Translation Basics

If you are new to translating WordPress, you’re in the right place! In general, internationalization and localization (commonly abbreviated as i18n and l10n respectively) are terms used to describe the effort to make WordPress available in languages other than English for people from different locales. The actual localization is done using the GNU gettext framework, which is used by WordPress itself including the themes and plugins.

In order to make WordPress recognize the language to which you want to translate the core WordPress, the theme or the plugins, you have to define the language within the wp-config.php file or change a setting within the dashboard. The process is dependent on the WordPress version and is described below:

Step 1 – Change the language in the admin settings screen, Settings > General > Site Language, to your desired language.