Simplified to Traditional Chinese Converter
Convert Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese for Taiwan or Hong Kong, or Traditional to Simplified, with the OpenCC dictionaries that choose characters by the whole word.
One Simplified character, several Traditional ones
| Simplified | Traditional | Converted by word |
|---|---|---|
| 发 | 發 髮 | 发展 → 發展, 头发 → 頭髮 |
| 干 | 干 乾 幹 | 干涉 → 干涉, 干净 → 乾淨, 干部 → 幹部 |
| 后 | 后 後 | 皇后 → 皇后, 以后 → 以後 |
| 斗 | 斗 鬥 | 北斗 → 北斗, 斗争 → 鬥爭 |
| 历 | 歷 曆 | 历史 → 歷史, 日历 → 日曆 |
China's 2013 Table of General Standard Chinese Characters lists 96 such groups. From Traditional to Simplified they become one character again, except where the table keeps a character: 乾 read qián stays in 乾隆.
Source: 《通用规范汉字表》（国发〔2013〕23号）附件1 规范字与繁体字、异体字对照表 · Last checked:
How the text is converted
- The tool uses the dictionaries of OpenCC (Open Chinese Convert) 1.4.2 through opencc-js. It looks for the longest word in its phrase list first and converts single characters only where no word matches.
- Taiwan and Hong Kong write some characters differently from each other and from OpenCC's own standard: 為 and 爲, 裡 and 裏, 著 and 着. Choose the place the text is for.
- With regional words on, words that differ between the mainland and Taiwan or Hong Kong are replaced as well: 软件 → 軟體, 打印机 → 印表機, 鼠标 → 滑鼠. The list covers common words, not all of them.
- Punctuation, Latin letters, digits and characters that have no other form are kept as they are. Quotation marks are not changed to 「」.
- The dictionaries are downloaded from leedybox.com the first time you convert: up to about 100 KB from Traditional, about 1.1 MB to Traditional. Your text stays in the browser and is not sent or saved.
Source: OpenCC 1.4.2 (opencc-js 1.4.2) · Last checked:
Wrong character? If a word is converted wrongly, email us the sentence, the options you chose and the result you expected, so we can check it against OpenCC.
Does a sentence on this page sound unnatural in your language? Let us know that too.
How to use
- Paste the Chinese text. Several paragraphs are fine.
- Choose Simplified → Traditional or Traditional → Simplified.
- Pick the Traditional forms of the place the text is for: Taiwan, Hong Kong or OpenCC's standard. Turn on regional words to replace mainland terms such as 软件 with 軟體.
- Copy the result. Switching the direction converts the result back, so you can compare.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose Taiwan, Hong Kong or the OpenCC standard?
Choose the place your readers are in. Taiwan's Ministry of Education lists 為, 裡 and 著 as standard forms, and the Taiwan option writes them. The Hong Kong option writes 為, 裏 and 着. The OpenCC standard writes 爲, 裏 and 着; 爲 is also the Traditional form that China's 2013 character table gives for 为.
Why is 发 converted to 發 in one word and 髮 in another?
Simplification merged some characters: 发 stands for both 發 (to send, to develop) and 髮 (hair). The converter reads whole words from its phrase list, so 发展 becomes 發展 and 头发 becomes 頭髮. A character outside any listed word gets the first Traditional form in OpenCC's character list, which can be wrong, so check the result.
What does "regional words" change?
It replaces words that differ in everyday use, not just in writing: 软件 → 軟體, 打印机 → 印表機, 鼠标 → 滑鼠, 视频 → 影片 for Taiwan. Use it only for text written in the other region's words. On mixed text it can change too much: with Taiwan words on, Traditional → Simplified turns 程序員 into 进程员, because the Taiwan word list pairs 程序 with the mainland 进程.
Is Traditional → Simplified more reliable?
Usually, because several Traditional characters become one Simplified character (乾淨, 幹部 and 干涉 all get 干) and few choices are needed. Converting back may not give the original text: 干 can again become 乾, 幹 or 干 depending on the word.
Why did a name or technical term come out wrong?
The dictionaries list common words. Names of people, companies and products, and rare terms, are often missing, so their characters are converted one by one. Check names against the spelling the person or company uses, and email us the case so we can check it against OpenCC.
Is my text sent anywhere?
No. The dictionaries are downloaded from leedybox.com and the conversion runs in your browser. The page does not send or save what you type.