diff --git a/qt/i18n/extract-po-string.py b/qt/i18n/extract-po-string.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4a2076659
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qt/i18n/extract-po-string.py
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+import os
+import sys
+
+import polib
+
+# extract a translated string from the gettext catalogs and insert it into ftl
+# eg:
+# $ python extract-po-string.py media-check.ftl delete-unused "Delete Unused Media" 1
+ftl_filename, key, msgid, dry_run = sys.argv[1:]
+
+print("Loading catalogs...")
+base = "po/desktop"
+langs = [d for d in os.listdir(base) if d != "anki.pot"]
+cats = []
+for lang in langs:
+    po_path = os.path.join(base, lang, "anki.po")
+    cat = polib.pofile(po_path)
+    cats.append((lang, cat))
+
+to_insert = []
+for (lang, cat) in cats:
+    for entry in cat:
+        if entry.msgid == msgid:
+            if entry.msgstr:
+                print(lang, "has", entry.msgstr)
+                to_insert.append((lang, entry.msgstr))
+                break
+
+for lang, translation in to_insert:
+    dir = os.path.join("ftl", "core", lang)
+    ftl_path = os.path.join(dir, ftl_filename)
+
+    if dry_run == "1":
+        continue
+
+    if not os.path.exists(dir):
+        os.mkdir(dir)
+
+    open(ftl_path, "a").write(f"\n{key} = {translation}\n")
+
+print("done")
diff --git a/qt/i18n/requirements.txt b/qt/i18n/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..23e5826d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qt/i18n/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+polib