Maltese Translation Services

Where Maltese is spoken and where your translation is accepted

Maltese is the national language of Malta and, together with English, one of its two official languages. Since Malta joined the European Union on May 1, 2004, it is also an official language of the Union, the only one of Semitic origin and the only Semitic language written in Latin letters. It is spoken on the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino and by Maltese communities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, which grew mostly after the Second World War, and it has more than 400,000 speakers. Because English is also official, many documents from Malta already come out in English or in both languages: we look at yours before quoting and tell you whether it needs a translation at all. The destination decides the type of translation.

Maltese translation services: alphabet, names and documents in English

Maltese has a Semitic grammar, a vocabulary full of Italian and English words and an alphabet of its own in Latin letters. A good translation reads the original as Maltese, writes every name the way the passport does and keeps every number of the original.

• Alphabet: Maltese has 30 letters, including ċ, ġ, ħ and ż and the pairs għ and ie, which count as single letters. Systems abroad often drop the dot or the bar, so Ġorġ can appear as Gorg and Żammit as Zammit. The translation follows the spelling of your passport, so tell us the form used in your US documents when you order.
• Maltese, Arabic and Italian: the grammar and many everyday words are Semitic, so qalb is heart and it-Tnejn is Monday, while thousands of words came from Sicilian, Italian and English, like skola for school and grazzi for thanks. A Maltese document is translated as Maltese, never read as if it were Arabic or Italian. Gozo and the villages have dialects of their own, but documents use standard Maltese.
• Maltese and English: since both are official, many certificates from Malta are issued in English or in both languages. A document already in English may need no translation for the United States, so ask the receiving authority, and for Brazil it gets a sworn translation from English into Portuguese. We tell you which case is yours before quoting.
• Dates and money: dates are written day, month and year, so 03/10/2026 is October 3, 2026, and the months have their own names, so Ottubru is October and Diċembru is December. Malta has used the euro since January 1, 2008, and older documents show amounts in Maltese lira (Lm), which the translation keeps as in the original.
• Documents from Malta: the birth certificate (ċertifikat tat-twelid), the marriage certificate (ċertifikat taż-żwieġ), the ID card (karta tal-identità), whose number ends in a letter, the police conduct certificate (ċertifikat tal-kondotta) and school and university diplomas. The translation reproduces every stamp, seal and note.