Pig Latin Translator

Pig Latin is the oldest word game most English speakers ever learn. Move the first consonant sound to the back and add ay: pig turns into igpay.

Kids pick it up in about five minutes, but to anyone who hasn't heard the rule before, it sounds like a completely different, made-up language.

This free Pig Latin translator runs that rule across a whole sentence at once. Type, read, copy, paste.

How the Rule Actually Works

There are two halves to it, and Wikipedia's Pig Latin article lays out both.

Word starts with a consonant? Move the whole cluster to the end and add ay. Clown becomes ownclay. String becomes ingstray, because str all travels together.

Word starts with a vowel? Just add way to the end. Eat becomes eatway. Open becomes openway.

Some versions of the game add yay instead of way for vowel words. This tool picks way and sticks with it, so you never have to guess which one you are going to get.

The Y Problem

Here is where the neat rule falls apart.

Words such as my, sky, or why don't have a written vowel at all, so the standard rule has nothing to grab onto. This tool hand-codes thirteen of them instead: my, by, try, why, shy, fly, cry, dry, sky, spy, sly, gym, ply.

My comes out as ymay. Sky comes out as yskay. Any y-word outside that list of thirteen will come out wrong, which is a fair trade for a game invented on a playground.

One More Rough Edge

Type question and you get uestionqay. Strict Pig Latin would say estionquay, because qu counts as one sound and should move as a pair.

This tool splits them. Worth knowing before you use the output for anything you are being graded on.

Why Is It Called Latin?

It is not Latin. It never was.

The name is the joke. Scrambled English sounded foreign and important to English ears, so people called it Latin the same way they called any fake-scholarly nonsense dog Latin.

Features at a Glance

Feature	Details
Price	Free
Signup	None
Speed	Live, as you type
Output case	Always lowercase
Works on	Phone, tablet, computer
Good for	Word games, secret notes, classrooms

How to Use the Pig Latin Translator

Step 1: Type or paste plain English in the left box.

Step 2: Read the Pig Latin on the right.

Step 3: Hit the Copy Pig Latin button.

Step 4: Paste it into a message, a note, or a class activity.

Example Conversions

• pig latin → igpay atinlay
• she does not know → eshay oesday otnay owknay
• hello my friend → ellohay ymay iendfray
• clown banana open → ownclay ananabay openway
• I love this → iway ovelay isthay

Everything Comes Out Lowercase

Notice the last example. Capital I went in and lowercase iway came out.

That is on purpose. Pig Latin started as a spoken game, so it never had capital letters, and a moved sound would put one in a strange spot anyway.

Where People Use Pig Latin

Secret notes. Still one of the fastest ways for kids to pass a message an adult cannot read at a glance.

Classrooms. Teachers use it to teach syllables, consonant clusters, and vowel sounds without it feeling like a lesson.

Puzzles and codes. Our Morse Code Translator and Leet Speak Translator give you two more ways to hide a sentence in plain sight.

Common Questions

Is the Pig Latin translator free? Yes. No account, no fee.

Can it turn Pig Latin back into English? No. This page runs one way only.

Does copy and paste work? Yes. The output is plain text.

Does it work on a phone? Yes. The boxes stack when the screen gets narrow.

Is this real Latin? No. The two have nothing to do with each other.

Why is my name spelled oddly? Names follow the same sound rule as any other word, and they were never built to survive it.

Read It Out Loud

Pig Latin is built for the ear, not the eye. A line that looks like nonsense on screen clicks the second you say it out loud. That is why kids learn it by speaking and never by reading. Say the examples above once and the rule will stick. More word games sit on our translators page.