Abstract:This essay firstly gives a brief introduction of the status quo of subtitling practice. By elaborating the characteristics and functions of subtitling translation, analyzing the time and space constraints by using concrete examples exerted from Forrest Gump, Waterloo Bridges, Friends, Rain Man, Shrek, You’ve Got Mail, Liar Liar, Mind of Beauty, Schidle’s List, Pride and Prejudice, American Beauty, Out of Africa, After the Sunset for illustration, the author puts forward six workable strategies for subtitling translation, namely, the avoidance of mistakes on common sense, the application of condensation, due attention of cultural factors, the adoption of colloquial words with natural and fluent tone，the achievement of harmony between speed and visual pictures, good consideration of context. Finally, the importance of improving translation skills and work ethic of subtitle translators is high lightened with the hope for perfecting the subtitle translator’s practice in an efficient way.
Key words: subtitling; characteristics; constraints; strategies; subtitle translators
