Middle English Translator
A medieval English translator for reading Chaucer and other medieval texts — with false friends and spelling choices flagged on every draft, not hidden.
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Inserts at the cursor. þ = thorn (th), ð = eth (th), æ = ash, ƿ = wynn (w), ȝ = insular g; macrons mark long vowels (ā ē ī ō ū ǣ ȳ); ċ ġ are modern editors' dots for palatal sounds.
From the text itself
The most famous opening in Middle English
Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
When April with its sweet showers has pierced March's drought to the root, and bathed every vein in such sap, from whose power the flower is engendered.
Why reading Chaucer trips people up
False friends: words that look familiar but aren't
Middle English sits close enough to modern English to feel readable — and that is exactly the trap. The translator flags these in its notes; here are the four that fool everyone first:
soote = sweet
looks like: soot
The classic trap in the Canterbury Tales opening — “shoures soote” are sweet showers.
vertu = power, capacity
looks like: virtue (moral goodness)
“Of which vertu engendred is the flour” — the power that makes the flower grow.
corage = heart, spirit, desire
looks like: courage
“to pilgrimages” the corage is the urge in the heart, not bravery under fire.
gentil = noble, well-born
looks like: gentle
A “gentil knight” is a noble one; the soft-mannered sense came later.
One language, many spellings
Middle English was never standardized: the same word appears as knyght, knyghte or knight depending on the scribe, the dialect and the decade. Manuscripts also keep two letters modern English lost — þ (thorn, "th") and ȝ (yogh, a g/y/gh sound). The keyboard in the tool above types both. For the letters' background see the alphabet page (it covers the older Old English forms of the same letters).
Wrong tool? These are different languages
Frequently asked questions
Is Middle English the same as Old English?
No. Old English (Anglo-Saxon, c. 450–1150) is the language of Beowulf — a different, heavily inflected language that needs our Anglo Saxon translator. Middle English (c. 1150–1500) is Chaucer's English: closer to modern, but full of false friends. The comparison guide shows the difference with real examples.
Is Shakespeare Middle English?
No — Shakespeare is Early Modern English (c. 1500–1700), a century after Middle English ended. If you want thee/thou-style dramatic writing, that is a different thing again; see the comparison guide.
How accurate is it?
Every draft is labelled an AI draft and comes with notes, flagged uncertain words, and false-friend warnings — judge it, don't trust it blind. Middle English spelling was never standardized, so one modern word can map to several period spellings; drafts prefer Chaucer-style London forms. Our full method is on the Methodology page.
Can it translate long texts?
500 characters at a time — built for working through a poem passage by passage. Your input stays on your device except for the translation request itself (see Privacy).