How Pig Latin works (the version this tool uses)
Pig Latin is a play language that obscures English words by reordering each word's letters according to two rules. Words beginning with a consonant or consonant cluster have all the leading consonants moved to the end and ay tacked on: hello becomes ellohay, string becomes ingstray. Words beginning with a vowel get a different suffix appended directly to the word, with no letter movement. Common suffixes for vowel-start words are way, yay, and ay - this tool defaults to way.
The Keep Case toggle preserves capitalisation: Hello becomes Ellohay (the H moves but the original first letter stays the capital), and an all-caps word like NASA becomes ASANAY. The Keep Punctuation toggle leaves trailing periods, commas, exclamation marks, and question marks attached to the end of each word so sentences keep their shape.
Pig Latin is fun, not secure. Anyone familiar with the rules can decode in a few seconds (move the last consonant cluster back to the front, drop the ay). For real obscurity, use a substitution cipher like ROT13 or just encrypt the text properly.
How to use pig latin translator
- 1Paste or type your text into the input panel on the left.
- 2Pick a Vowel Suffix:
way(default),yay, oray. - 3Toggle Keep Case off if you want everything lowercase.
- 4Toggle Keep Punctuation off if you want bare words with no trailing marks.
- 5Click Copy in the output header to copy the translated text.
Keyboard shortcuts
Drive TextResult without touching the mouse.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl F | Open the find & replace panel inside the input Plus |
| Ctrl Z | Undo the last input change |
| Ctrl Shift Z | Redo |
| Ctrl Shift Enter | Toggle fullscreen focus on the editor Plus |
| Esc | Close find & replace, or exit fullscreen |
| Ctrl K | Open the command palette to jump to any tool Plus |
| Ctrl S | Save current workflow draft Plus |
| Ctrl P | Run a saved workflow Plus |
What this tool actually does
Standard schoolyard rules
Consonant-start words: move every leading consonant to the end and append ay. Vowel-start words: append the chosen suffix (way / yay / ay) directly. Capitalisation, contractions like don't, and trailing punctuation pass through.
Three vowel-suffix variants
Different teachers and regions use different suffixes for vowel-start words. way is the most common (US standard). yay shows up in West-coast variants. ay matches the consonant rule's suffix and is the simplest mnemonic.
No reverse translator
Pig Latin to English is ambiguous (ostay could be tost, stost, or any consonant cluster + ost) so this tool is one-way. Save your original input separately if you need it.
Worked example
Default options: way suffix, capitalisation preserved, punctuation kept attached.
Hello, World! Apple egg.
Ellohay, Orldway! Appleway eggway.
FAQ
Which Pig Latin variant does this use?
ay for consonant-start words, way appended for vowel-start words. Switch to yay or ay via the Vowel Suffix dropdown for regional variants.Why does "string" become "ingstray" not "tringsay"?
str is the cluster in string, so the whole cluster moves. tringsay would only move the first consonant - that is a non-standard variant some teachers use; this tool follows the cluster rule.Can I translate Pig Latin back to English?
ostay could decode as tost, stost, ghost minus the gh, or several other words. Pig Latin is meant for fun obfuscation, not roundtrip translation.Does it handle accented letters?
café are split at the accent and only the leading caf portion gets translated. Strip accents first with remove accents if you want full coverage.