Offer a survey in several languages

One survey can be offered in several languages: the same questions, logic and results, with each person reading it in their own language. Surveys can be written in and translated into 32 languages: Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese (Simplified), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Multi-language surveys are on the Team plan and above.

Add a language

1. 1In the builder, open Languages. Written in shows the survey's default language, the one you write the questions in.
2. 2Choose a language from Add a language. Type to search by its English or native name, or its code. It starts turned off, so respondents can't pick it yet.
3. 3Choose Translate next to it. Every text of the survey sits beside its translation, grouped by question, and texts that are still missing are highlighted. Turn on Only missing to see just those.
4. 4When every text is translated, turn on Offered to respondents, then publish.

Publishing checks every language that's offered to respondents: each text needs a translation, or publishing tells you how many are left and takes you to the first one. A language that's turned off never blocks publishing, so you can translate at your own pace.

The default language

Respondents get the default language when none of their languages is offered. To change it, for example when the original was written in German, open the menu next to a fully translated language and make it the survey's language. Its translations become the survey's own texts and the previous language becomes a translation, so nothing is lost.

Work with translators

Export Excel or Export CSV makes a file with one row per text: its key, where it sits, the text in the default language and a column for each language. Send it to a translator or an agency, then choose Import translations to bring it back.

• Rows are matched by their key, not their wording, so a file still imports after you reorder or reword questions.
• Importing only fills in translations. It never changes or deletes the survey's own texts.
• The import report lists rows whose key matches nothing in this survey (a removed text, or a changed key) and counts empty cells. Those texts stay missing and are highlighted.
• A file with a language the survey doesn't have yet adds it, turned off until you're ready.

Which language respondents see

wrkflow picks the first of these that the survey offers:

1. 1The link: add ?lang= and a language code to a public or personal link, such as ?lang=sl or ?lang=de.
2. 2The contact, for personal links: an attribute named Language (or Preferred language) holding a code or a name, such as sl, Slovenian or Slovenščina.
3. 3The languages set in the person's browser.
4. 4The survey's default language.

When more than one language is offered, a language switcher appears at the top of the survey, so anyone can change it; answers given so far are kept. Buttons, progress, errors, the thank-you screen, emails, texts and the unsubscribe page come ready in all 32 languages, so you only translate your own questions. Surveys offered in many languages get a search field in the switcher.

Right to left and other scripts

• Arabic reads right to left. The whole page is laid out that way: the progress bar fills from the right, Back and Continue swap sides, scales such as 0 to 10 start on the right, and arrows point the other way. Names, addresses and English words inside an Arabic sentence keep their own order.
• In the translation editor, the Arabic field is written right to left next to the survey's own words.
• Arabic and Hindi use Western digits (0 to 9), the same as the scale buttons and number fields. Chinese is written in Simplified characters. Serbian is written in Latin script.
• Pages load a font for Arabic or Hindi only when the survey is shown in it. Chinese, Japanese and Korean use the fonts on the respondent's device.

How well the words are checked

The buttons, errors and emails in the 23 newest languages (every language except English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Slovenian and Croatian) were written by a model, in a formal register, and have not been reviewed by a native speaker yet. The language list marks them Words not reviewed. Your own questions are your translations, not ours. If a language matters to you, ask a colleague who speaks it to open a survey in it and read it through, and tell us what to change.

Invitations and reminders in each language

Emails and texts from the Participants tab speak each person's language: the language in their contact's Language attribute when the survey offers it, otherwise the survey's default language. The subject, message, greeting, button, footer and unsubscribe page all follow it, and the personal link opens the survey in the same language.

• In the send dialog, each offered language has a tab (a searchable list with more than five). A language starts from what you wrote for it last time, or from the default invitation in that language, or from your default-language text to translate when you've customized it.
• A dot on a tab, and a note above the tabs, mark a language that still has your default-language words. Translate it, or people in that language get those words.
• Use {name}, {survey} and {organization} in every language ({link} too in texts). {survey} is the survey's title in that language.
• Each language's text message has its own count: letters such as č, ć, š, ž and đ, and every Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hindi text, need Unicode, so a text holds 70 characters instead of 160 (67 in each part once it is longer).
• With many languages the tabs become a searchable list.
• What you write is remembered per survey and language, and automatic reminders use it.

When the original text changes

A translation remembers the text it was written for. If you later reword a question, option or other text in the default language, its translations are marked Needs review in the Languages view. Check each one and change it, or choose Mark as reviewed (or Mark all as reviewed). Texts to review never block publishing, and Only missing shows them too.

Language in results

Each response records the language it was answered in. Filter results by language, compare languages like any other segment, and find a Language column in CSV and Excel exports of named surveys. Webhooks, Zapier and Make items and connected spreadsheets of named surveys carry it too. On screen, results show question and choice labels in your reading language when the survey has that translation (see Read answers in your language), and in the default language otherwise; exports, shared reports and the API always use the default language. In anonymous surveys, languages with fewer than five responses stay hidden, and exports leave the language out.