# Add a language

This article explains how to add a language to your site, choose the main language, set a language’s formats and remove a language. Each language has its own URLs and formats.

## Before you start

- Languages are set in the **Translations** > **Locales** menu, reserved for the site’s administrators.
- Your languages are set on the Staging and go live with the publication of the site.
- The number of languages is not limited, whatever your plan.
- A content language is a language in which you write your pages. The language of the admin screens, on the other hand, follows each member’s account.

## Choose the site’s language

On a new site, the **Translations** > **Locales** menu opens on the **Set up your site language** screen. It becomes the site’s main language.

1. In the **Site language** list, choose your language, for example French.
2. Click **Set main language**. The **Customize language settings** screen shows the formats detected for this language.
3. Keep or change the formats.
4. Click **Save and continue**.

The pages, templates and compositions created before this choice are filed under this language.

## Add a language

1. In the admin menu, open **Translations** > **Locales**. The table lists your languages.
2. Click **Add content language**. A panel opens on the side.
3. In the list, type the beginning of the language’s name, for example `engl`.
4. Choose the language.
5. Click **Add content language**. The message **Changes saved.** appears and the language shows up in the table, with 0 contents.

![The Add a content language panel: the Language, or language and region box that advises the language-only code when in doubt, the list of languages and the Add a content language button.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/970-doc-langues-ajout.png)

The date, time and number formats of the added language are detected when it is added. The section Set a language’s formats explains how to change them.

## Choose the language code

| Code | Example | When to choose it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Language only | `fr`, `en` | For all readers of the language, whatever their country. The right choice for most sites. |
| Language and region | `fr_FR`, `fr_BE` | To offer separate versions of the same language to several countries, with distinct formats or contents. |

When in doubt, choose the language only. A site in `fr` can later welcome `fr_BE` without changing its URLs.

## Read the table of languages

![A site’s table of languages: German, English and French, each with its code, its URL segment and its number of contents, French marked Yes in the Main language column, the Set as main, Edit and Delete buttons, then the Hide the main language segment in URLs checkbox.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/1019-doc-langues-tableau.png)

| Column | Content |
| --- | --- |
| **Language** | The name of the language. |
| **Code** | The language code, with its region if there is one. |
| **URL slug** | The start of the URLs of the pages in this language, for example `en` for `yoursite.com/en/contact/`. |
| **Main language** | **Yes** for the main language. For the others, the **Set as main** button. |
| **Contents** | The number of contents filed under the language: pages, entries, templates and compositions. |

The URL segment is calculated from the code and cannot be edited. A language without a region takes the short form, `fr`. A language with a region keeps the full form, `fr-be`. Changing this segment would break all the published and shared URLs.

## Choose the main language

The main language is the one your site uses at its root. A site has only one. The first language added becomes it.

1. In the table, on the row of the language you want, click **Set as main**. The **Main language** column shows **Yes** on its row.
2. To serve the main language without a segment, check **Hide the main language slug in URLs**.
3. Click **Save**.

| Checkbox | Page in French, main language | Page in English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Checked | `yoursite.com/contact/` | `yoursite.com/en/contact/` |
| Unchecked | `yoursite.com/fr/contact/` | `yoursite.com/en/contact/` |

The checkbox is checked by default. A page reached at an address other than its own, for example without its segment, is redirected to the right one.

**Warning:** Changing the main language or the checkbox changes the URLs of your pages. The sitemap.xml followed by search engines is rebuilt within the next few minutes. Make this choice before your site goes live.

## Set a language’s formats

1. In the table, on the language’s row, click **Edit**. The **Edit content language** screen opens.
2. Choose each format.
3. Click **Save**.

![The Edit content language screen for English: the URL segment en, the date formats shown applied to today’s date with Custom: n/j/y, the time formats, the first day of the week set to Sunday, the Period and Comma separators, then the Save button.](https://static.lovelyrender.com/uploads/2026/10/974-doc-langues-formats.png)

| Setting | Effect |
| --- | --- |
| **Date format** | Four formats shown applied to today’s date or your own with **Custom:**. |
| **Time format** | Three formats or your own with **Custom:**. |
| **Week starts on** | The first day of your calendars. |
| **Decimal separator** | **Period** or **Comma**, shown applied to a number. |
| **Thousands separator** | **Comma**, **Period**, **Non-breaking space**, **Narrow non-breaking space** or **Apostrophe**, shown applied to a number. |

The separators are chosen from a list. The two no-break spaces used in French look like an ordinary space. The list tells them apart by naming them.

A page shows its dates, its numbers and the names of the months and days in the formats of its language. The admin language plays no role in this. The main language’s formats are used in the admin and in exports.

## Delete a language

1. In the table, on the language’s row, click **Delete**. You can also click **Delete** under **Delete this language**, at the bottom of the **Edit content language** screen.
2. In the confirmation, read the number of the language’s contents that will be deleted.
3. Confirm. The message **Language deleted.** appears.

**Warning:** Deleting a language permanently deletes all its contents from the Staging: pages, entries, templates and compositions in this language. Your live site keeps them until your next publication.

The main language cannot be deleted: its row has no **Delete** button. To remove it, first set another main language.

## See also

- [Translate a page](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/translate-page/)
- [Offer visitors their language](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/offer-visitor-language/)
- [Translate your labels and messages](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/translate-labels/)
- [Publish your site](https://lovelyrender.com/documentation/publish-site/)