How to translate English to Somali from an image and get a document you can edit

Who needs an English document in Somali?

Most requests start with a letter from school. Minnesota's Department of Education counted 91,138 English learners in its public schools in 2025, about 10% of students, and Somali was the second most common home language among them after Spanish[1]. Across all Minnesota students, 27,518 spoke Somali at home[1].

A parent gets a permission slip, a report card, a clinic form, a lease renewal or a notice from the county in English and wants to read it in Somali before signing. A photo taken with the phone is usually all there is.

How to translate an English photo to Somali with LoreAI

1. Take a photo or save the file. A phone photo, a screenshot or a scan as JPG, PNG, HEIC or PDF all work. Put the pages of one letter into one PDF if you have them.
2. Type your email at the top of this page. The 6-digit code we send opens LoreAI with Somali already chosen. Your first document is free, up to 3 pages and 3 MB.
3. Choose OCR + Translate. English is detected automatically. Somali is already set as the target.
4. Download the Somali .docx file. Headings, lists and tables come back in the order of the original page, as Somali text you can select, edit and print.

What stays as written in the Somali file

Names

Your child's name, the teacher's name and the school stay exactly as printed

Dates and times

Kept as written, so a meeting on 11/18 stays 11/18

Numbers

Phone numbers, student IDs, amounts and grades as printed

Tables

A report card or a bus schedule comes back as a Word table with every row in place

Papers families translate most

• School letters, permission slips, report cards and conference notes.
• Special education papers. For Spanish-speaking families, the same route is described in IEP in Spanish.
• Clinic forms, discharge papers and prescription instructions.
• Leases, utility bills and notices from a landlord or the county.
• Job applications and letters from an employer.

For the other direction, a Somali document into English, use translate an image to English. To turn a photo into an editable Word file without translating it, see photo to Word.

Official papers and certified translations

LoreAI is not a certified translation service. The Somali Word file is a working translation for reading and replying. When an office needs a certified translation, such as USCIS for a document going the other way into English, a translator signs a statement that the translation is complete and accurate[2]. The guide to certified translations explains how to get one.

Questions people ask