DualBook 8 languages

Free online tool — no sign-up

Translate an Italian book into German

Upload an Italian EPUB and get the first fifteen pages back in German. Italian says a great deal with the ends of its words, and German has to say it with different words entirely.

The first 15 pages of text are sent to our server to be translated. The file itself stays on your device.

An Italian -ino or -accio carries affection or contempt in a single syllable. German has some diminutive machinery, but far less of it, and using it where Italian would produces text that reads as childish rather than affectionate. Most of the time the tone has to move into an adjective or a different noun — and doing that the same way each time is what keeps a character's voice recognisable.

The sentence has to be rebuilt as well. German sends the verb to the end of a subordinate clause, so an Italian sentence cannot be converted in the order it was written; it has to be read to its close first.

The formality is the easy part: Lei becomes Sie directly, both capitalised, with no inference required.

How it works

  1. Choose your Italian EPUB

    A DRM-free EPUB. The file stays on your device; only the text of the sample is sent.

  2. The model reads the whole book

    Names, nicknames and recurring terms are collected first, so a character called several things stays one person.

  3. The first 15 pages come back in German

    About 4,500 words, rebuilt as German sentences with the verbs where German puts them, and set to wrap so long compounds do not overflow.

Honest limits

Suffixes become words. German will not carry the Italian diminutive system, so the tone moves into adjectives — longer and blunter than the original.

Dialect passages approximate. Italian written in heavy regional dialect is effectively another language, and the German there is serviceable rather than exact.

Fifteen pages, not the book. About 4,500 words.

The text is sent to a server and discarded when the job finishes.

Questions

What happens to Italian diminutives?

They become adjectives or different nouns. German's own diminutives are narrower in range, and using them everywhere Italian does would make the prose sound like a children's book — so the tone is carried by word choice instead, consistently across the sample.

Does Lei become Sie?

Yes, directly, both capitalised by convention. The relationship is stated in the Italian rather than inferred.

Do long German compounds break the layout?

No. The translation paragraphs carry styling that lets an over-long word break across lines instead of forcing the page to scroll sideways on a phone.

How much is free?

About 4,500 words, roughly fifteen pages, five books a day.

Translate the whole book

The app runs the same engine across the entire book and can show the German next to the Italian, with your position synced between devices.

Open DualBook