Title: Languages in WordPress
Last modified: August 22, 2016

---

# Languages in WordPress

 *  [digiblogger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/digiblogger/)
 * (@digiblogger)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/)
 * Hi,
 * I love WordPress, playing with it for years and love to see how it is updated
   frequently to make it more and more awesome.
 * But there is one thing, that I can not understand as long as I use it.
    The problem:
   Languages.
 * My problem, for the most of all plugins and themes, is, that updating something
   will overwrite translated po/mo files and I have to translate hundreds of phrases
   again. I know… back before updating.
 * But why does wordpress handle translations like this?
    Why is there a central
   place for all those translation files (for example wp-includes/plugin-langs and
   wp-includes/theme-langs that store users translation in it and offer the possibility
   to sync them with updated files in the plugin and theme folders.
 * There is a plugin called “loco translate”, and this plugin is simply amazing.
   You can create, after updating a plugin, a new pot file and sync your translation
   with the new pot, without loosing already translated phraes. It removes phrases,
   that don´t exist anymore and adds all the new ones. So you can translate the 
   new phrases and everything is fine.
 * I think, this plugin sould be part of wordpress.
 * Yes, the plugin does not solve the problem, that an update kills all the translations.
   
   But if it would be a part of wordpress, wordpress could create a user-translations
   folder and keep these translations save. and, if it finds a load_theme_textdomain
   or load_plugin_textdomain, it could create a new pot and just sync the user files,
   so… all translations are save and will never be lost.
 * I know… this is a huge wish.
    But it would make wordpress better for everybody
   not speaking english as his native language.
 * This is the biggest suggestion I have

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818140)
 * That’s a great suggestion, but I’m wondering why you don’t contribute your translations
   back to the plugin/theme developers so that they’ll be included with the plugin/
   theme and therefore not be overwritten in updates?
 *  Thread Starter [digiblogger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/digiblogger/)
 * (@digiblogger)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818142)
 * The answer to this is easy.
    I can not change the world alone I am just one user
   and your way would work when every user would send his translation to the devs
 * But when something like in my first post would be part of wp core, users will
   not depend on each other. You could translate the plug-in once and then just 
   add new phrases for updates.
 * I nearly send every translation to the devs. Sometimes devs integrate them. Sometimes
   with the next update that comes months later… Or maybe never.
    The best way would
   be to make safe translations a core feature and maybe let user share those by
   just click on share on wp translation repo… Another wild idea 🙂
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818149)
 * Have you considered proposing this to [https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/)?
 *  Thread Starter [digiblogger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/digiblogger/)
 * (@digiblogger)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818160)
 * di a minute ago 😉
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818180)
 * Excellent. 🙂

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Languages in WordPress’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Requests and Feedback](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/)
 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/languages-in-wordpress/#post-5818180)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics