Why Yoruba is hard for most tools
Yoruba is tonal and written with both tone marks and sub-dots. Drop them and the word changes meaning entirely — ọkọ̀ (vehicle), ọkọ (husband) and oko (farm) differ only by those marks. Most translation tools strip them, which is why their Yoruba subtitles read as gibberish to a Yoruba speaker.
SubX writes full diacritics — tone marks and sub-dots — every time.
What the output actually looks like
| English | Yoruba |
|---|---|
| We move at midnight. | A máa lọ ní ọ̀gànjọ́. |
| Don't look back. | Má ṣe wo ẹ̀yìn. |
| This is our only chance. | Èyí ni àǹfààní kan ṣoṣo wa. |
| I told you not to come here. | Mo ti sọ fún ọ pé má wá síbí. |
| She's been waiting since morning. | Ó ti ń dúró láti òwúrọ̀. |
Real output from SubX, not a mock-up.
Who uses this
Filmmakers and editors subtitling for audiences in South-West Nigeria, where Yoruba is spoken by about 45 million people. Nollywood and independent productions adding Yoruba subtitles for distribution. Creators on YouTube and streaming platforms opening their back catalogue to an audience that most subtitle tools simply cannot serve.
How it works
Upload an .srt file in your browser, choose English as the source and Yoruba
as the target, and download the translated file. Timings and numbering come back exactly as
they went in, so the file drops straight back onto your timeline. If you use
DaVinci Resolve Studio, SubX Studio runs the same translation on your active
timeline without leaving the app.
No subtitle file to hand? Grab a sample from the homepage and try it in under a minute.
Other languages
SubX covers 41 languages, including 20 Nigerian languages.