Translate French to English

Free French to English translator with a formal or informal register and names kept exactly as you wrote them.

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Type, paste or upload a document. The source language is detected automatically. Select a name or term and tap Keep to leave it untranslated.

Your translation will appear hereChoose the target language, add your text, then press Translate. Click any sentence in the translation for alternatives.

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French to English translator

French to English translation with the register set first

Paste French and get English back with the tone of the original intact. English has no vous and tu, so the difference has to be carried by phrasing; the register selector tells the translator which way to lean, and the names and terms you mark as kept come through exactly as you wrote them.

How to translate French to English

Three steps. The second is the one most translators skip.

Paste or upload the French

Type, paste or drop in a document. French is already selected as the source on this page; if the text turns out to be something else, the detector says so above the editor and you can change it.

Set the register and mark the names to keep

Pick Formal or Informal from the register selector beside the language names, or leave it on Match source tone to follow the French original. Select any name, brand or product term and press Keep so it is passed through as written.

Translate, then check it

Read the English if you can. If you cannot, back-translate it: run the result through English to French and compare the meaning, sentence by sentence, with what you started from.

What changes between French and English

The differences that decide whether a translation reads as written by a person.

Script and directionFrench is written in Latin; English in Latin.
Word orderFrench is subject-verb-object; English is subject-verb-object. The orders match, which removes one whole class of error, but idiom and agreement still have to be handled.
How politeness is markedEnglish has no separate polite and familiar 'you'. Register lives in vocabulary and sentence shape instead: 'Could you let me know' against 'Tell me', 'purchase' against 'buy'.
Formality in FrenchFrench uses 'tu' with friends, family and children and 'vous' with everyone else and with any group. Written French to a stranger is 'vous' by default, and moving to 'tu' is a decision people make explicitly.

Where translation into English goes wrong

Three things English readers notice at once, and a machine has to be told about.

One 'you' for every register

Every language with a polite and familiar 'you' collapses to one word in English, so the tone of the original has to be carried by phrasing or it is lost.

US or UK spelling

US and UK spelling differ (color and colour, organize and organise); a translation should stay consistent with whichever the reader expects.

Articles have to be added

Articles ('a', 'the') have to be added where the source language has none, and choosing the wrong one reads as foreign.

What has to be read correctly in the French first

Errors that start on the source side, before a single English word is chosen.

One past tense for two

French uses the same tense for what English splits into simple past and present perfect, so tense choice in English is a judgement call.

Two ways to negate

Negation wraps the verb ('ne… pas') and informal French drops the 'ne'; both are correct and a translator has to recognise both.

Canadian French differs

Canadian French differs in vocabulary and idiom from France; 'courriel' against 'e-mail' is a small example of a wide gap.

Who translates French to English here

Replies to English-speaking customers and colleagues.

Coursework, applications and CVs for English-language institutions.

Reading English documentation, contracts and news.

Going the other way? Translate English to French.

French to English translator FAQs

Is the French to English translator free?

Yes. Translate French to English without an account, within the per-run word allowance shown beside the editor. Signing in raises it, and Pro removes the guest limits and the ads. The pricing page lists what each plan includes.

What happens to vous and tu when I translate into English?

English has one 'you', so the distinction between vous and tu disappears at the pronoun. The translator carries the tone through phrasing instead — a vous original comes out as English a stranger would expect, a tu one as English between people who know each other. If the result reads too stiff or too casual, change the register selector and run it again.

Will it translate names, brands and product terms?

Not unless you want it to. Select a name or a term in the editor and press Keep, and it is passed through exactly as written. This matters for French to English because a brand name can look like an ordinary word and get 'translated' into one.

How accurate is machine translation from French to English?

Good enough to understand a document, answer an email or draft a reply, and it improves when you set the register and mark the names as kept first. It is not a substitute for a human translator on a contract, a medical document or anything with legal weight. The reliable way to check a translation you cannot read is to back-translate it: paste the English result into a new run set to French and see whether the meaning survived.

Can I translate a whole document from French to English?

Yes. Drop in a .docx, .pdf or .txt file, or paste the text; the output keeps the paragraph structure and can be copied, edited in place or exported.

Can I translate English to French as well?

Yes. Use the English to French translator, or press the swap button between the two language names on this page. Either way the register and the kept terms come with you.

After the translation

Check the French before you translate it, or shift the register of the result once it is in English. One plan covers every tool.

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Popular language translations

Each pair opens the translator with both languages already set. The register and the Keep button work the same on every one.