You went to Settings, picked Hindi, French or German as the site language, clicked Save, and the front of the site still says “Read more”, “Search” and “Leave a comment”. Or the dashboard switched over and the website did not. Or half the page changed and the other half stayed in English.
When the WordPress language is not changing, it almost always comes down to one of a few things: the translation files never arrived on the server, the setting you changed is not the one that controls what you are looking at, or the words in question were never translatable in the first place. This guide takes them in that order, because the first is the easiest to confirm and the last is the one that surprises people.
How WordPress decides which language to show
It helps to know the moving parts before checking them.
- The site language is set under Settings, then General, in the “Site Language” dropdown. It controls the language WordPress uses for the public site and is the default for the dashboard.
- Each user’s own language can be set on their profile page (Users, then Profile). It changes the dashboard for that person only. It does not change what visitors see.
- Translation files are separate files that WordPress downloads into the
wp-content/languagesfolder. They hold the translated version of each piece of text that WordPress, a theme or a plugin displays. Most of them come from the community translation project at translate.wordpress.org. - Your own content, meaning pages, posts, menus, widget text and anything typed into a page builder, is never translated by any of the above. It stays in whatever language you wrote it.
Keep that last point in mind. A lot of “language not changing” reports are really “my homepage text is still English”, and that is expected behaviour.
WordPress language not changing? Check 1: did the translation files download?
When you choose a new site language and save, WordPress tries to download that language’s files. If the server will not let WordPress write files, the download fails quietly or with a short message near the top of the screen, and the setting may even appear to save while nothing on the site changes.
Go to Dashboard, then Updates. If WordPress has translations waiting, there is a “Translations” section with an update button. Run it. Then look at Settings, General again: if your language is listed under “Installed” in the dropdown, the core files arrived.
If WordPress asks for FTP details when you try this, or the download keeps failing, the server’s file permissions or ownership are stopping it. That is a hosting-level problem rather than a translation one, and our guide to WordPress file permissions explains what the settings mean. Do not make folders world-writable to get past it.
Check 2: you changed the user language, not the site language
This catches many people. If the dashboard changed but the public site did not, look at your own profile page. If “Language” there is set to the language you wanted, and Settings, General still says English, you changed only your personal admin view. Set the Site Language in Settings, General.
The reverse also happens: the site switched, but you prefer your dashboard in English. Set your profile language to English and the site stays in the chosen language for visitors.
Check 3: the theme or plugin has no translation for that language
WordPress itself is translated into many languages. Individual themes and plugins are a different matter: each one needs its own translation, made by its author or by volunteers. A theme from wordpress.org with an incomplete translation in your language shows some words translated and the rest in English. A premium theme bought elsewhere may ship translation files only for the languages its author chose, inside its own folder.
The pattern to look for is partial translation. If “Leave a reply” changed (that comes from WordPress) but “Continue reading” did not (that may come from your theme), the theme is the gap. Check the theme’s documentation for a list of included languages, or its page on translate.wordpress.org if it is a free theme.
Gaps can be filled with a translation plugin such as Loco Translate, which lets you translate a theme’s or plugin’s text from the dashboard. Save custom translations in the location the plugin recommends for custom files, not inside the theme folder, or a theme update can overwrite them.
Site language stuck in English even after all three checks
If the translation files are installed, the site language is set, the theme supports it, and the site is still in English, look at these next.
A multilingual plugin is in charge
WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress take over language handling. Once one of these is active, the default language and the language per page are set in that plugin, and the General settings dropdown may be ignored or overridden. Open the plugin’s language settings and check which language is marked as default, and whether the page you are looking at has a translation assigned. Some also redirect visitors based on their browser’s language, which can make two people see different languages on the same address.
The page is cached in the old language
A page cached before the language change keeps serving the old version until the cache is cleared or expires. Clear the caching plugin’s cache and the host’s cache if there is one, then check in a private window. Our guide on updates that do not appear on the site lists the places a stale copy can hide.
The text is hard-coded
Some themes, and many custom templates, have English words written straight into their files rather than marked for translation. No translation file can reach those words. The only fixes are editing the template, preferably in a child theme, or asking the theme author to make the text translatable. Our guide on customising a WordPress theme explains why a child theme protects edits like this.
An old setting in wp-config.php
Very old WordPress installs set the language with a WPLANG line in wp-config.php. Modern WordPress stores the language in the database instead and no longer relies on that line, but a leftover one is worth noting if you are tracing a site that has been running for many years. Do not edit wp-config.php unless you have a copy of it saved and know how to restore it.
WooCommerce, forms and other plugin text
Shop buttons, checkout fields, form labels and email notifications each come from their plugin’s translation, not from WordPress. WooCommerce has its own translation files that update alongside the plugin. Form plugins often have the labels you typed (yours, so not translated) next to built-in messages such as validation errors (theirs, so translated if a file exists). If a checkout says “Place order” in English while the rest of the shop is translated, check that plugin’s translation status first.
Order emails are worth testing separately. Send yourself a test order and read the email, because email text can come from different templates from the ones you see on screen.
How to confirm the change from the visitor’s side
Once the language looks right to you, check it the way a browser and a search engine would. Open the site in a private window, right-click, and choose View Page Source. Near the very top you will see an <html lang="..."> tag. WordPress fills that in from the site language, so it should now show the code for your chosen language, such as hi-IN or fr-FR. If it still shows en-US, the site language setting has not taken effect for visitors, whatever the dashboard says.
That tag matters beyond appearance. Screen readers use it to choose a pronunciation, and browsers use it when offering to translate a page. A Hindi page marked as English will be read aloud badly and may prompt visitors to translate a page that is already in their language.
A note for owners setting up a second language
Changing the site language and running a site in two languages are different projects. The first is a setting plus translation files. The second needs a multilingual plugin, a translated version of every page, translated menus, and a decision about addresses (for example /fr/ folders). If what you really want is visitors choosing between English and another language, plan it as that second project rather than flipping the site language back and forth.
When this needs a developer
If the files will not download because of server permissions, if the English text is hard-coded in a template, or if a multilingual plugin’s settings have tangled after an update, these are fixes that touch files or the database. Our wordpress fix service page explains how we take these on. Tell us which language you chose, which words stay in English, and which theme and multilingual plugin the site uses.
Most language problems never get that far, though. The answer is on the Updates screen or the profile page, and the site switches over the moment the right file or the right setting is in place.
Next in this series: ACF Fields Not Showing? Editor and Front-End Fixes
