open and closed captions
Transcription
- Improve accessibility
- Reach a wider audience
- Boost SEO and video views
- Maximise video engagement