Multilingual Mode

You should define the available languages in a languages section in your site configuration.

Also See Hugo Multilingual Part 1: Content translation

Configure Languages

The following is an example of a site configuration for a multilingual Hugo project:

config.

copyright: Everything is mine
defaultContentLanguage: en
languages:
  ar:
    languagedirection: rtl
    title: مدونتي
    weight: 2
  en:
    params:
      linkedin: https://linkedin.com/whoever
    title: My blog
    weight: 1
  fr:
    params:
      linkedin: https://linkedin.com/fr/whoever
      navigation:
        help: Aide
    title: Mon blogue
    weight: 2
  pt-pt:
    title: O meu blog
    weight: 3
params:
  navigation:
    help: Help

copyright = 'Everything is mine'
defaultContentLanguage = 'en'
[languages]
  [languages.ar]
    languagedirection = 'rtl'
    title = 'مدونتي'
    weight = 2
  [languages.en]
    title = 'My blog'
    weight = 1
    [languages.en.params]
      linkedin = 'https://linkedin.com/whoever'
  [languages.fr]
    title = 'Mon blogue'
    weight = 2
    [languages.fr.params]
      linkedin = 'https://linkedin.com/fr/whoever'
      [languages.fr.params.navigation]
        help = 'Aide'
  [languages.pt-pt]
    title = 'O meu blog'
    weight = 3
[params]
  [params.navigation]
    help = 'Help'

{
   "copyright": "Everything is mine",
   "defaultContentLanguage": "en",
   "languages": {
      "ar": {
         "languagedirection": "rtl",
         "title": "مدونتي",
         "weight": 2
      },
      "en": {
         "params": {
            "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/whoever"
         },
         "title": "My blog",
         "weight": 1
      },
      "fr": {
         "params": {
            "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/fr/whoever",
            "navigation": {
               "help": "Aide"
            }
         },
         "title": "Mon blogue",
         "weight": 2
      },
      "pt-pt": {
         "title": "O meu blog",
         "weight": 3
      }
   },
   "params": {
      "navigation": {
         "help": "Help"
      }
   }
}

Anything not defined in a languages block will fall back to the global value for that key (e.g., copyright for the English en language). This also works for params, as demonstrated with help above: You will get the value Aide in French and Help in all the languages without this parameter set.

With the configuration above, all content, sitemap, RSS feeds, pagination, and taxonomy pages will be rendered below / in English (your default content language) and then below /fr in French.

When working with front matter Params in single page templates, omit the params in the key for the translation.

defaultContentLanguage sets the project’s default language. If not set, the default language will be en.

If the default language needs to be rendered below its own language code (/en) like the others, set defaultContentLanguageInSubdir: true.

Only the obvious non-global options can be overridden per language. Examples of global options are baseURL, buildDrafts, etc.

Please note: use lowercase language codes, even when using regional languages (ie. use pt-pt instead of pt-PT). Currently Hugo language internals lowercase language codes, which can cause conflicts with settings like defaultContentLanguage which are not lowercased. Please track the evolution of this issue in Hugo repository issue tracker

Disable a Language

You can disable one or more languages. This can be useful when working on a new translation.

config.

disableLanguages:
- fr
- ja

disableLanguages = ['fr', 'ja']

{
   "disableLanguages": [
      "fr",
      "ja"
   ]
}

Note that you cannot disable the default content language.

We kept this as a standalone setting to make it easier to set via OS environment:

HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="fr ja" hugo

If you have already a list of disabled languages in config.toml, you can enable them in development like this:

HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES=" " hugo server

Configure Multilingual Multihost

From Hugo 0.31 we support multiple languages in a multihost configuration. See this issue for details.

This means that you can now configure a baseURL per language:

If a baseURL is set on the language level, then all languages must have one and they must all be different.

Example:

config.

languages:
  en:
    baseURL: https://example.com
    languageName: English
    title: In English
    weight: 2
  fr:
    baseURL: https://example.fr
    languageName: Français
    title: En Français
    weight: 1

[languages]
  [languages.en]
    baseURL = 'https://example.com'
    languageName = 'English'
    title = 'In English'
    weight = 2
  [languages.fr]
    baseURL = 'https://example.fr'
    languageName = 'Français'
    title = 'En Français'
    weight = 1

{
   "languages": {
      "en": {
         "baseURL": "https://example.com",
         "languageName": "English",
         "title": "In English",
         "weight": 2
      },
      "fr": {
         "baseURL": "https://example.fr",
         "languageName": "Français",
         "title": "En Français",
         "weight": 1
      }
   }
}

With the above, the two sites will be generated into public with their own root:

public
├── en
└── fr

All URLs (i.e .Permalink etc.) will be generated from that root. So the English home page above will have its .Permalink set to https://example.com/.

When you run hugo server we will start multiple HTTP servers. You will typically see something like this in the console:

Web Server is available at 127.0.0.1:1313 (bind address 127.0.0.1)
Web Server is available at 127.0.0.1:1314 (bind address 127.0.0.1)
Press Ctrl+C to stop

Live reload and --navigateToChanged between the servers work as expected.

Translate Your Content

There are two ways to manage your content translations. Both ensure each page is assigned a language and is linked to its counterpart translations.

Translation by filename

Considering the following example:

/content/about.en.md
/content/about.fr.md

The first file is assigned the English language and is linked to the second. The second file is assigned the French language and is linked to the first.

Their language is assigned according to the language code added as a suffix to the filename.

By having the same path and base filename, the content pieces are linked together as translated pages.

Translation by content directory

This system uses different content directories for each of the languages. Each language’s content directory is set using the contentDir param.

config.

languages:
  en:
    contentDir: content/english
    languageName: English
    weight: 10
  fr:
    contentDir: content/french
    languageName: Français
    weight: 20

[languages]
  [languages.en]
    contentDir = 'content/english'
    languageName = 'English'
    weight = 10
  [languages.fr]
    contentDir = 'content/french'
    languageName = 'Français'
    weight = 20

{
   "languages": {
      "en": {
         "contentDir": "content/english",
         "languageName": "English",
         "weight": 10
      },
      "fr": {
         "contentDir": "content/french",
         "languageName": "Français",
         "weight": 20
      }
   }
}

The value of contentDir can be any valid path – even absolute path references. The only restriction is that the content directories cannot overlap.

Considering the following example in conjunction with the configuration above:

/content/english/about.md
/content/french/about.md

The first file is assigned the English language and is linked to the second. The second file is assigned the French language and is linked to the first.

Their language is assigned according to the content directory they are placed in.

By having the same path and basename (relative to their language content directory), the content pieces are linked together as translated pages.

Bypassing default linking

Any pages sharing the same translationKey set in front matter will be linked as translated pages regardless of basename or location.

Considering the following example:

/content/about-us.en.md
/content/om.nn.md
/content/presentation/a-propos.fr.md

translationKey: about

translationKey = 'about'

{
   "translationKey": "about"
}

By setting the translationKey front matter param to about in all three pages, they will be linked as translated pages.

Localizing permalinks

Because paths and filenames are used to handle linking, all translated pages will share the same URL (apart from the language subdirectory).

To localize URLs:

For a regular page, set either slug or url in front matter
For a section page, set url in front matter

For example, a French translation can have its own localized slug.

content/about.fr.md

---
slug: a-propos
title: A Propos
---

+++
slug = 'a-propos'
title = 'A Propos'
+++

{
   "slug": "a-propos",
   "title": "A Propos"
}

At render, Hugo will build both /about/ and /fr/a-propos/ without affecting the translation link.

Page Bundles

To avoid the burden of having to duplicate files, each Page Bundle inherits the resources of its linked translated pages’ bundles except for the content files (Markdown files, HTML files etc…).

Therefore, from within a template, the page will have access to the files from all linked pages’ bundles.

If, across the linked bundles, two or more files share the same basename, only one will be included and chosen as follows:

File from current language bundle, if present.
First file found across bundles by order of language Weight.

Reference the Translated Content

To create a list of links to translated content, use a template similar to the following:

layouts/partials/i18nlist.html

{{ if .IsTranslated }}
<h4>{{ i18n "translations" }}</h4>
<ul>
  {{ range .Translations }}
  <li>
    <a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Lang }}: {{ .Title }}{{ if .IsPage }} ({{ i18n "wordCount" . }}){{ end }}</a>
  </li>
  {{ end }}
</ul>
{{ end }}

The above can be put in a partial (i.e., inside layouts/partials/) and included in any template, whether a single content page or the homepage. It will not print anything if there are no translations for a given page.

The above also uses the i18n function described in the next section.

List All Available Languages

.AllTranslations on a Page can be used to list all translations, including the page itself. On the home page it can be used to build a language navigator:

layouts/partials/allLanguages.html

<ul>
{{ range $.Site.Home.AllTranslations }}
<li><a href="{{ .Permalink }}">{{ .Language.LanguageName }}</a></li>
{{ end }}
</ul>

Translation of Strings

Hugo uses go-i18n to support string translations. See the project’s source repository to find tools that will help you manage your translation workflows.

Translations are collected from the themes/<THEME>/i18n/ folder (built into the theme), as well as translations present in i18n/ at the root of your project. In the i18n, the translations will be merged and take precedence over what is in the theme folder. Language files should be named according to RFC 5646 with names such as en-US.toml, fr.toml, etc.

Artificial languages with private use subtags as defined in RFC 5646 § 2.2.7 are also supported. You may omit the art-x- prefix for brevity. For example:

art-x-hugolang
hugolang

Private use subtags must not exceed 8 alphanumeric characters.

Query basic translation

From within your templates, use the i18n function like this:

{{ i18n "home" }}

The function will search for the "home" id:

i18n/en-US.

home:
  other: Home

[home]
  other = 'Home'

{
   "home": {
      "other": "Home"
   }
}

The result will be

Home

Query a flexible translation with variables

Often you will want to use the page variables in the translation strings. To do so, pass the . context when calling i18n:

{{ i18n "wordCount" . }}

The function will pass the . context to the "wordCount" id:

i18n/en-US.

wordCount:
  other: This article has {{ .WordCount }} words.

[wordCount]
  other = 'This article has {{ .WordCount }} words.'

{
   "wordCount": {
      "other": "This article has {{ .WordCount }} words."
   }
}

Assume .WordCount in the context has value is 101. The result will be:

This article has 101 words.

Query a singular/plural translation

In other to meet singular/plural requirement, you must pass a dictionary (map) with a numeric .Count property to the i18n function. The below example uses .ReadingTime variable which has a built-in .Count property.

{{ i18n "readingTime" .ReadingTime }}

The function will read .Count from .ReadingTime and evaluate whether the number is singular (one) or plural (other). After that, it will pass to readingTime id in i18n/en-US.toml file:

i18n/en-US.

readingTime:
  one: One minute to read
  other: '{{.Count}} minutes to read'

[readingTime]
  one = 'One minute to read'
  other = '{{.Count}} minutes to read'

{
   "readingTime": {
      "one": "One minute to read",
      "other": "{{.Count}} minutes to read"
   }
}

Assuming .ReadingTime.Count in the context has value is 525600. The result will be:

525600 minutes to read

If .ReadingTime.Count in the context has value is 1. The result is:

One minute to read

In case you need to pass a custom data: ((dict "Count" numeric_value_only) is minimum requirement)

{{ i18n "readingTime" (dict "Count" 25 "FirstArgument" true "SecondArgument" false "Etc" "so on, so far") }}

Localization

The following localization examples assume your site’s primary language is English, with translations to French and German.

config.

defaultContentLanguage: en
languages:
  de:
    contentDir: content/de
    languageName: Deutsch
    weight: 3
  en:
    contentDir: content/en
    languageName: English
    weight: 1
  fr:
    contentDir: content/fr
    languageName: Français
    weight: 2

defaultContentLanguage = 'en'
[languages]
  [languages.de]
    contentDir = 'content/de'
    languageName = 'Deutsch'
    weight = 3
  [languages.en]
    contentDir = 'content/en'
    languageName = 'English'
    weight = 1
  [languages.fr]
    contentDir = 'content/fr'
    languageName = 'Français'
    weight = 2

{
   "defaultContentLanguage": "en",
   "languages": {
      "de": {
         "contentDir": "content/de",
         "languageName": "Deutsch",
         "weight": 3
      },
      "en": {
         "contentDir": "content/en",
         "languageName": "English",
         "weight": 1
      },
      "fr": {
         "contentDir": "content/fr",
         "languageName": "Français",
         "weight": 2
      }
   }
}

Dates

With this front matter:

date: 2021-11-03T12:34:56+01:00

date = 2021-11-03T12:34:56+01:00

{
   "date": "2021-11-03T12:34:56+01:00"
}

And this template code:

{{ .Date | time.Format ":date_full" }}

The rendered page displays:

Language	Value
English	Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Français	mercredi 3 novembre 2021
Deutsch	Mittwoch, 3. November 2021

See time.Format for details.

Currency

With this template code:

{{ 512.5032 | lang.FormatCurrency 2 "USD" }}

The rendered page displays:

Language	Value
English	$512.50
Français	512,50 $US
Deutsch	512,50 $

See lang.FormatCurrency and lang.FormatAccounting for details.

Numbers

With this template code:

{{ 512.5032 | lang.FormatNumber 2 }}

The rendered page displays:

Language	Value
English	512.50
Français	512,50
Deutsch	512,50

See lang.FormatNumber and lang.FormatNumberCustom for details.

Percentages

With this template code:

{{ 512.5032 | lang.FormatPercent 2 }} ---> 512.50%

The rendered page displays:

Language	Value
English	512.50%
Français	512,50 %
Deutsch	512,50 %

See lang.FormatPercent for details.

Menus

Localization of menu entries depends on the how you define them:

When you define menu entries automatically using the section pages menu, you must use translation tables to localize each entry.
When you define menu entries in front matter, they are already localized based on the front matter itself. If the front matter values are insufficient, use translation tables to localize each entry.
When you define menu entries in site configuration, you can (a) use translation tables, or (b) create language-specific menu entries under each language key.

Use translation tables

When rendering the text that appears in menu each entry, the example menu template does this:

{{ or (T .Identifier) .Name | safeHTML }}

It queries the translation table for the current language using the menu entry’s identifier and returns the translated string. If the translation table does not exist, or if the identifier key is not present in the translation table, it falls back to name.

The identifier depends on how you define menu entries:

If you define the menu entry automatically using the section pages menu, the identifier is the page’s .Section.
If you define the menu entry in site configuration or in front matter, set the identifier property to the desired value.

For example, if you define menu entries in site configuration:

config.

menu:
  main:
  - identifier: products
    name: Products
    pageRef: /products
    weight: 10
  - identifier: services
    name: Services
    pageRef: /services
    weight: 20

[menu]
[[menu.main]]
  identifier = 'products'
  name = 'Products'
  pageRef = '/products'
  weight = 10
[[menu.main]]
  identifier = 'services'
  name = 'Services'
  pageRef = '/services'
  weight = 20

{
   "menu": {
      "main": [
         {
            "identifier": "products",
            "name": "Products",
            "pageRef": "/products",
            "weight": 10
         },
         {
            "identifier": "services",
            "name": "Services",
            "pageRef": "/services",
            "weight": 20
         }
      ]
   }
}

Create corresponding entries in the translation tables:

i18n/de.

products: Produkte
services: Leistungen

products = 'Produkte'
services = 'Leistungen'

{
   "products": "Produkte",
   "services": "Leistungen"
}

For example:

config.

languages:
  de:
    languageCode: de-DE
    languageName: Deutsch
    menu:
      main:
      - name: Produkte
        pageRef: /products
        weight: 10
      - name: Leistungen
        pageRef: /services
        weight: 20
    weight: 1
  en:
    languageCode: en-US
    languageName: English
    menu:
      main:
      - name: Products
        pageRef: /products
        weight: 10
      - name: Services
        pageRef: /services
        weight: 20
    weight: 2

[languages]
  [languages.de]
    languageCode = 'de-DE'
    languageName = 'Deutsch'
    weight = 1
    [languages.de.menu]
[[languages.de.menu.main]]
      name = 'Produkte'
      pageRef = '/products'
      weight = 10
[[languages.de.menu.main]]
      name = 'Leistungen'
      pageRef = '/services'
      weight = 20
  [languages.en]
    languageCode = 'en-US'
    languageName = 'English'
    weight = 2
    [languages.en.menu]
[[languages.en.menu.main]]
      name = 'Products'
      pageRef = '/products'
      weight = 10
[[languages.en.menu.main]]
      name = 'Services'
      pageRef = '/services'
      weight = 20

{
   "languages": {
      "de": {
         "languageCode": "de-DE",
         "languageName": "Deutsch",
         "menu": {
            "main": [
               {
                  "name": "Produkte",
                  "pageRef": "/products",
                  "weight": 10
               },
               {
                  "name": "Leistungen",
                  "pageRef": "/services",
                  "weight": 20
               }
            ]
         },
         "weight": 1
      },
      "en": {
         "languageCode": "en-US",
         "languageName": "English",
         "menu": {
            "main": [
               {
                  "name": "Products",
                  "pageRef": "/products",
                  "weight": 10
               },
               {
                  "name": "Services",
                  "pageRef": "/services",
                  "weight": 20
               }
            ]
         },
         "weight": 2
      }
   }
}

For a simple menu with two languages, these menu entries are easy to create and maintain. For a larger menu, or with more than two languages, using translation tables as described above is preferable.

Missing Translations

If a string does not have a translation for the current language, Hugo will use the value from the default language. If no default value is set, an empty string will be shown.

While translating a Hugo website, it can be handy to have a visual indicator of missing translations. The enableMissingTranslationPlaceholders configuration option will flag all untranslated strings with the placeholder [i18n] identifier, where identifier is the id of the missing translation.

For merging of content from other languages (i.e. missing content translations), see lang.Merge.

To track down missing translation strings, run Hugo with the --printI18nWarnings flag:

hugo --printI18nWarnings | grep i18n
i18n|MISSING_TRANSLATION|en|wordCount

Multilingual Themes support

To support Multilingual mode in your themes, some considerations must be taken for the URLs in the templates. If there is more than one language, URLs must meet the following criteria:

Come from the built-in .Permalink or .RelPermalink
Be constructed with the relLangURL template function or the absLangURL template function OR be prefixed with {{ .LanguagePrefix }}

If there is more than one language defined, the LanguagePrefix variable will equal /en (or whatever your CurrentLanguage is). If not enabled, it will be an empty string (and is therefore harmless for single-language Hugo websites).

Generate multilingual content with `hugo new`

If you organize content with translations in the same directory:

hugo new post/test.en.md
hugo new post/test.de.md

If you organize content with translations in different directories:

hugo new content/en/post/test.md
hugo new content/de/post/test.md

Multilingual Mode

Configure Languages

Disable a Language

Configure Multilingual Multihost

Translate Your Content

Translation by filename

Translation by content directory

Bypassing default linking

Localizing permalinks

Page Bundles

Reference the Translated Content

List All Available Languages

Translation of Strings

Query basic translation

Query a flexible translation with variables

Query a singular/plural translation

Localization

Dates

Currency

Numbers

Percentages

Menus

Use translation tables

Create language-specific menu entries

Missing Translations

Multilingual Themes support

Generate multilingual content with `hugo new`

See Also

Last updated: March 20, 2023: Correct and improve menu documentation (#2010) (c0f23b21)

Configure Languages

Disable a Language

Configure Multilingual Multihost

Translate Your Content

Translation by filename

Translation by content directory

Bypassing default linking

Localizing permalinks

Page Bundles

Reference the Translated Content

List All Available Languages

Translation of Strings

Query basic translation

Query a flexible translation with variables

Query a singular/plural translation

Localization

Dates

Currency

Numbers

Percentages

Menus

Use translation tables

Create language-specific menu entries

Missing Translations

Multilingual Themes support

Generate multilingual content with hugo new

See Also

Last updated: March 20, 2023: Correct and improve menu documentation (#2010) (c0f23b21)

Generate multilingual content with `hugo new`