{"id":5148,"date":"2018-05-15T14:26:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T14:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.truehost.co.ke\/support\/?post_type=ht_kb&p=5148"},"modified":"2024-06-21T08:31:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T08:31:49","password":"","slug":"change-wordpress-language","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/truehost.com\/support\/knowledge-base\/change-wordpress-language\/","title":{"rendered":"How to change WordPress language"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the reasons WordPress is a popular CMS is that it has many languages. WordPress is a powerful blogging tool and therefore its ability to have many languages is an advantage to its users and administrators.<\/p>\n

By default, a WordPress installation uses English as its language, but there are several ways to install other languages:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Softaculous<\/li>\n
  2. Manually<\/li>\n
  3. Using a plugin<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Softaculous is the easiest way of choosing the language to use since it\u2019s part of the installation process.<\/p>\n

    Changing WordPress language manually.<\/p>\n

    This is done by downloading the translation file or files for your language, then upload them to your WordPress and configure some settings. The following are the steps to achieve this:<\/p>\n

    In your browser, enter a new tab and go to https:\/\/translate.wordpress.org\/languages<\/a>. This page displays all WordPress languages and locales. Use the values in the\u00a0Language code column to determine the code for the language that you want to use.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    In your browser again, go to http:\/\/i18n.svn.wordpress.org<\/a>. this is the source repository for all of the WordPress languages files. Use the language code that you obtained in step 1 to determine which directory contains the files for the language you want to use.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Click the language code name (for example,\u00a0fr_FR<\/em>) to view the directory contents, and then click the\u00a0tags<\/em>\u00a0directory.<\/p>\n

    This step varies for each language. The\u00a0tags<\/em>\u00a0directory contains directories for various WordPress versions. Start with the most recent version number, and look for the\u00a0messages<\/em>\u00a0subdirectory. If the\u00a0messages<\/em>\u00a0subdirectory does not exist, move on to the previous version number until you find it.<\/p>\n

    In the\u00a0messages<\/em>\u00a0directory, download the\u00a0.mo<\/em>\u00a0language file or files to your local computer.<\/p>\n

    Upload the\u00a0.mo<\/em>file or files to the\u00a0wp-content\/languages<\/em>\u00a0directory of your WordPress site.<\/p>\n

    Enable the new language in the WordPress settings:<\/p>\n

    If you are using WordPress version 4.0 or newer, log in to the WordPress administration interface. Click\u00a0Settings, and then click\u00a0General. In the\u00a0Site Language\u00a0list box, select the language you want WordPress to use, and then click\u00a0Save Changes.<\/p>\n

    View the WordPress site in your web browser. WordPress displays text using the new language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of the reasons WordPress is a popular CMS is that it has many languages. WordPress is a powerful blogging tool and therefore its ability to have many languages is an advantage to its users and administrators. By default, a WordPress installation uses English as its language, but there are several ways to install other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[1838],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-5148","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-wordpress"],"year_month":"2026-07","word_count":363,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"simon m","author_nicename":"simon","author_url":"https:\/\/truehost.com\/support\/author\/simon\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"WordPress","term_url":"https:\/\/truehost.com\/support\/docs-category\/wordpress\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to change WordPress language -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/truehost.com\/support\/knowledge-base\/change-wordpress-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to change WordPress language -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the reasons WordPress is a popular CMS is that it has many languages. 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