Languages are the foundation of your multilingual site. Every language you add becomes a target for translating posts, pages, menus, and theme text. While adding a language is simple, there are several details worth understanding — language codes, right-to-left support, and display order — that will help you manage your multilingual setup with confidence. Both Free and PRO support an unlimited number of active languages.
Step-by-step: Adding a new language to your site
- Navigate to Lang Forge > Languages in your WordPress admin sidebar
- The Active Languages card at the top lists every language currently enabled on your site
- Just below the table is a search input with a “+” icon and the placeholder “Add a language…”. Click the input and start typing the name of the language you want to add — for example, “Japanese”, “Arabic”, “German”, or “Korean”. You can also type a language code like “ja” or “ar” if you already know it
- As you type, a dropdown appears with matching results. Each entry shows the language’s English name, its native name (in its own script), and its two-letter language code. For example: “Japanese — nihongo — ja”
- Click the language you want. It is immediately added to the Active Languages table
- The new language appears in the table with its flag, English name, native name, language code, and a set of action buttons (reorder, set as default, remove)
- If you need to add more languages, repeat steps 3 through 5 for each one
- After adding all desired languages, scroll down and click Save Settings
- Visit your site’s frontend and confirm that the language switcher (if you have added one) now includes the new language
Understanding language codes and regional variants
Every language in Lang Forge has a two-letter or four-letter code based on international standards. The two-letter code (like “es” for Spanish or “fr” for French) represents the language in general. Four-letter codes with a region (like “es-MX” for Mexican Spanish or “pt-BR” for Brazilian Portuguese) represent regional variants. This matters because search engines use these codes in hreflang tags to serve the right version of your page to visitors in different regions.
| Code | Language | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| es | Spanish (general) | Your Spanish content is not region-specific |
| es-MX | Spanish (Mexico) | You target Mexican Spanish specifically |
| es-AR | Spanish (Argentina) | You target Argentine Spanish specifically |
| pt | Portuguese (general) | Your Portuguese content is not region-specific |
| pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | You target Brazilian Portuguese specifically |
| zh-CN | Chinese (Simplified) | Mainland China audience |
| zh-TW | Chinese (Traditional) | Taiwan or Hong Kong audience |
Right-to-left (RTL) language support
Some languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and Urdu, are written from right to left. When you add an RTL language, Lang Forge automatically detects it and adjusts the text direction for translated content. The WordPress editor, the Visual Editor, and the frontend all respect the RTL direction. You do not need to install any additional RTL plugins or modify your theme — Lang Forge handles it. However, it is a good idea to preview your site in the RTL language after adding it to make sure your theme’s layout adapts well to the reversed direction. Most modern WordPress themes support RTL, but some custom themes may need minor CSS adjustments.
Free vs PRO language access
| Plan | Maximum languages |
|---|---|
| Free | Unlimited languages |
| PRO | Unlimited languages |
The Free plan supports unlimited active languages. PRO does not change the language count; it adds AI translation, Translation Memory, Content Diff, Analytics, and import/export workflows.
Reordering languages
The order of languages in your Active Languages table determines the order they appear in the language switcher on your site. To reorder, simply drag and drop languages in the table. The language at the top of the list appears first in the switcher. Many site owners put their most popular secondary language right after the default.
Removing a language
Click the trash icon next to any language you want to remove. A confirmation dialog appears because removing a language hides all content in that language from visitors. The translated posts themselves are not deleted — they remain in your database as drafts and can be fully restored if you re-add the language later. This safety net means you can experiment with languages without fear of losing work.
> Good to know: Changing the default language does not move, delete, or modify any existing content. It simply tells Lang Forge which language is the “original” for new content going forward. Existing posts retain their current language assignments.
> Tip: Before removing a language that has been active for a while, check the Translation Analytics page (PRO) to see how much translated content exists. This helps you avoid accidentally hiding a large body of work from your visitors.
> Important: After adding a new language, remember to create a menu for it (see the Translating Menus section) and add translated versions of your most important pages. A language that appears in the switcher but has no translated content creates a poor visitor experience.
[Screenshot: The Add Language search dropdown showing results for “Japanese” with English name, native name, and language code]
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