Multilingual mode

Configure languages

This is the default language configuration:

languages:
  en:
    disabled: false
    languageCode: ""
    languageDirection: ""
    languageName: ""
    title: ""
    weight: 0

[languages]
  [languages.en]
    disabled = false
    languageCode = ''
    languageDirection = ''
    languageName = ''
    title = ''
    weight = 0

{
   "languages": {
      "en": {
         "disabled": false,
         "languageCode": "",
         "languageDirection": "",
         "languageName": "",
         "title": "",
         "weight": 0
      }
   }
}

In the above, en is the language key.

This is an example of a site configuration for a multilingual project. Any key not defined in a languages object will fall back to the global value in the root of your site configuration.

defaultContentLanguage: de
defaultContentLanguageInSubdir: true
languages:
  de:
    contentDir: content/de
    disabled: false
    languageCode: de-DE
    languageDirection: ltr
    languageName: Deutsch
    params:
      subtitle: Referenz, Tutorials und Erklärungen
    title: Projekt Dokumentation
    weight: 1
  en:
    contentDir: content/en
    disabled: false
    languageCode: en-US
    languageDirection: ltr
    languageName: English
    params:
      subtitle: Reference, Tutorials, and Explanations
    title: Project Documentation
    weight: 2

defaultContentLanguage = 'de'
defaultContentLanguageInSubdir = true
[languages]
  [languages.de]
    contentDir = 'content/de'
    disabled = false
    languageCode = 'de-DE'
    languageDirection = 'ltr'
    languageName = 'Deutsch'
    title = 'Projekt Dokumentation'
    weight = 1
    [languages.de.params]
      subtitle = 'Referenz, Tutorials und Erklärungen'
  [languages.en]
    contentDir = 'content/en'
    disabled = false
    languageCode = 'en-US'
    languageDirection = 'ltr'
    languageName = 'English'
    title = 'Project Documentation'
    weight = 2
    [languages.en.params]
      subtitle = 'Reference, Tutorials, and Explanations'

{
   "defaultContentLanguage": "de",
   "defaultContentLanguageInSubdir": true,
   "languages": {
      "de": {
         "contentDir": "content/de",
         "disabled": false,
         "languageCode": "de-DE",
         "languageDirection": "ltr",
         "languageName": "Deutsch",
         "params": {
            "subtitle": "Referenz, Tutorials und Erklärungen"
         },
         "title": "Projekt Dokumentation",
         "weight": 1
      },
      "en": {
         "contentDir": "content/en",
         "disabled": false,
         "languageCode": "en-US",
         "languageDirection": "ltr",
         "languageName": "English",
         "params": {
            "subtitle": "Reference, Tutorials, and Explanations"
         },
         "title": "Project Documentation",
         "weight": 2
      }
   }
}

defaultContentLanguage

(string) The project’s default language key, conforming to the syntax described in RFC 5646. This value must match one of the defined language keys. Examples:

• en
• en-GB
• pt-BR

defaultContentLanguageInSubdir

(bool) If true, Hugo renders the default language site in a subdirectory matching the defaultContentLanguage. Default is false.

contentDir

(string) The content directory for this language. Omit if translating by file name.

disabled

(bool) If true, Hugo will not render content for this language. Default is false.

languageCode

(string) The language tag as described in RFC 5646. This value does not affect localization or URLs. Hugo uses this value to populate the language element in the built-in RSS template, and the lang attribute of the html element in the built-in alias template. Examples:

• en
• en-GB
• pt-BR

languageDirection

(string) The language direction, either left-to-right (ltr) or right-to-left (rtl). Use this value in your templates with the global dir HTML attribute.

languageName

(string) The language name, typically used when rendering a language switcher.

title

(string) The site title for this langauge (optional).

weight

(int) The language weight. When set to a non-zero value, this is the primary sort criteria for this language.

Changes in Hugo 0.112.0

In Hugo v0.112.0 we consolidated all configuration options, and improved how the languages and their parameters are merged with the main configuration. But while testing this on Hugo sites out there, we received some error reports and reverted some of the changes in favor of deprecation warnings:

1. site.Language.Params is deprecated. Use site.Params directly.
2. Adding custom parameters to the top level language configuration is deprecated. Define custom parameters within languages.xx.params. See color in the example below.

languageCode: en-us
languages:
  en:
    params:
      color: blue
  sv:
    languageCode: sv
    title: Min blogg
title: My blog

languageCode = 'en-us'
title = 'My blog'
[languages]
  [languages.en]
    [languages.en.params]
      color = 'blue'
  [languages.sv]
    languageCode = 'sv'
    title = 'Min blogg'

{
   "languageCode": "en-us",
   "languages": {
      "en": {
         "params": {
            "color": "blue"
         }
      },
      "sv": {
         "languageCode": "sv",
         "title": "Min blogg"
      }
   },
   "title": "My blog"
}

In the example above, all settings except color below params map to predefined configuration options in Hugo for the site and its language, and should be accessed via the documented accessors:

{{ site.Title }}
{{ site.LanguageCode }}
{{ site.Params.color }}

Disable a language

To disable a language within a languages object in your site configuration:

languages:
  es:
    disabled: true

[languages]
  [languages.es]
    disabled = true

{
   "languages": {
      "es": {
         "disabled": true
      }
   }
}

To disable one or more languages in the root of your site configuration:

disableLanguages:
- es
- fr

disableLanguages = ['es', 'fr']

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

To disable one or more languages using an environment variable:

HUGO_DISABLELANGUAGES="es fr" hugo

Note that you cannot disable the default content language.

Configure multilingual multihost

Hugo supports multiple languages in a multihost configuration. This means you can configure a baseURL per language.

Example:

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

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

{
   "languages": {
      "en": {
         "baseURL": "https://en.example.org/",
         "languageName": "English",
         "title": "In English",
         "weight": 2
      },
      "fr": {
         "baseURL": "https://fr.example.org",
         "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.org/.

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) fr
Web Server is available at 127.0.0.1:1314 (bind address 127.0.0.1) en
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 file name

Considering the following example:

1. /content/about.en.md
2. /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 file name.

By having the same path and base file name, 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 parameter.

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:

1. /content/english/about.md
2. /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:

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

translationKey: about

translationKey = 'about'

{
   "translationKey": "about"
}

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

Localizing permalinks

Because paths and file names 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.

---
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 translated content

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

{{ if .IsTranslated }}
<h4>{{ i18n "translations" }}</h4>
<ul>
  {{ range .Translations }}
  <li>
    <a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Language.Lang }}: {{ .LinkTitle }}{{ 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:

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

Translation of strings

See the lang.Translate template function.

Localization

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

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:

See time.Format for details.

Currency

With this template code:

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

The rendered page displays:

See lang.FormatCurrency and lang.FormatAccounting for details.

Numbers

With this template code:

{{ 512.5032 | lang.FormatNumber 2 }}

The rendered page displays:

See lang.FormatNumber and lang.FormatNumberCustom for details.

Percentages

With this template code:

{{ 512.5032 | lang.FormatPercent 2 }}

The rendered page displays:

See lang.FormatPercent for details.

Menus

Localization of menu entries depends on 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 must create language-specific menu entries under each language key. If the names of the menu entries are insufficient, use translation tables to localize each entry.

Create language-specific menu entries

Method 1 – Use a single configuration file

For a simple menu with a small number of entries, use a single configuration file. For example:

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

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

Method 2 – Use a configuration directory

With a more complex menu structure, create a configuration directory and split the menu entries into multiple files, one file per language. For example:

config/
└── _default/
    ├── menus.de.toml
    ├── menus.en.toml
    └── hugo.toml

main:
- name: Produkte
  pageRef: /products
  weight: 10
- name: Leistungen
  pageRef: /services
  weight: 20

[[main]]
  name = 'Produkte'
  pageRef = '/products'
  weight = 10
[[main]]
  name = 'Leistungen'
  pageRef = '/services'
  weight = 20

{
   "main": [
      {
         "name": "Produkte",
         "pageRef": "/products",
         "weight": 10
      },
      {
         "name": "Leistungen",
         "pageRef": "/services",
         "weight": 20
      }
   ]
}

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

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

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

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:

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

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

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

Create corresponding entries in the translation tables:

products: Produkte
services: Leistungen

products = 'Produkte'
services = 'Leistungen'

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

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 or absLangURL template function, or be prefixed with {{ .LanguagePrefix }}

If there is more than one language defined, the LanguagePrefix method will return /en (or whatever the current language 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 content

If you organize content with translations in the same directory:

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

If you organize content with translations in different directories:

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