Translation, internationalisation and localisation
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Translation | Converting the words from one language to another |
| Internationalisation (i18n) | Building the product so it can support many languages and regions without code changes |
| Localisation (l10n) | Using that foundation to adapt one product to one language and region |
What gets localised
- Text, including plurals: Arabic has more plural forms than English, so a single item or items rule fails.
- Dates, times and calendars, including the first day of the week and, in some markets, the Hijri calendar beside the Gregorian one.
- Numbers and currency, including separators, symbol position and which digits to show.
- Direction, which means RTL design for Arabic.
- Imagery, examples and tone, so that photos, names and idioms fit the audience.
- Legal and policy text, which needs review by people who know the local rules.
An example
Imagine a booking app that launches in English and later adds Arabic. Strings kept in a translation file, with no sentences glued together in code, translate cleanly. A date picker that honours the user's locale and a layout that mirrors correctly make the Arabic version feel built for Arabic readers, not just translated for them. This example is hypothetical.
Common mistakes
- Joining sentence fragments in code, which cannot be translated correctly.
- Hard-coding date and currency formats.
- Assuming language equals country. Someone in the Gulf may prefer English, Arabic or both.
- Leaving text inside images.
- Shipping unreviewed machine translation as the final text.
- Fixed-width buttons that break when translated text runs longer.
Related terms
Start with the guide to bilingual Arabic and English products, and see how we approach a multilingual CMS for content that lives in several languages.