Translation FAQ

How can I help with translating Moodle?

Please see the guide Contributing a translation.

I've found an error in a language pack. What do I do?

• You are welcome to contribute a fix for the error. Alternatively you can contact the language pack maintainer as listed in the Translation credits.
• English language string typo fixes and suggested improvements can be contributed to the English (fixes) (en_fix) language pack.

The month names and days are displayed in English. How can I translate them?

Names of days and months are pulled out of your operating system. The system is configured for Moodle in langconfig.php where you have the strings locale (for -nix type operating systems) and localewin (for Windows operating systems) that should point to the right locale on your server. Your server operating system should support the language (= locale should be installed) - see also Month-name translation problem for an alternative solution.

I'm starting a new language pack or I'm contributing to one. Can I do the user interface strings first?

No, there is no way to know which strings will be shown for users and which not. But to help you a little bit, there are some unofficial priorities you can take into account.

First:

• make sure langconfig is properly set up.
• take a look at Translation priority. All files have a rating according to how urgent they need translating.
• less urgent are also the contributed plugins, since they are not part of a standard Moodle distribution. There is a list of the 20 top plugins downloads for Moodle 2.x which might be worth considering for translation priority.

How many words are there in the English language pack?

See the discussion How many words are there in the English language pack?.

Are there translations for the American (and other branches of the) English language?

• The "official" language for Moodle is actually Australian English (G'day mate!) , which is almost 100% the same as UK English.
• Someone once said "America and England are two nations divided by a common language".
• The English - United States (en_us) language pack mostly contains different spellings (color versus colour, enroll versus enrol etc).
• The English - Pirate (en_ar) language pack is used in the 'Talk Like a Pirate' day.
• The English for kids (en_kids) language pack seems to be a simplified version of the most common English strings seen by Moodle users, considered easier/suitable for small children.
• The English (fixes) (en_fix) is just used to suggest Moodle core language strings improvements and typo fixes.

Are there items which are not to be translated?

The following words, when enclosed within {curly brackets}, are placeholders for Moodle names of variables. They should not be translated, but must remain as they are within the curly brackets:

firstname, lastname, username, email, city, country, lang, timezone, mailformat, maildisplay, maildigest, htmleditor, ajax, autosubscribe , institution, department, idnumber, skype , msn, aim, yahoo, icq, phone1, phone2, address, url, description, descriptionformat, password, auth, oldusername , deleted, suspended, course1, course2, course3, course4

They must also be written exactly like this in all translations of the documentation pages (such as this page.) However, the translator might like to include a translation enclosed in brackets. For example, in the Spanish documentation pages you might find: password (contraseña).

The fact is: no placeholders can be translated in AMOS. There is no official list of "reserved" $a properties. Whatever xyz is put in {$a->xyz}, it must be kept as it is in AMOS.

Example:

Must be (in this case, when translated into Mexican Spanish):

unless your language uses lastname before the firstname, as Japanese does, which translates to:

How can I help with translating Moodle documentation?

Please see the guide Translating Moodle Docs.

I need to know the context of the strings I will be translating

It is complicated. Some translators have used two simultaneous windows: one in English and the other in the translated language, in order to check that the translation agrees with the meaning of the original English version. It might even be worth getting a second computer monitor.

If you think the original English language strigs have two or more meanings and you can not guess which one applies and there is no way for you to see the strings in the context where they are used (i.e, in a local server), you can post it in the AMOS translation Forum or the Moodle Languages Forum or you can contact Helen Foster in order to suggest an improvement of the original English language strings of Moodle core.

See also

• Language customization in the user docs for information on how to edit an existing language pack
• String Deprecation is introduced in Moodle 2.8 to help minimize the language files but avoid accidental lost of translations by simply removing strings.
• Generating a translation memory and running a quality test forum discussion