# Write your AI video prompt in any language — Ask writes the English

> Type or say your video idea in French, Spanish, German or Portuguese. Ask answers in your language and writes the engine prompt in English, @mentions kept.

Published 2026-09-29 · eroq.ai — canonical: https://eroq.ai/blog/ai-video-prompts-in-any-language


You think in your own language; video and image engines read English best. The usual workaround is to write prompts in a second language, or to run the idea through a translator and check that the camera move survived the trip. [Ask](/ask) removes that step. In the bar at the top of [the studio](/studio) home, the one that reads **Ask anything, launch everything**, write or speak in your own language: French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, whatever you think in. Ask answers you in that language, writes the engine prompt in English, and opens the tool with everything set.

## What is written in English, and what stays yours

Ask reads your sentence against the studio's own catalogue, picks the tool and fills it in. When that tool is [Video](/studio/video) or [Image](/studio/image), the prompt it writes on the page is in **English** — the language those engines read best — whatever language you wrote in.

Everything else stays in your language:

- **The conversation.** Ask replies in the language you wrote in. Write in German, read German.
- **Voice lines.** A line for [the Voice tool](/studio/voice) keeps the language you wrote it in, and it is spoken as written.
- **Text scenes.** A scene you ask for in [the Text tool](/studio/text) stays in your language.
- **Names.** `@Mina` is kept exactly as you typed it, in the middle of the English prompt.

Settings are not words to translate at all. The engine you name, the seconds, the format and the camera move are set on the page itself, and the grey line under the reply names the engine, seconds and format you asked for before the page opens.

One consequence to remember: a render made through Ask keeps its English prompt, and Ask finds your work by the words of its prompt or title. When you look for it later, the English word is the safe one — *cat*, not *chat*. [Finding old renders by description](/blog/find-old-ai-renders-by-description) covers the search side.

## Four asks, four languages

Each block below is the sentence as typed, the grey line under Ask's reply, and the prompt the tool page opens with.

**French — a vertical clip on a named engine**

```text
Typed:      Fais une vidéo verticale de 10 secondes avec Kling : une femme en
            imperméable jaune traverse un parking vide sous la pluie,
            lampadaires orange, travelling lent.
Grey line:  Setting up Video · Kling 3.0 · 10 s · 9:16 with your parameters…
Prompt:     A woman in a yellow raincoat crosses an empty parking lot in the
            rain, orange streetlights, slow tracking shot.
```

The reply comes back in French. "Kling" on its own means the family's standard engine, [Kling 3.0](/models/kling-3) — say "Pro" if you want the Pro. "Verticale" became 9:16, "travelling lent" became a slow tracking shot, and the ten seconds and the format are set on the page. Kling 3.0 comes with a Hobby plan or higher; on a plan without it, Ask proposes instead of jumping — an **Open Video →** button with a plan badge — and the page opens with its Unlock button.

**Spanish — an image with a character**

```text
Typed:      Haz una imagen vertical de @Mina leyendo junto a la ventana de
            una cafetería, luz de tarde.
Grey line:  Setting up Image · 9:16 with your parameters…
Prompt:     @Mina reading by the window of a café, afternoon light.
```

@Mina stays a name, and she is added to the page's cast. She shows up in the render once she has her look sheet, made in her Identity tab in [Characters](/studio/characters); without one she is flagged "Needs a look sheet". No engine was named, so the Image tool keeps the engine it is on. [Casting by name](/blog/cast-characters-by-name-with-ask) goes deeper.

**German — a landscape clip, no engine named**

```text
Typed:      Mach einen Clip für YouTube, 5 s: ein alter Leuchtturm bei
            Sonnenuntergang, die Kamera im Orbit um den Turm.
Grey line:  Setting up Video · 5 s · 16:9 with your parameters…
Prompt:     An old lighthouse at sunset, the camera orbiting the tower.
```

"YouTube" means 16:9. With no engine named, the page keeps the engine it is on — the last one you used, or [Seedance 2.0 Mini](/models/seedance-2-0-mini) on a new account, where those five seconds cost 45 credits once you click Generate. "Orbit" is the studio's own name for the move, so it sets the camera move too.

**Portuguese — a voice line, kept as written**

```text
Typed:      Grave esta fala com a voz da Aria: "Você chegou atrasado… de novo."
Grey line:  Setting up Voice · Aria with your parameters…
Text:       Você chegou atrasado… de novo.
```

Nothing is translated here. The Voice page opens with Aria selected and your line exactly as you wrote it, in Portuguese. Voice lines are priced by length — on Voice One, 3 credits per 100 characters.

## Getting the English you meant

A translation is only as good as the sentence it starts from. Five habits keep the English faithful:

1. **Say the look words you care about.** Ask writes the prompt from what you said. If the light matters, say the light — "lampadaires orange", "luz de tarde". A palette or a lighting look can be set by name too. Anything you leave unsaid stays as the tool page has it.
2. **Name the camera move.** One move per clip, named plainly. The studio's names for its 24 moves — push-in, tracking, orbit, dolly zoom, FPV — are the least ambiguous way to ask for one, whatever language the rest of the sentence is in. The [camera moves guide](/blog/ai-video-camera-moves-guide) shows what each one does.
3. **Write numbers the way the page shows them.** "10 s", "9:16", "16:9". Or name the platform: TikTok, Reels, Stories and Shorts mean 9:16; YouTube means 16:9. Those read the same in every language.
4. **Put the @ before a character.** `@Mina` is kept exactly as typed, so the page knows who you mean.
5. **Read the prompt before you click Generate.** The page opens with the English prompt in its ordinary prompt box. If a word landed wrong, fix it there, or say it again in the chat. Nothing has been spent yet.

The rest is ordinary prompt craft — one subject, one action, one light — covered in the [AI video prompt guide](/blog/ai-video-prompt-guide).

## Speaking instead of typing

The same works out loud. Tap the mic in the bar and say it: Ask uses the browser's own speech recognition — Chrome, Edge and Safari; the mic is hidden in browsers without it, such as Firefox — and when you stop talking, the words send themselves. From any studio page, ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) opens **Search or ask anything…**; type a phrase and pick the last row, **Ask eroq: “…”**, to send it to your chat in progress, or start one. The [voice commands guide](/blog/voice-commands-for-ai-video) has more.

## What Ask will not do

- **Render.** Ask prepares and opens; Generate on the page stays your click, with the usual credit check and plan unlock. Asking is free, in any language.
- **Dub with lip-sync.** eroq has no lip-sync. Ask for a dubbed clip with matching lips and it tells you so instead of pretending. To narrate a film in several languages, see the [multi-language voice-over guide](/blog/multi-language-voice-over-guide).
- **Run outside the studio.** Ask is part of the studio, not an API endpoint. Developers call the generation endpoints directly, or connect assistants through the MCP server at [/mcp](/mcp).

## FAQ

### Can I write AI video prompts in Spanish, French or German?

Yes. Write or say the idea in your language in Ask, at the top of the studio home. It answers in that language, writes the video prompt in English for the engine, and sets the engine, seconds and format you named on the page.

### Why is the prompt on the page in English when I wrote in French?

Video and image engines read English best, so Ask writes their prompts in English. Your conversation with Ask stays in French, and the English prompt sits in the page's ordinary prompt box, where you can change a word before you click Generate.

### Does Ask translate my voice lines?

No. A voice line keeps the language you wrote it in and is spoken as written. Ask sets the voice you named — Aria, Orion, one of your cloned voices or a character's voice — and opens the Voice page with your text as is.

### Are character names translated?

No. @Name mentions are kept exactly as you typed them in the English prompt. For a character to appear in a render, it needs its look sheet, made in its Identity tab.

### Does it cost credits to write in another language?

No. Asking is free, whatever the language. Credits are spent only when you click Generate on the tool page, after the usual credit check.

[Open the studio](/studio) and type your next clip in the language you think in — the English is Ask's job.