How to Change the Language in Google Forms

Google Forms has no language setting. We checked every panel of the Settings tab on a live form. There is Make this a quiz, Responses, Presentation and Defaults, and none of them mentions language.

So the language of a Google Form comes from two places. The questions are in whatever language you typed them in.

The buttons and labels around them follow the person looking at the form. That covers Submit, Required and Clear form. Each fix below changes one of those two, so here is how to change the Google Forms language in each case.

How to change the language of a Google Form for the people you send it to

You can set the language of the buttons and labels with the link itself. Add ?hl= and a language code to the end of the responder link.

1. Write the questions in the language you want, then click Published at the top right and copy the responder link.
2. Add ?hl= and the language code to the end of the link, such as ?hl=es for Spanish.
3. Open the new link in a private window and check the Submit button and the required note.
4. Share that link, not the plain one.

We tested this on a published form. With ?hl=es on the link, the Submit button became Enviar and Clear form became Borrar formulario. The note about required questions switched to Spanish too. The questions stayed in English, because the link only changes Google's own text.

Two limits to know. The code works for people who are not signed in to Google. For anyone signed in, the language of their Google Account wins and the code is ignored.

If the link already has a question mark in it, join the code with &hl=es instead.

How to change the language of the Google Forms editor

The editor, the menus and the buttons on your own forms follow your Google Account language. To change it:

1. Go to myaccount.google.com/language and sign in if asked.
2. Click Language, then Edit.
3. Pick the language you want and click Select. If you read several, click Add another language.
4. Close your browser and open it again. Google Forms now shows its menus in that language.

This changes every Google service on the web, not only Forms. The Forms app on a phone follows the phone's language instead. If nothing changes after a restart, Google's help page says to clear the browser's cache and cookies. Then set the language again.

Changing your account language doesn't translate the forms you have already written. Your questions stay as you typed them.

How to change the language of a Google Form you're filling in

If a form arrives in a language you don't read, translate the page in your browser. In Chrome on a computer:

1. Open the form link.
2. Right-click an empty part of the page and choose Translate to your language. Or click Translate at the right end of the address bar.
3. If the wrong language is offered, open the translate box's menu and pick Choose another language.
4. Fill in the form as usual. Your answers are sent as you typed them.

This translates the questions as well as the buttons, which is the only method that does. The translation is machine-made, so read a question twice before you answer anything that matters.

On an Android phone, Chrome shows a notice at the top of the page. Tap the language you want there. If no notice appears, tap More next to the address bar, then Translate.

On an iPhone or iPad, Chrome lists the languages at the top of the page too. Tap the one you want. If nothing shows, tap More, then Translate.

Right-to-left languages in Google Forms

Arabic, Hebrew and Persian read from right to left. Google Forms has no switch for text direction. The layout flips only when the language around the form is a right-to-left one.

When we opened the test form with ?hl=ar on the link, the whole page flipped. The title sat on the right and the grid columns ran right to left. The radio buttons moved to the right of each option.

So for a form in Arabic, write the questions in Arabic, then share the link with ?hl=ar. People signed in with an Arabic account language see the same layout without the code.

Your own editor stays left-to-right while you type if your account is in English. That is normal.

One Google Form in multiple languages

Google Forms has no multilingual option. It can't hold two languages in one form and let the respondent pick. You have three ways round it.

Prices come from the add-on maker's own pricing page. Other add-ons are compared in our guide to Google Forms add-ons.

Google Forms language not changing? Fix common problems

Tips before you share a form in another language

• Translate the confirmation message too. It sits under Settings, then Presentation. The default "Your response has been recorded" only changes with the hl code.
• Test signed out. Open your link in a private window. That is what most respondents see, and the only view where the hl code shows.
• Put the code on every copy of the link. In emails, on your website and in the QR code, because a QR made from the plain link opens the plain form.
• Keep one language per link. A Spanish link with English questions confuses people more than a plain English form.
• Set the locale of the response sheet. Dates, currency and numbers in the linked spreadsheet follow its own locale, under File, then Settings in Google Sheets. It changes the formats, not the language.

Where Google Forms stops

Google Forms ties the form's language to the viewer, not to the form. You can nudge it with a link code, but you can't open a form and say "this one is in Spanish".

In FormNX this takes one setting. Open Settings, then General, pick a language from the Form language list and save. Every button, label and error message switches for everyone who opens the form, signed in or not. A right-to-left language flips the layout with it. There is no code to add to the link and nothing to test in a private window.

Each form picks its own language. A Spanish sign-up for parents and an English one for staff sit side by side in the same account, each in its readers' language. Labels, the submit button text and error messages are yours to edit. The whole form reads in one language, not just the questions.

The multi-language feature page has the list of languages.

To compare the two builders in full, see the Google Forms alternative page.