Language FAQ

Where can I set the default language for the site?

Site Administration > Language > Language settings

How can I change a word or phrase used in Moodle?

1. Access Administration > Language > Language editing.
2. Click the "Edit words or phrases" link in the middle of the page.
3. On the edit words or phrases page click the "Switch lang directory" button and a local language folder, parentlanguage_local, will automatically be created in moodledata/lang. Files of edited strings will then be saved in this folder. This is necessary to prevent changes that you make being overwritten by a newer language pack when updating your Moodle site.
4. Choose a file to edit. You may need to search through a few files before finding the file containing the word you wish to change. The file moodle.php contains all common site-wide phrases.
5. Change the word or phrase.
6. Click the "Save changes" button. The changed phrase will be highlighted in a different colour.

Why are my changes not saved if I edit a language pack with the Moodle language pack editor?

This could be caused by a PHP accelerator. Try switching it of (usually in php.ini).

I've set a default site language but when I log in it switches to English. Why?

By default, Moodle detects a user's language from their browser setting. This language auto-detection may be disabled so that the default site language is used instead in Administration > Language > Language settings.

How can I provide course content in more than one language?

Labels, web pages, activity descriptions etc. may be provided in more than one language using the Multi language content filter.

See also

• Translation FAQ
• Language editing
• Using Moodle Languages forum

Using Moodle forum discussions:

• Edited Strings Not Visible
• Language customization in 2.0