Translate selected text with one keyboard shortcut
Chrome and Firefox have no built-in keyboard shortcut for translation. Sonic Translate adds one: select text, press Ctrl + E, and the translation appears in a popup right next to your selection — no right-click menus, no copy-paste, no switching tabs.
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How to translate highlighted text in Chrome or Firefox
- Install Sonic Translate — free, no account needed.
- Highlight any text on any webpage: a word, a sentence, or a paragraph.
- Press Ctrl + E. The translation pops up next to your selection, with the language detected automatically.
…the reviews were mixed, but one stood out: « Une expérience inoubliable » wrote one visitor last spring.
« Une expérience inoubliable »
"An unforgettable experience"
Why doesn't Chrome have a translate shortcut?
It simply never shipped one. Chrome translates whole pages from the address bar and can translate a selection from the right-click menu, but there is no keyboard shortcut for any of it — users have been asking for one in Google's own support community. Firefox is the same story: its built-in translator handles pages, selected text is right-click only, and a shortcut is a requested idea on Mozilla Connect.
Sonic Translate exists to answer that demand: a dedicated, customizable keyboard shortcut for translating exactly the text you're looking at.
Quick popup or full panel — Ctrl+E vs Shift+E
There are two shortcuts because there are two kinds of moments. Ctrl + E opens the quick popup next to your selection: the translation, listen buttons, a copy button, and a compact dictionary preview — made for staying in your reading flow.
Shift + E opens the full side panel instead: searchable language pickers, the complete dictionary with definitions and synonyms, and your translation history. You can also expand any popup into the panel with one click.
Make it your own shortcut
Both shortcuts are recordable: open Options via the gear icon in the toolbar popup, click the shortcut field, and press any two-key combination — including ⌘ combos on a Mac. See how to change the shortcut.
One honest note: like every extension, Sonic Translate can't run on browser-internal pages — chrome:// settings pages, the Chrome Web Store, or the built-in PDF viewer — so the shortcut won't respond there. More on where shortcuts work.
109 languages, automatic detection
Translations are powered by Google Translate and cover 109 languages, from Spanish and Japanese to Latin and Esperanto. You don't need to know what language you selected — automatic detection identifies it and translates into your chosen target language. Set your default languages once in the toolbar popup, swap them any time.
Frequently asked questions
Try it on the next foreign sentence you meet.
Free · No account · 109 languages
One shortcut away from any language
Select text, press Ctrl+E, done. 100% free. No ads. No account.
Free · No account · 109 languages