diff --git a/src/extensions/scratch3_translate/index.js b/src/extensions/scratch3_translate/index.js
index e072710efe..1310bc3189 100644
--- a/src/extensions/scratch3_translate/index.js
+++ b/src/extensions/scratch3_translate/index.js
@@ -278,7 +278,7 @@ class Scratch3TranslateBlocks {
             })
             .catch(err => {
                 log.warn(`error fetching translate result! ${err}`);
-                return '';
+                return args.WORDS;
             });
         return translatePromise;
     }
diff --git a/src/util/fetch-with-timeout.js b/src/util/fetch-with-timeout.js
index 983c888b3b..41dbd0fc88 100644
--- a/src/util/fetch-with-timeout.js
+++ b/src/util/fetch-with-timeout.js
@@ -15,6 +15,9 @@ const fetchWithTimeout = (resource, init, timeout) => {
         fetch(resource, Object.assign({signal}, init)).then(response => {
             clearTimeout(timeoutID);
             return response;
+        }, error => {
+            clearTimeout(timeoutID);
+            throw error;
         }),
         new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
             timeoutID = setTimeout(() => {
diff --git a/test/unit/tw_translate.js b/test/unit/tw_translate.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b0f7bcbd54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unit/tw_translate.js
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+const {test} = require('tap');
+const Scratch3TranslateBlocks = require('../../src/extensions/scratch3_translate/index');
+
+global.navigator = {
+    language: 'en'
+};
+
+// Translate tries to access AbortController from window, but does not require it to exist.
+global.window = {};
+
+test('translate returns original string on network error', t => {
+    t.plan(1);
+
+    // Simulate the network being down or filtered
+    global.fetch = () => Promise.reject(new Error('Simulated network error'));
+
+    const extension = new Scratch3TranslateBlocks();
+    extension.getTranslate({WORDS: 'My message 123123', LANGUAGE: 'es'})
+        .then(message => {
+            t.equal(message, 'My message 123123');
+            t.end();
+        });
+});