diff --git a/faster_whisper/transcribe.py b/faster_whisper/transcribe.py
index be42524..81a9736 100644
--- a/faster_whisper/transcribe.py
+++ b/faster_whisper/transcribe.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ class TranscriptionOptions(
     collections.namedtuple(
         "TranscriptionOptions",
         (
+            "task",
             "beam_size",
             "best_of",
             "patience",
@@ -93,6 +94,7 @@ class WhisperModel:
         self,
         input_file,
         language=None,
+        task="transcribe",
         beam_size=5,
         best_of=5,
         patience=1,
@@ -110,6 +112,7 @@ class WhisperModel:
           input_file: Path to the input file or a file-like object.
           language: The language spoken in the audio. If not set, the language will be
             detected in the first 30 seconds of audio.
+          task: Task to execute (transcribe or translate).
           beam_size: Beam size to use for decoding.
           best_of: Number of candidates when sampling with non-zero temperature.
           patience: Beam search patience factor.
@@ -151,6 +154,7 @@ class WhisperModel:
             language_probability = 1
 
         options = TranscriptionOptions(
+            task=task,
             beam_size=beam_size,
             best_of=best_of,
             patience=patience,
@@ -210,8 +214,12 @@ class WhisperModel:
 
             previous_tokens = all_tokens[prompt_reset_since:]
             prompt = self.get_prompt(
-                language, previous_tokens, without_timestamps=options.without_timestamps
+                language,
+                previous_tokens,
+                task=options.task,
+                without_timestamps=options.without_timestamps,
             )
+
             result, temperature = self.generate_with_fallback(segment, prompt, options)
 
             if (
@@ -323,7 +331,13 @@ class WhisperModel:
 
         return result, final_temperature
 
-    def get_prompt(self, language, previous_tokens, without_timestamps=False):
+    def get_prompt(
+        self,
+        language,
+        previous_tokens,
+        task="transcribe",
+        without_timestamps=False,
+    ):
         prompt = []
 
         if previous_tokens:
@@ -333,7 +347,7 @@ class WhisperModel:
         prompt += [
             self.tokenizer.token_to_id("<|startoftranscript|>"),
             self.tokenizer.token_to_id("<|%s|>" % language),
-            self.tokenizer.token_to_id("<|transcribe|>"),
+            self.tokenizer.token_to_id("<|%s|>" % task),
         ]
 
         if without_timestamps: