Add a second language

Turn a single-language site into a multilingual one, step by step.

This guide adds German to an English site. It works the same for any language.

Add the language in settings/config.php. The first language stays the default language and keeps its addresses without a prefix.
```
'languages' => [
    'en' => 'English',
    'de' => 'Deutsch',
],
```
Translate the site title. Copy content/website.md to content/website.de.md and translate it.
Translate entries one by one. Next to content.md, create content.de.md and give it its own slug:
```
---
title: Über uns
slug: ueber-uns
---

Wir sind …
```
The page is now available at /de/ueber-uns. Images in the folder are shared, you don't copy them.
Decide what happens with untranslated entries. By default they don't exist in German (404). If you prefer to show the English version with a notice, set:
```
'missing_translation' => 'fallback',
```

Add a language switcher to your theme, if it doesn't have one. Tide shows one automatically. In your own theme:

@foreach ($site->languages() as $code => $name)
    @if ($entry?->translation($code)?->isPublished())
        <a href="{{ $entry->translation($code)->url() }}" hreflang="{{ $code }}">{{ $name }}</a>
    @endif
@endforeach

Wake takes care of the rest: hreflang links in the head, one RSS feed per language (/de/feed.xml) and alternates in sitemap.xml.

source: docs/guides/second-language.md

Add a second language

Related